House sawn in half

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t92300
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House sawn in half

Post by t92300 »

Admin: If there is a more appropriate forum for this to go in please move

I am an apprentice, but by the time this happens I may be qualified. I normally do domestic work, but have not come across this before.

My parents are looking at buying a house from Christchurch off a slab(its sitting in a trucking companies yard at the moment) and shifting down to Cromwell.

The house has been cut in half for shifting.
Dad thinks the house is about 20 years old.

My first thought is on location put in the mains, and junction/crimp join/replace the cables that have been cut and then test the whole lot.
I wont be adding or removing any thing.
From photos I see there is a SRCD in the bathroom, so Im guessing no RCDs in the switchboard (Im hoping to get some photos of the switchboard this weekend)
I have looked at ASNZS3000 2.6.3.4 but as repairing circuits will not need to be put on an RCD if they are not already.

The only other twist I can think of is the kitchen island, it has at least one socket outlet in it.

Are there any other rules/clauses/things I need to think about?

Ill be asking my supervisor on Monday for his opinion and possibly my parents sparky who will be supervising me if I am not quite qualified when this is done.

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AlecK
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Re: House sawn in half

Post by AlecK »

You're right to suspect this "transportable installations" isn't the applicable heading.

There are two main schools of thought on re-located structures.
School One:
is that they are an existing installation, so the re-located parts only need to continue to comply with the rules applicable when first constructed.
No CoC required for new site; but any work added or altered - such as mains and main earthing for new site - must of course comply with today's rules and be certified (& inspected as required).

School Two
The other is that they are a collection of salvaged fittings that just happen to still be assembled together, that are then incorportaed onto a new installation at the new site. No different from assembling (installing) a new installation using new fittings, or fittings purchased from a demolition yard.
Accordingly the entire installation needs to comply with today's rules, and be certified.

As far as I know there is no case law on this point.
Some years ago, Energy safety published an opinion that School One was correct; but failed to base that opinion on direct citations of ESRs.
And there are very good grounds in ESRs for believing that the ES opinion was wrong, and that School Two is correct.
Fact 1: An installation is defined in in the Act in terms that relate to property (ie land); and NOT on terms of structure(s) / building(s)
Fact 2: For all certification purposes, the key thing that identifies an installation is its location.
It follows that if the location & property are different; it can't be the same installation and instead must be a different installation.

WRT the old location / property, the installation that was there will have been permanently disconnected from supply. The fact that no certificate is required when installations - or parts of them - are permanently disconnected doesn't make any difference. This concept is clearly set out in Clause (2)(i) of Schedule 1, where once installations have been "permanently disconnected from a power supply", working on them isn't PEW. Basically the collection of fittings ceases to be an "electrical installation" at moment of permanent disconnection, and dismantling it isn't PEW.
There can be no doubt that there's been a "permanent disconnection" from the supply at the original location; even if there was at that time an intent (by someone) that the collection of fittings that used to be (part of) an installation might - at some future date - be re-used as part of another installation somewhere else.

WRT the new location / property; if there wasn't an installation there before, then the installation that appears must be a new one; regardless of whether some of of - or even most of it consists of fittings previously used in another installation elsewhere. Accordingly as a new installation - albeit using some used fittings - it must fully comply with today's rules.
For example; no SERFs, no bare-earth TPS, RCD protection for all lighting & socket subcircuits, etc.

(And I'm sure you'll find that the TLA treats the structure as a "new" structure for all Building Act consenting purposes; for very similar reasons)

In the end, the person signing the CoC must describe what the CoC covers. The person issuing RoI can only deal with the "high risk" aspects as listed on the CoC - generally the mains and the main earthing. They may advise on other matters, but can't require anything WRT non-high-risk aspects. However the person who connects the installation to supply must be satisfied as to safety of the entire installation, and must sight CoC(s) for all PEW. They get to make the decision as to what they will accept as adequate certification.
and i can't think of any reason a 'person connecting" would voluntarily accept the risk & liability that would go with connecting an installation that includes a relocated part-installation unless there is a CoC for the lot.

-------------
Something that may be different between regions is metering, which may require different cabling configuration between metering point and MSB, and may also mean different / additional main switch. So you'll need to know what the local network & retailer requirements are.
---------

FTR; "about 20 years ago" would be early 2000s. RCDs became mandatory - exactly the same as today (for domestic) - from 1/1/2003
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gregmcc
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Re: House sawn in half

Post by gregmcc »

**Moved post to different topic**
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Re: House sawn in half

Post by gregmcc »

I've done this a number of times, treat it like a new installation, re-wire, upgrade as needed to meet current standards, issue CoC in line with the work done for the complete installation.
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