electrics genius required

[Two_Sheds]

What's it powering in the garage TS?........Lights & sockets or just lights.

It's powering lights, sockets, and the garage up-and-over door (the big one you drive your car through)

[Glutton4...]

It's powering lights, sockets, and the garage up-and-over door (the big one you drive your car through)

Car? In a Garage? I thought they were for storing freezers, bikes, multi-gyms, tools and gardening equipment!


Cars? In garages? I've heard it all now!

[taff]

mine used to go from the house under the door sill, spurred off a wall socket might be worth checking there.

[Bigmallly]

Another silly question TS.........do you know who wired it.

[Alison]

Our up and over thingy wouldn't work the other week after a big thunder storm which was a bit of a pain as my car was in the garage and I needed it that day for work. Had to wind it up and down by hand but managed to sort it in the evening by doing the old turn it on and off again at the isolation switch. Am guessing as you have no power at all that you don't have the same problem but it does sound like something has tripped.

[pigletwillie]

have you changed the fuse, have you checked if there is power coming into the fused spur?

Its a bit of a heath robinson lash up and that spur is an oldish one so may have popped its clogs. If there is no power into it then the problem lies elsewhere, is there another spur in the house that feeds that one, by rights there should not be but that means nothing?

[Two_Sheds]

mine used to go from the house under the door sill, spurred off a wall socket might be worth checking there.

Right, you're onto something.
I just looked under the kitchen window, and there is a black cable coming out of the wall about 6" above the patio, and it goes underneath the patio (directly opposite the garage door, but 8 feet away )

I followed the black cable into the kitchen and managed to work out what all the fuse boxes were for (one for cooker, one for wash machine) except one. So, that one is probably the one for the garage? (getting excited now)

I changed the fuse in it, but still nothing works

[bobleponge]

Do you have an electricians screwdriver? If so, you can see at least where the power stops.

[taff]

check what cables you can see for any nibbling by mice or whoever has teeth.
I can't tell if the switched box in the photo is for power, or for the light, but it may be worth checking, after you've switched off the fuses in the house,whether any of the wires in any of the boxes have come loose. It's a bit rought and ready wiring, as PW has said
I doubt that underground cables have got a problem, unless there are mice under your patio.
And as boobleponge has said, if you had an electricians screwdriver, the kind with a light inside it to test outlets, not the kind that's just covered inplastic,youcan check the fusebox in the house to see whether it's live. If it isn't,it'sa problem with the wiring in that one, etc etc.

[Two_Sheds]

Solved it!

we had an electrician round with his special screwdriver, and he couldn't work it out. He couldn't find where the black cable (from the patio into the kitchen) attached to a fuse box...at all. He tested this and that, pulled out the washing machine etc. looking for a fuse box.

Then we thought back to what we'd done recently (had the little room off the lounge painted) and Mr TS wondered if the cable went underground into that room (because it used to be the kitchen back in the 80s).

When the room was painted, I moved the furniture round and it turns out that the old 1960s switch marked COOKER (which was behind the bookcase and never used) should in fact be marked GARAGE !!!
It had been switched off by the painter when he moved the bookcase.

Our electrician is still shaking his head about that one.

[taff]

phew.....
glad that's sorted

[Bigmallly]

Dare I ask what switch your cooker runs off.............ducks.

[taff]

why did you have to ask that?????