Freddie

Great. Thanks for help and advice

After all the excellent links and reading from @Onoff . I am thinking along those lines. However I think I need to get the soil wetter as well. So thinking of dpc membrane turned up 150 mm at base of trench to catch water like a pool. Backfill with soil to overflow , lay copper tape and backfill soil 600mm depth. Hopefully to keep wet and boggy conditions for soil especially during summer dry spells.

thank you for more reading. starting to get to grips with this now. Thinking of boggy soil - what if I place a dpc membrane at the base of the flower bed and turn up say 150mm on all sides to catch water and stop it draining thus creating a pool . Backfill with soil , add copper tape along length at overflow height 150 mm. , backfill more soil 600 - 700 mm . so the tape is that depth below ground level and then connect tape to earth rod. It should create a wetter area . what do you think? Cheers

Sounds good. Been thinking of soil make up and how to make it wetter, although it will be in the shade most of the day. The reading was taken on 26th April , 3 weeks back. We also spent 15 minutes saturating the soil with water via hose pipe with same reading.

LOL. no I wasn't , first multiple rods. If no joy add earth tape if no joy add Marconite . Hopefully will get it with the rods. Cheers.

Thanks for the welcome, and reference to Onoff.

Now that's a thought. I still have galvanised scaffold so just drill a hole in it and connect it up. Dig flower bed soil back out, lay down 4 metres of tube on soil and cover back over. Will I still need to keep earth rod and tube apart as stated in wiki ? I assume so. Will try the easy stuff first then only try the exotic stuff if all fails. Interesting lessons for me . Much appreciated for your help. Thanks

Thank you @Onoff for your advice . The article on wiki is very interesting and I have learnt a lots from there. I will start off with 2 rods and keep adding if the reading does not come down. will let you know

Thanks @ToughButterCup appreciate the help

That's me ... extreme hands on " proper" self builder lol.

Okay. thank you for the message. Just learning to get around the site. doh.

I don't understand

Started my build in 2008. Single handed to complete shell in 2017, in between working and injuries. Pushing on with internal fit out at the moment and will post photos later, but for now I have a problem I need to resolve. The house is built on rock. the metre box is on the external wall of the garage. Rock to ground level is 525mm. I have a boundary wall, which runs parallel with the garage, 1500mm from the metre box. I have built up a 600mm raised flower bed 500mm wide attached to boundary wall 5 metres long, leaving a path 1 metre wide between the garage and the flower bed. The standard earth rod 1200mm x 5/8 inch has been placed in the raised flower bed. It goes right down to the rock and backfilled with topsoil. Earth cable is run in a length of 25 mm pipe under the path. My electrician can only obtain an electrical reading of 285 at every socket inside the house. This has to be brought down to below 200 to comply with regs. I don't think he has come across this situation before as I haven't seen him for a month. So, the question is :- Has anyone come across this situation before and how did you reduce the reading to below 200 ? I would appreciate any advice given. Thank you all for your kind attention. Freddie