Fatih

In Fatih the ground floor is often wholesale, a tailor or a restaurant, and the floors above are homes. Because the 1970s riser was single-phase and thin, the shop's iron, cooler and window lighting were added onto the flat's socket circuit. In the evening, when both the shop and the flat load up, the terminal heats. A hot screw loosens, a loose screw arcs, and the arc carbonises the Bakelite. If the television is plugged into the socket above that box, the screen goes dark, the cover yellows, and the call comes in as 'the socket burnt'. The first job is not a new cover. The circuit is made dead, the box is opened, the carbonised NYA tail is cut back, and the remaining copper is read under load with a True-RMS clamp.

A two-wire circuit has no earth. Washing-machine bodies in these flats often shock, because the chassis was bonded to a water pipe or not bonded at all. A water pipe is not an earth. If there is a shock, the plug comes out, and if there is no 30 mA Type A residual-current device the board moves to the front of the job. Where cloth insulation crumbles in the fingers, that circuit is taken into halogen-free surface trunking. The wall is not chased just to break historic plaster. Cameras and the internet are not tied onto that old pair. The shop recorder and the Cat6 run go in a separate trunk, away from the socket circuit. The RJ45 ends are proved with a cable tester. They are not left because 'the picture comes up'.

Rewirable fuse boards are still found on Fatih stairs. Each time a fuse blows, a thicker wire is fitted, the wire heats, and the board blackens. That is not a repair. It is preparation for a fire. On the changeover, the room each fuse feeds is written down first. Then branch insulation is read with a 500 V megohmmeter. A line under one megaohm is not connected to the new breaker until it is renewed, because the new breaker would feed rotten insulation, not a sound circuit, and it would trip again. The board moves into a flame-retardant modular enclosure. A main breaker with a breaking capacity matched to the board, a 30 mA Type A residual-current device and, where it is needed, a Type 2 surge arrester go on the intake. The cooker, the washer and the air conditioner are not left on the same 16 amp way.

The riser belongs to the building. Carbon inside a flat's cover is a sign that the riser terminal is loose as well. That terminal is not limited to the flat owner. A written note is left with the manager: which floor, which phase, how many amperes were read. We do not break the meter seal. If the seal is already broken, or the meter side is hot, the report goes to BEDAŞ and the board after the meter stays with us. The 2026 bands are labour excluding materials and they move on site: fault finding 750-1,500 TL, a breaker or residual-current device 1,250-3,200 TL, a socket or light fitting 650-2,800 TL, an air-conditioning circuit 2,400-5,500 TL, a flat board 6,500-16,000 TL. The survey fee comes off the job if the repair is accepted. The binding figure is written after measurement and before work starts. Workmanship is guaranteed for one year.

On the old-city risers the neutral bar is shared and the screw is small. When the Aksaray windows light up in the evening that neutral heats, contact resistance rises, and flat lamps suddenly flare or die. The caller blames the socket. The reading is written at the flat intake: phase-to-neutral, phase-to-earth, neutral-to-earth. When the neutral opens, phase-to-neutral climbs above 180 volts and the fridge and television supplies are at risk. Plugs come out. The riser screw is chosen with the manager, because the line is the building's common property. The side before the BEDAŞ seal is a separate line on the paper. The side after the seal, the phase and neutral entering the flat, is ours to tighten. The same paper records which floor's phase drew how many amperes, so the neighbouring flat does not see the same flare the next day.

If this building and the next are dark and the meter is cold, the report belongs to the distribution company. If one flat has a live living room and a dead bedroom, one phase of the riser or one pole of the main breaker has gone. A pole whose handle is up and whose output is dead is common here, because the body has stayed warm for years. The ampere rating is not increased. If the conductor is 1.5 mm² it does not go above 16 amperes. If the section is short, the cable changes. On the same visit the bell transformer is read. If the body is hot, the bell circuit leaves the socket circuit so the coil does not feed socket carbon at night. The entry phone gets its own thin pair, and a camera supply is not piled onto that pair. A Fatih call is written in the appointment book. A burning smell or a shock is moved forward the same day. A minute figure for the bridge is not quoted. The technician states any tariff difference on the phone before setting off.