Electrical trunking

cattie

I've viewed a couple of properties that have obviously had what I term cheap electrical work carried out as they have that horrid trunking around walls and across ceiling.

What I'd like to know is if you have a property with this kind of thing and want to be rid of as I would, do you have to go for a full rewire or is it possible to get the wires currently under the trunking chased into the walls and ceilings?

Thanks for any advice.

DVardysShadow

It is possible to get cables [not wires] chased into walls. This should ideally be done vertically - you do need to be sure there are no conflicting horizontal runs of anything - hence the advice to keep it vertical.

With ceilings, you should not chase in as you will cut into a void behind the plaster board and leave the plasterboard unsupported. And an absolute nono even if you ignore the rest of what I say is never to take a cut out of the underside of a joist to facilitate chasing into a ceiling. This will seriously weaken the support for the floor above.

For ceiling mounted trunking, as and when you get the opportunity, you need to reroute it through the ceiling void, working from above.

Although you are just repalcing cables with new runs, I believe that strictly you should get Part P Building Reg Approval - but this level of bureaucratic involvement in trivial jobs is probably what will bring Part P into practical demise.

fluffpot

It depends on the cables - if they are run as 'singles's in the trunking then it will be pretty difficult to chase them into the wall as you will have to put plastic conduit around them to protect them. If they are run in twin and earth then this already has a plastic sheath around the cables so can go straight into the wall.

The greater problem might be that there is no slack on the cables, so moving them around to get them out of the trunking will be difficult

DVardysShadow

fluffpot wrote: »

It depends on the cables - if they are run as 'singles's in the trunking then it will be pretty difficult to chase them into the wall as you will have to put plastic conduit around them to protect them. If they are run in twin and earth then this already has a plastic sheath around the cables so can go straight into the wall.

The greater problem might be that there is no slack on the cables, so moving them around to get them out of the trunking will be difficult

If you are going to the effort of chasing in. of course you only need to disconnect the cable at one end to slip some conduit over it before plastering in. It really does not make sense to plaster cable direct into a wall - why set yourself up to rip up the same wall if you need to replace the cable?

Of course the cable may be short of slack. For a job like this, well put in a new bit if you are going to the effort in the first place.

cattie

DVardysShadow wrote: »

For ceiling mounted trunking, as and when you get the opportunity, you need to reroute it through the ceiling void, working from above.

Thanks so much for advice. As these are ground floor flats, there would be no access from above, so a complete rewire would seem the order of the day to get rid of the nasty plastic stuff. Perhaps I can use this as a negotiating tool if I end up going for a place with this trunking in situ.

dil1976

There is alot to be answered here before a yes or no can be given.

1. Are the cables long enough
2. Are they already mounted over "safe zones" or would the cable need to be re routed to allow for this.
3. Are the cables protected by a RCD/RCBo
4. Is the outer sheath of the cable a earth metallic sheath.

To name a few, I would advise getting a electrician round to look at the job and see what he advises, also be worth making sure he can Part P certify the work if it is a residential property.

muckybutt

I would suspect that the cables would all be too short to chase in, so you would certainly be looking at a partial / full rewire in which you may or may not need a new consumer unit.

DVardysShadow

muckybutt wrote: »

I would suspect that the cables would all be too short to chase in, so you would certainly be looking at a partial / full rewire in which you may or may not need a new consumer unit.

I don't see that replacing lengths of cable would of itself merit a change of consumer unit. Or if it did, the consumer unit would need replacing regardless of any change of cable.