Trunking - chasing wire through walls etc.

LaurenHeath123

Hi all,
I have recently been to see a house (I intend to buy) which has had a full re-wire but I noticed that the wires were boxed-in rather than run through the walls. Is there any reason for this? Could they be run through the walls? It looks so ugly! How much would it all cost? - I've been told I would just have to put up with it as it would mean a complete re-wire again but surely the wires that have been put in place can just be run through the wall? - They are less than 2 years old!


Thanks, in advance.

27col

My sister's house was rewired with surface trunking as she was too old to put up the mess of doing it properly. Now someone else is living in the house and the wiring is being sunk in as each room is redecorated. It is not a problem, just a bit messy for a day or two.
No need to rewire, you just sink the existing cables into the wall instead of having them on the surface.

LaurenHeath123

I was hoping someone would say this, it just didn't make sense to me to have to rewire the entire house when all the wiring is there! Same situation as your sister's, as the gentleman who currently lives there is 90 years old! Thank you.

DRP

It isn't difficult, but can be extremely dusty.

It'll also cost in money and time for the holes to be filled and painted/papered.

LaurenHeath123

I'll be redecorating the entire house so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I fully expect to be re-plastering most walls anyway

Owain_Moneysaver

It depends on how the wiring has been done.

If the wiring is sunk in the wall it must run horizontally or vertically from visible accessories, so it might not be able to be run exactly where the trunking is, and there might not be enough slack left to enable this.

thescouselander

Do you know what the walls are made of? If you've got stud walls or breeze block that's really easy to channel out. If its brick then its going to be messy.

pmartin86

If you're redecorating and skimming anyway, it should be nice and simple. how are you planning to skim? are you hacking off and then redoing? skimming over the top? dot and dab and skim? As mentioned in a previous post, as long as the wires run vertically or horizontally from visible fixings you should be fine

LaurenHeath123

I'm pretty sure all walls are brick and at present the wiring is run vertically from each light switch.
I'm thinking of hacking it off and re-doing, but I'll be asking the builder what he thinks will be best.
Does an electrician have to run the wires through the wall or would a competent builder be able to do this?

TheCyclingProgrammer

LaurenHeath123 wrote: »

Does an electrician have to run the wires through the wall or would a competent builder be able to do this?

The latter could do it, but the former will be the one that will be able to ensure all wiring is buried in according with wiring regs and should sockets and switches require disconnecting/reconnecting/modifying or new cables run they will also be able to test everything when they are done and issue you with a minor works certificate.

I know who I'd get to do it.

LaurenHeath123

Thank you for the advice! - I'll definitely take that on board. The electrician that did the house's electrics just left loads of plug sockets and light switches. He took out the wires etc but left a hole and stuck blank sockets back over the hole.
I've never heard of anyone doing this so I was quite shocked to see blank sockets everywhere. Lazy springs to mind, unless I'm missing a new trend?