Is installing electrical cables in screed good practice?

Legacy_user

Is it good practice to run electric cables set in a sand and cement screed?

tacpot12

Electrical cables in conduit is quite common in screeded floors. It is certainly allowed, and is regarded as good practice. Ideally, the conduit will be galvanised steel and will be buried more than 75mm the surface to reduce the risk of a horn drilling into the conduit in future.

Providing the job is done correctly, if someone does accidentally drill into the conduit, new cables can be pulled in quickly. Marking the floor and keeping accurate plans of where the conduit is run might help to avoid any problems.

Floor anchors are pretty rare in residential buildings, so there is not much risk. If you have an RCD protecting the circuit this will provide further protection from electrocution.

stator

There are building regulations about where cables can be buried. Specifically there is a minimum depth. The protection required depends on location and dept. Some places would need a metal conduit to comply, ie to prevent drilling. Some places the requirements are less, eg where cables are expected to be.