What is this?

meropenem

I want to put a splashback or some tiles here. Am I able to just remove these?

nofoollikeold

1. They look like electrical blanking plates.  If so, then behind them will be live wires, so be careful.
2. You could remove the boxes behind them holding the wiring, sink the boxes deeper, cut away the plaster around the blanking plates to get them flush.
3. There may be other ways known to electricians to get round the problem.

KeithP

No idea. Can you give us some idea of scale?
Are they two inches long or two feet long? Or what?

GSDMum

nofoollikeold said:

1. They look like electrical blanking plates.  If so, then behind them will be live wires, so be careful.
2. You could remove the boxes behind them holding the wiring, sink the boxes deeper, cut away the plaster around the blanking plates to get them flush.
3. There may be other ways known to electricians to get round the problem.

Or maybe wiring in a couple of electrical sockets. You mentioned 'splashback', are the blanking plates above the kitchen worktop? Don't think you can have too many electrical sockets in the kitchen imho

FreeBear

If they are blanked off sockets and there is live wiring in there, you don't want to be tiling over them - Wiring that is terminated in a junction box (terminal strip or what ever) should always remain accessible. If not, you'll have the resident pedant lecturing you

There are screwless terminal blocks that claim to be maintenance free, but even then, I wouldn't be burying them behind splash backs or tiles.

fenwick458

how about take them off and have a look inside for a start?

Ectophile

Maintenance free connectors really are intended to be buried and forgotten about.

There are also other ways to make a permanent joint, including crimping (not using the cheap crimp tools from discount stores) and soldering.

Jeepers_Creepers

The issue I understand FB was inferring, is that - once hidden - no-one will know not to drill in that area.

olgadapolga

Jeepers_Creepers said:

The issue I understand FB was inferring, is that - once hidden - no-one will know not to drill in that area.

Had a similar issue - we are replacing our kitchen and found not one but two "hidden" sockets with poorly connected and exposed but live wires that had been tiled over. Nothing between the tiles and the wires. Absolutely no indication that the sockets were beneath the tiles. Luckily the tiles weren't stuck particularly well to the wall and fell off with the ones above but DH still shudders at the thought of what might have happened.

The "sockets" have been removed and the wires into/out of them have been replaced.

DH calls the wiring in the kitchen "Darwin Award Winning". I've never heard so many expletives from DH about anything as I have the wiring in our kitchen. At least it will be safe by the time we've finished.

FreeBear

Jeepers_Creepers said:

The issue I understand FB was inferring, is that - once hidden - no-one will know not to drill in that area.

That is one danger, yes. Another issue is if/when the place is rewired or some fault finding needs to take place. The electrician is faced with a bunch of wires disappearing down a wall without a clear indication of where the go or for what reason.

olgadapolga said: DH calls the wiring in the kitchen "Darwin Award Winning". I've never heard so many expletives from DH about anything as I have the wiring in our kitchen. At least it will be safe by the time we've finished.

Unfortunately, it is not always the one that did the work that gets killed off. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3735928.stm

Rosa_Damascena

FreeBear said:

Unfortunately, it is not always the one that did the work that gets killed off. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3735928.stm

Why was there not a manslaughter charge?