Knocked old plaster off to find this. What to be done?

FreeBear

Ben1989 said:

There is a socket mere feet away from this area that we'd actually prefer to have it closer to the board (that's what's under the cardboard).

Is this a quick easy job for an electrician?

Depends on how much free cable there is to play with. If he has to pull a new length of cable, it could take several hours by the time he has located the other end.

Ben1989

I'll just leave the socket where it is then. Maybe re-visit it in the future. 

Section62

Ben1989 said:

I'll just leave the socket where it is then. Maybe re-visit it in the future. 

Talk to your electrician.

Adding a new socket close to the consumer unit is potentially one of the easiest jobs possible.  Especially if they are already on site and dealing with walls which will be replastered anyway.

Now is probably the best time you'll ever have to get this done - albeit the job may be easier if it is an additional socket rather than relocating an existing one.

Communication is key here (as often crops up on other poster's threads) - if the trader doesn't know what you want or would like, the solution they give you won't necessarily be the best one.

If the electrician assumes you don't want another socket then they may spend more time and your money on a solution which doesn't include an additional socket.

Risteard

FreeBear said:

Ben1989 said:

I knocked some mouldy plaster off the wall to brick this weekend.

I was greeted by a diagonal conduit with wires in it.

Can anyone say whether it’s likely to be old? Also, it’s due to be plastered tomorrow so what precautions or advice should the plasterer take?

Do you know how old the cables are, and if they are live ?

A single core cable with a cloth or rubber insulation will most likely be from when the house was first wired. Well past the sell by date and will (hopefully) been replaced/bypassed by modern PVC coated cables. If, and only if this is the case (old & disused), I'd suggest ripping the conduit out.

If the cables are live, then get an electrician in to re-route them and fit conduit. Current wiring regs say that buried cables should only run horizontally or vertically in proscribed "safe zones" - That has been the case for quite a long time now, so not just a recent thing.

Prescribed zones (so-called "safe zones") are one method of achieving compliance. Others are cables surrounded by an Earthed metallic sheath or armour, e.g. MIMS (mineral insulated metal sheathed cable) or SWA (steel wire armoured cable), or Earthed metallic conduit or trunking. Usually a domestic premises would be wired in PVC/PVC cables such as T&E. But it's not correct to state that PVC/PVC cables in prescribed zones is the only way of complying with BS7671. It's hard to tell, but that looks like a hydrodare pipe or something similar rather than a conduit or duct.