"parish" parish_AT_ntlworld.com wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth wrote:

What are the regulations covering this?

BS7671:2001 Requirements for Electrical Installations (IEE Wiring
Regulations Sixteenth Edition).

Height of sockets AND switches governed by Building Regulations part
M - to be installed between 450mm and 1200mm above floor level, though

When did this come into effect? In my 8 year old house the sockets are
350-400mm above the floor (to the *top* of the socket).

there are excemptions for rooms such as kitchens where sockets are
installed above worksurfaces. Part M concerns itself with "access",
e.g.
for disabled persons, and also insists on things like "level" access to
the main entrance, and a wheelchair-accessible downstairs loo in
newly-built or renovated houses.

This applies to new buildings only. You can place the sockets at any
height
you wish when doing a rewire as long as they can be used safely (i.e.
not

I take it an extension would be classed as a new building? How strictly
would these dimensions be enforced?

The reason I ask is that one of the rooms in the extension we are having
built will be an office/study and I want the sockets placed just above
the skirting (bottom of the socket about an inch above the skirting)
because the modesty panels fitted to office desks obscure even my
existing sockets so, to plug/unplug anything, I have to grovel about on
the floor under the desk reaching up behind the panel, i.e. doing it
blind. I consider this a hazard as I can't get to the sockets to switch
off/unplug quickly if I need to in an emergency.

usually on skirting as it causes the cable from the plug to be under
stress).

Adam



The sockets you want are above the skirting, I see no problem. When sockets
are mounted on the skirting they are usually so low down (they had some
great ideas in the 60's) that there is no way to insert a normal plug
without stress on the flex connected to the plug. The M (disabled) regs came
into use in 2001 I think.
Adam