On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 19:59:29 +0100, KD wrote:

Hi all,
Daft question of the day time ....
I know that there are regs regarding power sockets in bathrooms etc. but are
there any guidelines about the proximity of power sockets near a sink. The
reason I ask is that it appears that the builders have potentially f***ked
up yet again on the wiring of our house and that the utility room double
sockets are directly over the draining board which requires running of power
cables to other appliances along the splashback area behind the taps. The
plans of the house show that these are in the wrong place but I just thought
I'd check my position legally/regs wise.

Thanks for any help,
Keith

P.S. To make this on topic I'm considering a fix myself :-)

Hi

Don't have an IEE Regs book to hand. I thought it used to be a prescibed
distance was required between any outlet (that doesn't run through an
isolating transformer, eg shaver socket) and a wet facility - the distance
was something sensible to make it difficult to touch the socket *and* a
tap at the same time - or be in a natural position to touch the socket
with wet hands (near sink, bath, shower etc).

I might be talking rubbish - can't remember for sure.

Anyway - in such a case, common sense has some application - it's a bl**dy
stupid place to site a socket and if it were me I'd move it or blank it
off. Do you have RCD protection on that circuit at the consumer unit?

Of course - you want the legal position in case you can sue the builders -
I'll have to defer to someone more knowledgeable :-(

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Timbo

PS - If you want a laugh, I remember using a shower in Italy 20 years ago
(Rome IIRC), and the light switch was wall mounted *just* outside of the
shower curtain.

The plumbing was crap too - flush the bog whilst draining a bath and bits
of bog paper appeared out of the bath plughole. Yuk.