In message ,
"Christian McArdle" wrote:

4) Should I rent or buy and angle grinder to do the channelling?

I prefer an SDS chisel. Angle grinders produce an astonishing amount of
dust, whilst the chisel simply produces rubble which can be swept or
vacuumed up.

That depends on what you're chiselling through. I posed a similar
question to this group some time ago and received a similar answer,
along with the hint to buy an 80mm core drill for back boxes rather than
using one of those hole-making kits. The latter *is* a lot less dusty
(generally), but the former I'd say can be just as bad as an angle
grinder for the edges and a chisel for the middle.

I've recently been working in a 1900s-ish terrace. Most of the walls are
covered in some awful "mortar" which is like coal dust below the 1mm of
cement render. It may actually be coal dust. Put the SDS channeling
chisel anywher near this, and fine black soot ends up on practically
every surface, even the other side of shut doors.

Other walls have a very hard sand-cement substance on them - this turns
into fine grey dust likewise.

Oh yes, and if the black stuff gets wet at all (like, say, the soles of
my shoes are wet) then it stains carpets and soft furnishings. Horrid
stuff.

If it weren't for the fact that I needed the channel to go slightly into
the underlying brick/stone, I'd probably have been better off picking
the stuff out with my fingernails.


You can't just put channels anywhere, though. There are rules
to prevent the cables being spiked by screws and nails.


Hmmm... and I'm not sure they do that. The ones I'm most worried about
are the "(horizontal or) vertical from any fitting into a safe zone" and
"one safe zone is up to 150mm from a corner".

The former is a killer for people with shelf-fetishes, and even for
those knocking a nail in for a picture - after redecoration it'd be all
too easy to think you're safe and put something in without checking.

The latter is a problem for shelf-fetishists who are also incompetent
DIY-ers. The number of shelves I've seen, 4 ft long with supports 4"
from each end...

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... Beam me up, Scotty, This planet sucks!