"Pete C" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:28:48 +0000 (UTC), dundonald
wrote:


I forget how wide the joists are off the top of my head but a board runs
across two gaps, i.e. uses three joists. To thread the wire through the
joists with a drilled hole, which is what I should do, would take a
rewire
and installing junction boxes. I may have to take the hit and do so
properly. I was wondering if there was a quicker alternative without
being
detrimental to the structure.

Can you unscrew the covers on the ceiling fittings below? If so it
might be possible pull the wires up through the ceiling, route them
through the joist and push them back down into the ceiling fitting.

Is this much different than a 'notch' in the joist?

Well you would need a router.

what - a router to notch a joist? you jest, surely - a hand saw and your
finest cheap chisel would do the job nearly as quickly and just as
accurately.

however, I'd not advise going down the path of notching the joists. It
might be quick, but risks mechanical damage to cables in the future and as
others have pointed out it reduces the strength of the joists, which is not
a good thing for ceiling joists when their strenght might be borderline for
carrying storage loads anyway.

It looks like the IEE regulations forbid
laying cables in notches on the top of joist like this anyway.

Junction boxes are 50p and 100m 1mm^2 T&E £10.25 at Screwfix, it might
just be easiest to route new wires between the joists to the edge of
the loft and cross the cable over the joists at the edge.


routing the cables through holes in the joists would be pretty quick, and
unscrewing the cables in each ceiling rose in turn is probably going to be
just as quick as faffing about with junction boxes, cutting and stripping
cables, etc. I should imagine that you'd only be talking about 2 or 3 light
fittings below for your average house.

hiring an angle drill for a day to do the drilling might help as spacing
between loft joists often is not sufficient to fit a drill and bit in them
to drill the hole square.

--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk