"John Prentice" wrote in message
om...
Hi folks,

I've moved into a house where one of the bedrooms has been made
smaller via a cavity plasterboard partition. The chunk that has been
taken away is now an extended part of the hall. (The previous
occupants had to do this before selling the house, in order to get
retrospective planning permission for other alterations they had
made.) The only trouble is that the lightswitch for the bedroom is
located on what is now the opposite side of the hall!

I want to move the lightswitch into the remaining part of the bedroom,
and while I'm quite competent with the wiring side of things, I'm
worried about what I'll do about wooden supports inside the cavity.
If I tried to drop a cable down from above, and it hit a joist higher
than where I wanted the lightswitch, how should I tackle this? It
must be a common problem and I'm hoping it's the kind of thing where
there's a simple solution that electricians use all the time!

I've already considered: (a) cutting open the wall and replastering,
(b) installing a pull-cord from the ceiling instead, and (c) trunking
on the face of the wall, but none of these sounds very attractive. If
anybody here can suggest something else I'd be grateful for your
comments.

Sorry if this has been covered before. The FAQ concentrates more on
how to find the cable inside the wall and pull it through the
lightswitch cut-out, and I've searched Google to no avail.

With thanks.

John

Most stud partitions which I have come across (or even built!) have
horizontal noggins between the uprights at approx 1/3 and 2/3 of ceiling
height. If yours is like this, you'll need to get through both the upper
frame member (no problem from above the ceiling) *and* the noggin at 2/3
height. This is the fun bit! Unless you remove some of the plasterboard, you
will need a very long, thin drill - well it can be 1/2" dia, but needs to be
upwards of 3' long. The cutout for the switch is easy - and you can use a
hollow-fixing box. It will help if your holes through the top frame and
noggin are in line with the switch. You will then need a long piece of stiff
wire, fed down through the holes, and retrieved through the switch cutout,
to pull the cable through.

HTH,
Roger