Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

I need to bring cables from upstairs to downstairs to the consumer unit.
Total around 10 T&E in various thicknesses.

The only relatively fool proof part of a wall is where the existing cables
come down and I don't want to remove these until the wiring is complete.

I therefore need to run them down a separate part of the wall - I have a 2
foot space between the kitchen door and the living room door that would be
ideal.. Sods law says that somebody will no doubt bang a nail in the wall
in the future, co I need to give the cables protection.

As I see it, I have the following options:

a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over these. The
plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing half inch. The
cable from the shower would have to be placed out of conduit at the edge
of the wall.

b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a sheet of
suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and 2.5mm) in
a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

Thanks

Roger

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

On Sun, 9 May 2004 13:16:56 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

I need to bring cables from upstairs to downstairs to the consumer unit.
Total around 10 T&E in various thicknesses.

The only relatively fool proof part of a wall is where the existing cables
come down and I don't want to remove these until the wiring is complete.

I therefore need to run them down a separate part of the wall - I have a 2
foot space between the kitchen door and the living room door that would be
ideal.. Sods law says that somebody will no doubt bang a nail in the wall
in the future, co I need to give the cables protection.

As I see it, I have the following options:

a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over these. The
plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing half inch. The
cable from the shower would have to be placed out of conduit at the edge
of the wall.

b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a sheet of
suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and 2.5mm) in
a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

Thanks

Roger

If its a cavity it might be an idea to run them in the middle.

If its possible that in futur you may want more, it may be work
putting up a thin "fake wall" made of plasterboard .. This is
especially usefull if you have pipes to run as well ....

Just some ideas

Rick

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

wrote in message
...
I need to bring cables from upstairs to downstairs to the consumer unit.
Total around 10 T&E in various thicknesses.

The only relatively fool proof part of a wall is where the existing cables
come down and I don't want to remove these until the wiring is complete.

I therefore need to run them down a separate part of the wall - I have a 2
foot space between the kitchen door and the living room door that would be
ideal.. Sods law says that somebody will no doubt bang a nail in the wall
in the future, co I need to give the cables protection.

As I see it, I have the following options:

a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over these. The
plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing half inch. The
cable from the shower would have to be placed out of conduit at the edge
of the wall.

b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a sheet of
suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

A simple method is to use metal capping rather than the standard PVC stuff -
this will provide **some** degree of protection. But you must earth the
capping if it is to be any use, as it provides no real mechanical
protection. A nail/screw drill hitting a cable will be earthed by having
passed through, and still being in contact with, the metal layer (with
luck!) thus triggering the protective devices, and hopefully acting as a
better route to earth than the eejit with the hammer/driver/drill ( delete
as applicable).

You should earth-bond your sheets / conduits anyway

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and 2.5mm) in
a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

Maximum spacing for support for vertical PVC cables is between 0.4 and 0.55m
, depending on cable thickness....

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

In message ,
Rick Dipper wrote:

On Sun, 9 May 2004 13:16:56 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

I need to bring cables from upstairs to downstairs to the consumer unit.
Total around 10 T&E in various thicknesses.

The only relatively fool proof part of a wall is where the existing cables
come down and I don't want to remove these until the wiring is complete.

I therefore need to run them down a separate part of the wall - I have a 2
foot space between the kitchen door and the living room door that would be
ideal.. Sods law says that somebody will no doubt bang a nail in the wall
in the future, co I need to give the cables protection.

As I see it, I have the following options:

a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over these. The
plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing half inch. The
cable from the shower would have to be placed out of conduit at the edge
of the wall.

b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a sheet of
suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and 2.5mm) in
a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

Thanks

Roger

If its a cavity it might be an idea to run them in the middle.

If its possible that in futur you may want more, it may be work
putting up a thin "fake wall" made of plasterboard .. This is
especially usefull if you have pipes to run as well ....


I like the false-wall idea, but if pipes are included don't forget to
space them as far away from the cables as possible if they are hot, or
else you're going to have to do some derating calculations on the
cables, and possibly even uprate the type of cable if the pipes are
hotter than the 70-odd degrees PVC can withstand.

A false wall might take a picture-nail without affecting the wires, but
anything more substantial is going to be a problem even then.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... RAM = Rarely Adequate Memory

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

In message ,
wrote:


a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over these. The
plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing half inch. The
cable from the shower would have to be placed out of conduit at the edge
of the wall.

Metal conduit or capping will need to be earthed which can be a bit
awkward to do.


b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a sheet of
suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and 2.5mm) in
a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?


In conduit or capping it shouldn't be a problem. If you are just going
to bury in plaster then you'll need to put in a few cable clips, if only
to keep the cables close enough to the wall to be able to plaster over
them!

Back to the original problem though, if this is a relatively short-term
project and re-using the old route is "best" (as you implied) then is
there any way you can feed the old circuits temporarily by another
route, thus allowing you to bypass the section in question? I'm thinking
of a few carefully worked-out "extension leads", and probably not for
the shower!

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... I am what I am and that's all that I am

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

Not acceptable, but unlikely to cause problems. Wiring should now not be run
in cavities due to potential issues with condensation. Is there no way you
can run the cables down within 150mm of a corner of the room, in which case
you can do what you like, no need to worry about protecting the cable, the
point being that no one is expected to bang a nail in to the corner of a
room since the picture would look a bit silly hanging there. Similarly you
can run in the top 150mm from the ceiling wherever you like, BUT this is not
true at the bottom of the wall.

Fash

"Jerry Built" ] wrote in message
news:MCELGMKPPZFQKCN0KPODD1FQHZBSMJPSMCCEJ1KD@zipl ip.com...
wrote:
Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm
and 2.5mm) in a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

I've just re-wired the upstairs lighting in a 1950s. house
where the cable for up/downstairs light/ring were all run
down through the cavity and back in at the CU.... I don't
know how "acceptable" this is, but there was no damage to
the wiring... I just replaced it as it was with new.


J.B.

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

In article , ()
wrote:

I need to bring cables from upstairs to downstairs to the consumer
unit. Total around 10 T&E in various thicknesses.

The only relatively fool proof part of a wall is where the existing
cables come down and I don't want to remove these until the wiring is
complete.

I therefore need to run them down a separate part of the wall - I have
a 2 foot space between the kitchen door and the living room door that
would be ideal.. Sods law says that somebody will no doubt bang a nail
in the wall in the future, co I need to give the cables protection.

As I see it, I have the following options:

a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over these.
The plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing half inch.
The cable from the shower would have to be placed out of conduit at the
edge of the wall.

b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a sheet
of suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and 2.5mm)
in a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

Thanks

Roger

Thanks for the comments.

It is not a cavity wall, which makes it more difficult. The existing
cables are buried in plaster.

It would seem like the only real option I have is to run the cables down
the existing location. I will need to look into this further and do some
more checking.

In my original post (as above) I mentioned running cables in a 10
foot drop without any vertical support. What I forgot to make clear was,
in this instance, the cables would be in individual conduits and not just
left dangling. Would this make any difference?

Roger

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

In article ,
(steve) wrote:

wrote in message
...
In article ,
() wrote:

I need to bring cables from upstairs to downstairs to the consumer
unit. Total around 10 T&E in various thicknesses.

The only relatively fool proof part of a wall is where the existing
cables come down and I don't want to remove these until the wiring
is complete.

I therefore need to run them down a separate part of the wall - I
have a 2 foot space between the kitchen door and the living room
door that would be ideal.. Sods law says that somebody will no
doubt bang a nail in the wall in the future, co I need to give the
cables protection.

As I see it, I have the following options:

a) Feed the cables through metal conduits, then plaster over
these. The plaster will have to be a bit deeper than the existing
half inch. The cable from the shower would have to be placed out of
conduit at the edge of the wall.

b) Bury the cables in the plaster as normal, then cover with a
sheet of suitable metal for protection

and that's it! any other suggestions?

Would there be any problems with running a T&E cable (1.00mm and
2.5mm) in a 10 foot vertical drop without any support?

Thanks

Roger

Thanks for the comments.

It is not a cavity wall, which makes it more difficult. The existing
cables are buried in plaster.

It would seem like the only real option I have is to run the cables
down the existing location. I will need to look into this further and
do some more checking.

In my original post (as above) I mentioned running cables in a 10
foot drop without any vertical support. What I forgot to make clear
was, in this instance, the cables would be in individual conduits and
not just left dangling. Would this make any difference?

Roger

Why not stick ( no nails , hot melt, impact adhesive whatever) DON'T
NAIL OR SCREW IT!!!!! pvc trunking onto the wall over the existing
run. then you can remove the lid and add the cables as you add new
circuits .Then when all cables run , remove the temp plastic trunking
chop out the plaster and remove old cables the put new cables in wall
with plastic or galv steel top hat type protection , doubt you will
get any wide enough to cover all the cables in one go or run in the
conduits remember you can get oval type conduit , round would probably
involve chipping away some of the brick/block to get it flush under
the plaster then plaster/ make good

That might have to be one way of doing it. As I'm doing it a bit at a
time, I would much rather have dove it permanently at a new location,
disconnecting the old cable at the CU then connecting the new one as I go
along. I could then clear out the old stuff at my leisure.

Roger

Burying cables in wall - protection against nails etc.
 

In article ,
(Fash) wrote:

Not acceptable, but unlikely to cause problems. Wiring should now not
be run
in cavities due to potential issues with condensation. Is there no way
you
can run the cables down within 150mm of a corner of the room, in which
case
you can do what you like, no need to worry about protecting the cable,
the
point being that no one is expected to bang a nail in to the corner of a
room since the picture would look a bit silly hanging there. Similarly
you
can run in the top 150mm from the ceiling wherever you like, BUT this
is not
true at the bottom of the wall.

Fash


The most simplest new location (from upstairs access) is down an 18 inch
wide wall between two doors. However, because of the narrowness of this
and the amount of cables, I will need to run cables for most of the six
inches at either side of it, leaving a six inch gap in the middle. Because
the wall is narrow, I'm concerned that at some time in the future there is
more chance of a nail/screw going into the wall within the six inch
margin. If I could run the cable in metal conduit for the drop, I wouldn't
be bothered. However, I don't want to run the risk of future damage -
possibly even done by myself without thinking!

Roger