2x2.5mm t+e in 25mm oval

[Ian Atkinson]

Hi,

Last wiring question I think! In the kitchen in a couple of places I've run 2x2.5mm t+e down some 25mm oval conduit and it's a little tight (i.e. doesn't slide about freely in the conduit).

This is only in a couple of short pieces of ~30cm to get the cable from the sockets down below worktop height ready for me to plaster over.

Having read some old posts people have said these needs to be a bit of extra space round the cabling for expansion so would I be better off not using it? It was the biggest they had in the shop. I'm going tile over the whole area so I don't want the cabling to expand and pop tiles/grout off etc. - don't know how realistic that is!

Thanks,

Ian.

[VisionSet]

No it isn't going to cause any problem. If cable expansion was sufficient to cause those kind of effects it would be worse without the conduit. I never use conduit and have never had any problems.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There's no need to use conduit if the cables run vertically down from a socket - you can simply plaster over them.

If you've chased into existing good plaster and are going to tile over there's often no need to even make good the chase.

[Ian Atkinson]

Cool, thanks for your help all,

Ian.

[VisionSet]

Except you reduce impact resistance and have that quality hollow sound when you or the next purchaser rap there knuckles across the tiles.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I don't do jobs at home with a view of selling. ;-) Not making good round backing boxes etc when tiling allows you to move them slightly to get that perfect alignment between tile runs. Which to me is more important.

[John Rumm]

The main argumenta against conduit is that it is a pain to get whole cables through (single wires are much simpler!), and it eats into your temperature budget a little. 30cm however is unlikely to cause any problems with either of these - so no need to worry.