How abou this - plaster proofing back boxes

[Tim S]

Hi,

As I'm laying my electrical boxes "dry", with conduit, I wanted to make a plate to prevent the box getting filled with mud, and something that I could just plaster over, then trim out later.

Here is it:

from the lid of 100mm maxi trunking (10quid, 2m from B&Q). The ribs in the lid give rigidity along with the thickness of the plastic.

Insert, and hold in with short M3.5 screws...

Before:

's Ok some of the conduit is visible, that's only the undercoat - the whole wall will be skimmed, so hopefully should look like this:

BTW - the bends in the conduit in the upper socket photo (needed due to wooden obstructions above) were done with a hot air gun. It doesn;t bend well and does its best to flatten even more, but with care and a little post bend finger squeezing, it's possible to maintain a clear cableway.

Cheers

Tim

[ARWadsworth]

Nice one. I might make a few for my friend who is a plasterer.

Of course if you had gone to plastering school you would realise that what you are doing is wrong and that you are supposed to fill the boxes with plaster:-)

Adam

[Dave Osborne]

You need to take the 's' out of the 'https' if you're having problems viewing this image.

i.e.

[leenowell]

plasterer goes around the boxes (and any holes - e.g. downlights) then uses a knife to cut the edges perfectly clean whilst the cement/ plaster is still wet. I have never seen anyone do that before but it looks great. He has a very keen eye for details.

[fred]

In article , Tim S writes

Stuff with newspaper til just under the surface & cover with gaffa tape . . . . . . . NEXT

[Lobster]

Not knocking what you've done, but I'm sure I've seen commercial versions of these on Screwfix or Toolstation or somewhere. I remember thinking at the time, good idea, but that they would only be of likely interest to dually-trained sparks and spreaders (ie, probably diy'ers only!)

David

[TheScullster]

"Tim S" wrote

But then the plaster skim goes into the slots and around the screw heads. Prefer to cover the screw lugs with insulation tape then cover the whole box with card. Guess if you were doing this on a regular basis, a re-usable card alternative would be better.

Phil

[Tim S]

Dave Osborne coughed up some electrons that declared:

Gallery2 (the photo database PHP software I use) is quick and easy, but a tad slow and SSL doesn't help it.

Must look at some page caching or something...

[Tim S]

Lobster coughed up some electrons that declared:

Not come across them. I've seen Yoozy boxes - they clip under and around the accessory if already fitted to lift it clear and protect the cables from Mr Mudd's razor sharp trowell.

[Tim S]

TheScullster coughed up some electrons that declared:

I though about that, but it turns out to be a non problem. I take the plates out when the plaster's just gone off and the screwdriver easily displaces the plaster in the slots.

I do wash the plastic off though under the tap or it gets manked up.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Tim S writes

are the boxes staggered like that? Looks a little odd.

[Tim S]

Mike Tomlinson coughed up some electrons that declared:

Yes - it is odd.

But it's a "standard" I came up with - allows conduit entry from the top to both boxes (me not want mains (bottom) going through the comms box (top) and also allows side entry for mains for horizontals. I using the standard all over the house.

It looks better where the comms box is a single (the majority case), but as I forsee that box feeding a telly, I want 4 euromodule capacity (= 2 gang box).

In that case, I could have put them side by side, but having a "standard" I tend to stop thinking and just do - it's easier overall... Especially as I do the marking up for cutting with some laminated paper templates with holes in and a can of spray paint - can't be bothered to make more templates :)

Cheers Tim