Re: Spur socket - how did they do that?

[BillR]

I have a mains socket in my kitchen that seems to have been added as a

> spur (the cable is a different colour ro all the other sockets). The > cable goes through the inner leaf of the cavity wall, travels > horizontally for approx 18" and then comes out of the cavity and is > wired into another socket. > > How did someone manage that?

They could've used a special cable pulling kit. I've managed with straightened wire coat hanger or flexible plastic strip e.g. capping off plastic conduit or curtain rail.

More seriously, tha cavity insulation appears to be small polystyrene > beads. ISTR reading in a previous post that polystyrene and mains > cable are incompatible. Should I re-route the cable whilst replacing > the kitchen? > > Andrew

[Andrew McKay]

Or the previous owner could have been a surgeon from the local hospital, and he borrowed one of those endoscopes (or whatever they are called) which they can shove down your throat (or up another place.....) and then move around at will.

Andrew

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[PM]

I needed to drop a wire down through a cavity wall from the loft for a network cable. I could foresee problems if I cut the hole in the wall for the socket, and then tried to work out where to drill the hole vertically above it, as I would need to be working the distance back to the loft hatch a couple of rooms away.

The other half came up with a solution I was a little doubtful of at first. Drill a hole in the top of the cavity wall, in approximately the right horizontal place. Dangle a piece of string, measured to be the right length for the distance of the socket off the floor, with a metal bolt tied to the end. Wave one of those metal / cable detectors across the area of the wall roughly where the nut should be. Mark and drill a hole with a circular saw bit.

Well B*&^%$ me if the nut and bit of string were not directly behind the hole I had drilled.

PM

[Andrew McKay]

One option I've used before now is to run the cable in the loft space, then drill a pinhole thru the ceiling, vertically above where the cable is going to drop. A tiny piece of coloured wire (say, red) popped thru that pinhole gives you the vertical plumb point for where to drill your cable hole on the wall.

Then fish for the cable in the cavity using a bent coat hanger wire.

The pinhole won't be noticed in the ceiling, and if it bothers you then a smidgen of polyfilla will take care of it.

Andrew

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[Rick Hughes]

even more lucky that you don't have galv steel wall ties !