Oh yes, you may be right -- I hadn't noticed that;-)
Still need to do a building notice and get an inspection done when changing the battery in a doorbell in the kitchen though. Complete plonkers the lot of them. I wish I had a doorbell in the kitchen -- it would be worth submitting a building notice just for the stupidity and publicity. I suppose I could submit a building notice to install a doorbell in the kitchen ;-)
Go on ...We dare you ...And get a film crew in to film it ...I ams uer many of us in this Ng would happily pay a share of the cost .:-) Stuart
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I'd use mineral insulated cable with a copper sheath, and make sure the circuit is on an RCD. Probably still against the regs though.
The ends of the cable need to be sealed with the right glands as the insulation absorb moisture, and it has to be bent carefully without going below the min bend radius.
The cable is quite thin so would fit in a rebate channeled into the skirting, but some derating may be necessary as it's not in free air.
cheers, Pete.
It would be worth investing the fee to do that provided that appropriate press coverage could be arranged.
This gives me some ideas......
Trunking is intended for unsheathed cores. This isn't trunking, it's ornamental joinery.
No, I said above that 'terminals and unsheathed cores have to be in noncombusitble enclosuires'
Anyway, as it's outside the UK, UK regulations don't apply.
Owain
It would be most apt if done by someone in Mr Prescott's consttuency.
Owain
... or in Mr. Redwood's.....
The thought of Lord Hall as PM. I shudder to think!!!
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Got to be better than Brown (or even carrying on with Cambell)...
Does it help?
Sorry, there are other countries in the world people can go to live, you know. As for banging nails in skirting board, You can be absolutely dead effing sure people will bang them in walls, not so with properly screwed skirting board. M.K.
It all rather depends on what I find when I rip off the old board. If there is a large enough gap between floorboards and plaster then that's where the wires will go. I may or may not put steel strip in front of it, it rather depends on availability since many things are unobtainable on islands (and steel rusts pretty quick on them).
Ah OK, thanks . I doubt it's obtainable there though, plastic wouldn't look right in such a place either.
Good suggestion. Possible downsides would be availability, wether the chemicals are a health hazard in themselves and wether the stuff can be shipped by air. M.K.
The usual way is to fit battens to the wall if brick etc, and then nail to those. Nail 'holes' are much easier to make good for decorating than screw heads. Which will invariably show through after some time unless plugged with wood which then rather negates the benefits of screws.
Come to think of it, the BBC Integer eco house had wiring behind skirting for ease if fitting and future amending.
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Hehehe! I'd rather be a "moron" about to retire to a nice island than you, spending your petty life attempting to comply to the ever changing dictats of fellow anals. M.K.
It is clear you cannot handle life.
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It's only 'logical' if you have concrete floors, which luckily ain't the norm in better quality UK houses.
You know that and I know that. Ideally there should be ducting in walls to run cables without having to damage decorations etc. as there frequently is elsewhere in Europe. Unfortunately, here in the UK this is not usually done and the wiring standards are written to take into account the normal method of construction.
To the typical method used in the UK. This is a UK-related newsgroup.
The vast proportion of the housing stock and new housing was built after 1850. The standard construction method, which is still widely used, is to plaster walls and fix skirtings with nails. I didn't say that I thought it was good, but it is why the wiring standards are written to account for it.
Fine, but you gave very little information at the outset and in a UK newsgroup, in the absence of information to the contrary, the default would be for people to respond on the basis of it being a standard construction UK property.
For new properties, in the Building Regulations, there is now a requirement for power outlets to be installed a minimum distance from the floor which is a long way above a skirting height, so one would still need vertical runs of cable. In any case, light switches are not normally put on skirtings but higher on walls and there has to be cable run to them - usually vertically.
Given those situations, it's fairly reasonable to have a rule saying that cables may be run vertically or horizontally from fittings. Therefore there is cable running behind plaster normally anyway.
Obviously one can't control people knocking nails into those, but if you think about the sequence in building a house here it runs:
- walls
- first fit of cables to walls
- plaster or plasterboard
- fitting of skirting boards with nails
- final fit electrical
Given that sequence, it is clear that there is a risk of damage to cables if they were run in the space where the skirting board is to be fitted.
It is a reasonable attempt to prevent damage and danger during the construction process based on the normal sequence of construction. Obviously it can't prevent all sorts of stupid things happening afterwards, but that is not the intention.
I think that that is overstating the situation. Until recently, the wiring standards were not connected with Building Regulations.
As far as Building Regulations themselves are concerned, they are written to cover the situation in the environment where they are to be used. There are not that many caves in the middle of the ocean in the UK, so it's a nonsense to suggest the UK Building Regulations are stupid because they don't apply to caves.
That issue is independent of whether or not cables were allowed to be hidden in the band behind a skirting. There still need to be cables hidden to run to sockets and switches. Short of insisting that metal conduit be used, whatever standard one has that allows cables to be run unprotected and hidden somewhere has the potential that people can knock in nails and hit a cable. There are plenty of situations where people can do themselves harm with electricity, regardless of regulation.
Of course this could be done. One could have ductwork that runs in the wall at skirting level and is constructed of appropriate material and then have an arrangement to clip the decorative skirting to the front. Unfortunately, this is not what the UK construction industry does. It still follows the methods of a century ago. The wiring standards simply follow after that and attempt to create the safest situation during construction and afterwards.
There is a limit to what can be run from that before the wiring needs to be incredibly thick. Even in the US with 110v wiring, anything of size is run at 220v.
There is skirting trunking on the market. Use of this is not equivalent to hiding the cables behind plaster and skirting board. However, most are not a thing of beauty.
If you change the environment to being outside the UK, then obviously UK wiring standards don't apply. I would suggest that you do find out which ones do for your island paradise, even if it is only paying off the local government official.
In any case, it would be prudent to construct or buy the skirting with non-combustible material.
The only other common-sense thing would be to run cables from sockets and switches vertically or horizontally rather than at an angle.
I just decided it AFTER reading the posts, since it emerged that the only *practical* reason it is allegedly "forbidden" is because of nails. My information was not "incomplete" some just didn't notice the word "practical" and digressed to preaching regulatory dictats. Your obnoxious little friend Jerry, for one.
We also managed to touch the numerous ADVANTAGES of wiring in skirting boards, something which those here capable of innovation and independent thought might find interesting.
I don't think we wasted many people's time because most find heated threads quite entertaining as you can see by the number of posts compared to other threads :-P Anyone is welcome not to post, I however remain grateful to all who made useful comments. Mark K.
Hehehe, so thanks to the building regs you can now expect to find wires pretty much anywhere except for the most logical place for them, in the skirting board. Bwahahaha! Mark K.
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