Currently rewiring my kitchen and am unsure of how to chase the cables. Luckily (depending on which way you look at it) the previous owners had wood panelling on batons on the walls and all the brickwork is bare. Eventually, after the first fix and council inspection, it will be plastered but I'm unsure of whether to cut a channel into the bare brickwork, to use any kind of conduit, or whether to just use cable clips to attach the cable to the wall. It would be a tremendous upheaval to have to cut channeling, having already sunk the socket boxes into the walls.
My DIY manual seems to suggest the plaster will be about 11-12mm thick which would be enough to cover the cable, but probably not enough to cover any conduit (well maybe thick enough to cover S/S channeling). I'm not too bothered about not having access to rewire anytime soon ;)
Personally, I don't bother with conduit or capping, I just clip direct and plaster over. Obviously, you need to know the rules about where this can be done. Also, consider where and how cabinets will be wall mounted.
In a kitchen, there is considerable cope to surface mount cabling behind units, particularly at low level so you don't need to cut the unit backs. This is advantageous in terms of work, maintenance and not sticking the drill through the cable!
If you are down to bare brick then you are at the same scenario as a new build - and you certainly wouldn't expect to be chasing cables into the brickwork then; the plaster should be plenty thick enough to cope with that so just surface mount the cable.
Personally I now favour using oval conduit for this purpose:
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shallow enough to be buried but keeps all the cables neat and in the right place for when the plasterer does his stuff.
In addition to other sound advice posted..consider what I did, as an option.
Essentially I wired all the cables on the surface behind the units, and built a false wall above the worktop out of MDF and ran wires behind that. Cupboards above that were screwed directly to the wall. I as going to tile it, but SHE liked it just painted...and it was nowhere near the sink/cooker so it stayed..
So, I lost an inch of worktop depth, but I covered up a wall that was rubbish and the result is actually bloody marvelous. I even used push fit plasterboard type plastic backing boxes in one place. But in your case screwing steel to the brick bare would be better.
Putting Flat Twin & Earth (FTE) cable in conduit is non-standard although it may be required occasionally to provide extra protection.
Regular use of conduit is to run individual insulated cables without sheathing - unusual in modern house wiring & more of a factory application.
The sheath on FTE cable (the grey or white PVC covering) is considered sufficient protection from normal physical damage. [It is NOT insulation - the insulation is the brown/red/brown/black PVC sheathes over the conductors.]
Adding further covering, such as by insertion in conduit, is likely to reduce the heat dissipation properties of FTE & incur cable derating for conduit of around 30% (see IEE tables in regs or On-Site Guide for exact nos). Pushing 2 FTE cables down small dia conduit (2 cables are often needed on the route to a socket or other fitting) may incur further derating due to the cables being too close together - again see regs or guide.
Provided you keep to the rules - all cables in vertical or horiz run from a fitting or in a 150mm corner then no further protection is needed. However cable on a plastered wall needs restraining whilst the wall is plastered. Use either cable clips (eg Tower brand or any no-name clips) or metal or plastic capping. Metal capping has the advantage of providing continuing protection from drawing pins etc and perhaps acts as a simple heatsink thus safeguards the cable a little further. BUT it is NOT the same as conduit NOR does it provide sufficient anti-nail protection to cables run outside the permitted zones.
Typical spread plaster is around 12mm deep, which only leaves a thin skim over the cable: a small chase perhaps 10mm deep allows better plaster cover.
should perhaps have added that trunking, mini-trunking and conduit are the same SFA the regs go, ie they both incur the same derating penalties, as might channelling but you need to study the installation methods IEE regs to be sure on that one.
Agreed - a apart from use to increase physical protection, mini trunking, especially, is often used for neatness & to protect the eyes of the hoi polloi from the horror of visible cabling.
Even so enclosing cable in trunking or equivalent does mean that the installer needs to consider whether derating factors should be applied.
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