Fitting cable in dry lined walls

Oct 25, 2003 2 Replies

My daughter has just bought a new house and the walls are mostly dry lined - I assume this is plasterboard simply stuck to the blocks with an adhesive of some sort as there does not appear to be a void between wall and board. All my experience so far has been with plastered walls or honeycomb-filled wallboards.



As she wants some additional sockets fitted, can anybody tell me what the usual method of running cable is? Do I simply cut a channel in the board (and the wall?) as I would with plaster and then fill as normal? I ask because the wallboard over the original sockets shows no signs of having been cut and filled, so presumably they are fitted after the cable is installed and notched to suit? Any advice would be appreciated



John Miller


You'll probably find the walls are "dot & dab" where the boards are fastened to the wall with dabs of plaster. This normally leaves a small gap behind which is handy for running cables. See if you can get hold of some YT1 plastic trunking. Remove the lid and bin the rest. The lid is great as a thin, flexible threading tool. Remove a handy sized piece of board (and reserve for replacing later) and try to rod the trunking lid to where you want it. Attach the cable with insulting tape and pull thro'. Ta-da! HTH, Richard.

Remove an existing socket and box this should aide you in understanding the existing construction of your walls.The trunking lid is good advice i am never without one.

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