Floor sockets

[Ramsman]

I want to install sockets in the floorboards in our living room. It is approximately 7x6 metres and has three sofas in a U arrangement more or less in the middle. There are square tables at the corners of the U. The idea is to have a 2-gang 13A socket with USB connectors under each table. They would be about 2m from the nearest wall.

Are hinged covers necessary, bearing in mind that they will be under tables? The problem is that I can?t find with such sockets with USB. I?d have to have a third 1G for plugging a charger into.

If they need to be covered, would a box be a better idea? I could then use ?ordinary? 13A sockets. Unsightly (although under the tables) and quite a bit more expensive, plus big cutouts spanning the floorboards.

Another option would be flat plate sockets in a shallow recess, to make them flush with the floor.

Would back boxes be required? This is the ground floor, with only about

30 cm of space under the floorboards.

[spuorgelgoog]

You might get away without hinged covers in a domestic setting.

Back boxes will always be required.

If you want hinged covers on the 13A sockets, you can get USB charging sockets on a faceplate without an associated 13A socket eg

or something like this

which as it comes with a 13A plug may require connecting via a fused connection unit to a socket circuit.

Owain

[Ramsman]

Thanks for the response Owain. I'd seen both of those, but they're not quite what I'm looking for.

[Scott]

I would not fancy this whatsoever. What if the furniture moves, you move, you need a new carpet, somebody goes mad with the vacuum cleaner etc?

Anyway I thought sockets were supposed to be 1 metre above floor level for disability regulations.

[Ramsman]

No carpet. It's varnished floorboards in a barn conversion. Highly unlikely that the furniture layout will change, and we plan to stay here forever. Anyway, they can always be removed and the floor restored.

Floor sockets are permitted.

[Steve]

Any use?

[Roger Hayter]

You could arrange them a few cm deep, with a well-fitting plug of floor material to cover them when or if not in use.

[Vir Campestris]

I don't see how you could restore the floor so that you can't see where they were. Even if the hole is an exact board width, you'll still end up with a very short board (for the patch) and some sort of colour mismatch.

Andy

[Ramsman]

Now that's what I call a good idea. Thanks! We're planning to have the entire floor (and others) renovated anyway, so I can work something out before that happens.

[John Rumm]

General purpose sockets need to be 450mm above the floor to comply with part M, however existing buildings don't necessarily need to comply.

Floor sockets however are not general purpose sockets so would not need to comply anyway IMHO.

[Tim Streater]

All properly equipped offices will have floor pockets for distribution of power, phone, and network.

[John Rumm]

Actually I did this a short while ago and was planning to do something for the wiki - but never got round to it. However I do have a couple of photos.

They are conventional, but there are no explicit rules that say you must have them.

Floor boxes are ok on carpeted floors... you might get away with them in laminate if you can insert a cut piece into the lid like you would a bit of carpet.

Yes back boxes are essential - preferably metal in this application.

In my case I made up a support frame from timber to hold a normal metal back box at the height I required, dropped that into the floor void through my hole, and then screwed down through the top of the boards into the battens on the frame:

(spot the fluky git who managed to pick the exact place on the floor which had the cable for the socket ring circuit running right past it! ;-)

[John Rumm]

Yup, if you have a proper suspended floor even better.

(although I have one customer with a decent in floor installation, which got nibbled by mice, and that made for some interesting cable reliability problems!)

[T i m]

And domestic studies (well, one flush double mains socket, under the desk) as per my mates house. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Tjoepstil]

let's see: the PC, the router, the printer, the server, the phone charger, the desk lamp...one flush double mains socket? Lol!

[T i m]

Or, on the desk, just the laptop and phone charger, with all the other stuff elsewhere in the study / house. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[tabbypurr]

with no cover, every time you put a plug in a quantity of dirt falls into t he socket. It would soon become an unreliable fire hazard.

use a multiway extension lead, then no usb sockets required in the floor

Yes, back boxes stop spread of fire. Use metal as the whole thing may get t rodden on.

NT

[Brian Gaff]

Would be very interesting if ever the property flooded I'd imagine.

Brian

[spuorgelgoog]

Or if you get an incontinent puppy (that may be a tautology)

Owain

[Ramsman]

Indeed it would. The cables from the CU already run under the floor.

The nearest watercourse is a deep ditch about 100m away. Fed by springs in the hills south of the village, and we're some way away from and above the nearest flood hazard according to the Environment Agency.