New Cables in attic and over plasterboard not clipped to joists - legal in Part P

[DICEGEORGE]

I'm replacing old rubber lights cables with new grey ones, stringing them over the plasterboard ceiling where they used to be.

And in the attic I'm laying them along the floor where the old ones were.

But looking at my Yellow On Site Guide page 69 Table 7.1.(ii) (Installation reference method) I can't find these methods.

Or is it B (Enclosed in conduit or trunking on a wall etc?

Or to pass a Part P inspection 17 or 17A3 do all or some of them have to be clipped to the joists?

thanks [George]

[ARW]

I cannot see anything wrong with cables laid on top of a plasterboard ceiling.

Cover them with insulation and its reference method 100 or 101 (depending on how much insulation you use)

[Iggy]

replying to DICEGEORGE, Iggy wrote: Actually, if you have a floor atop the timbers, then the floor has to come up and the wires drilled and/or clipped accordingly within and to the timbers...like any fully enclosed structural members. If the plasterboard was just on the bottom and nothing atop the timbers, then it's fine to lay the wires atop the timbers since there's no normal or expected avenue for wire damage. However, Inspectors usually want to see them stapled sparingly to avoid sag or movement into a hazardous situation and that they can't be accidentally pulled from fixtures.

[John Rumm]

Table 4A2 in the full regs has a specific entry for single-core or multi core cable in a ceiling void, or in a suspended ceiling. Its says treat as method B (i.e. as in conduit on a wall)

Not when supported on the ceiling etc.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Which inspectors would this be? How can a cable sag when laid across a ceiling? How does a cable get pulled from a fixture when between a floor and ceiling? Have you any experience of the mechanical strength of TW&E? To do any damage would require the force of an idiot.

[ARW]

I can assure you that 10mm T&E cannot be used as an emergency tow rope for a Fiesta!

[NY]

LOL

Nor can hosepipe. When my car got bogged down in soft ground when I was visiting a client the other year, he fetched a neighbour and his 4x4 to pull me out. My tow-rope, fastened around the neighbour's towing hitch and the towing eye that I screwed into the towing point on my car, was not very long and we decided that once he got my car going, it may shoot back into his vehicle. So we needed a longer piece of rope. And my client produced a length of soft plastic hosepipe and asked if that would do to lengthen the tow-rope. I'm sure he was being 100% serious, rather than facetious. I'll never forget the eyes-skywards, some-mothers-do-have-them look that the neighbour gave me. :-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

;-)