New wiring behind skirting boards?

If it's an earthed protective barrier complying with relevant BS / EN standards (like conduit)

Sockets can be in skirting boards if

- there's enough height from the floor the flex from the plug won't be kinked or crushed

- the sockets won't be kicked or bashed by vac cleaners etc

- the back box comes tight up to the front face of the skirting so the socket is fully enclosed in non-combustible enclosure

Owain

If you have a suspended wood floor, I'd say it would be more work to run the cable behind skirting boards. Making them fit neatly after removing is far more difficult than re-laying floorboards. It will also cost you more in cable.

And as a short-term bodge I've been known when replacing a socket in skirting board to fit it upside down. I expect that is a very naughty thing to do - although I'm not sure why if the plugs are moulded on (so no IP rating problems) and I've never seen manufacturer's literature mandate "this way up" for sockets:)

Quite. I don't think it's really a bodge, it's more just going against convention.

Other countries don't seem to be as anal about this. Also, if you look at a selection of wall-warts you are likley to find some from the Far East with labels stuck on in such a way as to suggest the manufacturer thought our earth pin pointed down.

I've got wall warts with the cable exit on top and underneath. Usually the wrong way for where it is used.

Dave Plowman (News) submitted this idea :

Just for completeness - You can also buy floor outlet sockets, as often used in office premises.

They just fit in a hole cut in the floor, usually concrete, but...

Its to stop the idiot that nails and screws things to skirting boards. Brian

When we moved into our last house it needed a re-wire with quite a number o f sockets mounted on surface boxes secured onto the skirting. The inserting and extraction of plugs caused much of the skirting to move this in turn c aused the wiring to move against the floorboards and quite a few were worn through the outer insulation and nearly through the inner insulation. All t he skirting trunking I have seen does not allow the mounting of sockets in the trunking instead they are mounted directly above the skirting trunking.

Richard

Owain

I'd be worried about the standard of construction of the rest of the house if inserting and removing plugs from a skirting mounted socket causes the skirting to move. ;-)

Regards Dado trunking, well it's name implies where it is ideally used. The photos provided as evidence of its use as skirting trunking amply demonstr ate why it should not be used this way it's profile puts the various socket s and the connectors that go in them right in the firing line for vacuum cl eaners, furniture and somebody's size 10s. Just because it can be used this way is not necessarily best practice.

The Kent trunking I concede is a dedicated skirting trunking but it must be about 200mm tall, low profile and the sockets are mounted in the upper hal f certainly above the height of the sort of skirting found in most modern h ousing. Tower have a skirting system which is a direct replacement for mode rn skirting but supply adaptors to allow cables to exit the trunking into s ockets mounted in surface boxes above the skirting trunking.

Richard

Actually it's only 150 mm tall and 35mm deep.

Owain

OK the sockets can go a foot vertically above the skirting in the wall, cables coming down to behind the skirting, so no risk of movement or fire and all wiring is in permitted zones, but i still dont know what kind of steel conduit to use or a steel strip over the cable behind the old wooden skirting?

( The fool who might later drill or nail through the skirting is me! )

Photo of the beams and old wires here:

I dont want to cut or drill into the oak joists if at all possible, but slipping the wires in the gap between warped rafters and the floorboards doesnt seem right to me.