Spur for additional socket, run cable on exterior of house?
Dec 16, 2014 13 Replies
J
Jon Parker
Afternoon all,
Is this allowed?
I've got to get an additional double socket installed in a bedroom. I plan to run a spur off an existing socket which is on the inside of the external brick wall.
I wondered if, to save chasing, I could simply run the new cabling along the outside of the house and then up and back through the external wall to feed the new socket? Is this allowed?
Regards Jon
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L
LumpHammer
I don't know if it's allowed, but it sounds like an ugly bodge. Could you use self-adhesive mini-trunking inside the room if chasing is a problem?
T
Tim Watts
There's nothing prohibiting it in general, subject to the usual "is the cable run in a material and a way suitable for the location". eg "if that part of the wall was likely to get clouted by the wheelbarrow on regular occasions" and similar considerations.
But I agree, it's a bit of a bodge when both ends of the cable terminate on the inside of the wall. But if I had to, I'd use a bit of 20mm conduit with single entry besa (round) boxes on each end where the cable goes through the wall - that would look fairly smart and offer a reasonable amount of protection.
B
bert
Is standard T&E vulnerable to UV light?
S
spuorgelgoog
Yes.
I agree with Mr Watts.
I knew someone who had their bath hot tap plumbed in a similar manner down the outside of the house from the airing cupboard ...
Owain
A
ARW
I suppose it could have been inslated with a pair of knickers.
N
newshound
To be fair, the energy loss may not be too bad, especially if it was
22mm. But I agree, it's a horrible thing to do.
A
Andrew Gabriel
It's not specifically protected against it, but many of us have had T&E exposed to the sun for multiple decades with no harm.
However, you can protect it with one or two coats of gloss paint (use top coat only - don't use gloss undercoat on PVC).
S
spuorgelgoog
It was OK once the hot was running through, but it made topping up the bath once in it rather difficult.
Owain
T
Tim Streater
You mean cos it froze outside and then melted and sprayed passers-by with hot water?
When we moved here all the phone and TV cable wiring was on the outside walls. I've had it all ripped off and rewired internally. We're slowly removing all the bodges that the previous owners did.
There's nothing more depressing than knowing that someone had no respect for a property and just bodged it.
B
Bill Wright
I did an outside light botch in 1978 and the grey cable is now starting to drop to bits on the south side of the house.
Bill
C
charles
my TV downlead is from 1978. Still works perfectly - on the south wall, too.
J
Jon Parker
Thanks chaps, I'll certainly look at running it through conduit. To be honest I hadn't considered that but it makes perfect sense of course.
Regards Jon
G
Gazz
Parents new (to them) bungalow has just that kind of thing,
I'd spotted the outside socket at the front of the house had an unusually long conduit run to it, going from one end of the lounge to the other with those round junction jobbies you use with conduit, a single entry one at the far end, and a double entry one near the socket, with about 8 inches of conduit from the double entry junction jobbie to the socket.... strange me thinks,
Turns out the last owners had just had the lounge re-plastered, then decorated with stupidly expensive wallpaper and all that, then one of them put a nail through the cable running between the sockets (f*ck knows what the nail was for, the cable ran about a foot above the floor level,
Anyway, it was easier and much cheaper to have the sockets re-wired externally, and an external socket added to make it look like that was the real reason for the conduit run.
I guess there was some reason they couldn't have used the external socket housing as the end of the conduit run? i.e. with the cable going back into the house through the back of the socket housing... with the relevant glands/conduit/big gobs of silicone.
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