Workshop Wiring - Prep work before Electrician

In the process of purchasing a timber garage which will be used exclusively as a workshop. I am trying to do as much as possible on my own and have just finished compacting the hardcore prior to concrete pouring (yet to be arranged).

formatting link
I'd like to do now is dig a trench for a run of armoured cable from the house to the workshop. I'd like to dig the trench and order the cable and perhaps a CU?? for the workshop along with several metal sockets and the internal wiring requirements. The workshop will require 1 strip light and 3 or 4 double sockets - mainly for power tools etc.

My plan is:

Dig a trench approx 600mm deep from house to workshop

Order 25m of armoured cable (not sure which one?)

formatting link
Order CU for workshop
formatting link
Order 3 of these
formatting link
Order this for workshop cabling
formatting link
Order warning tape for trench

Not sure which light fitting to use in a workshop? > Not sure what to protection to use for cable when underground?

After all this I'm going to contact an electrician to quote me for connecting it all up to the CU in the house! (there are some things I am not prepared to do at this stage in my quest to learn all things DIY!!). I expect people to say "let the electrician get all this for you" but I'd rather do it myself (pun?) - I feel I'll learn more this way ;o)

If anyone in their wisdom could check over my shopping list I'd appreciate it

Thanks Jonni

Reply to
jonni
Loading thread data ...

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:44:25 GMT, "jonni" strung together this:

Yep, 450mm -600mm will be ample. Common sense really is all that's needed, if its going somewhere where it's unlikely that there'll be a shovel being shoved in the ground then 450mm will suffice.

use the 4mm if it were me.

formatting link
?ts=18460&id=63138>> Order 3 of these

sockets. Might be cheaper for the electrician to supply this if you're not going to need the whole lot.

Depends what you want, I'd use flourescent battens. Depending on the layout I would conveniently site several smaller fittings rather than a couple of large ones centrally.

None, SWA is perfectly fine for direct burial.

Ah, in that case with regard to the internal cabling for the workshop then you may be better of buying what you need by the metre from a diy store, depends what the saving is between that and buying complete drums from screrwfix. You could always give the excess from the drums to the electrician in exchange for a couple of quid off the bill! It's probably worth you calling the electrician first to see what size MCB\fuse is going to be fitted at the house end to size the SWA for the run to the workshop, although 4mm should be fine for what you will need in there.

Reply to
Lurch

Ok.

garage. What is the rating of the MCB in your main CU which is going to feed the workshop? 32A?

This gives an answer to the question I posed above. You'll need 3 core

4mm cable (14535).

sockets. I would use 4mm T&E in a radia circuit.

Also think about a) how the cable will be protected, and b) how it will enter/exit the metal socket cases. I'd suggest some 20mm round conduit (screwfix 12389) and appropriate adaptors (screwfix 11010). Don't forget clips for clipping it to the walls (screwfix 13093).

Ok.

Fluorescent is good.

Don't forget a light switch.

None required.

Good luck.

Reply to
Grunff

exclusively

appreciate

Might it not be worth increasing the trench depth a little and burying 1 or

2 plastic drainage type pipes? From experience I know that these projects, like Topsy, can just grow & grow! Not too far hence you may want a LAN connection, or a phone line, or a water supply. Just my tuppence worth

Sunbeam

Reply to
Sunbeam

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated - good to know I wasn't too far out! - and thanks to Grunff for reminding me about the light switch!.......... doh!

Jonni

Reply to
jonni

I would suggest going for more than one light if you are going to be using power tools in there. It helps if you have light from several directions so that you never end up working in your shaddow.

Judging by the size of the base I would expect four or five 5' strip lights!

Reply to
John Rumm

Off the top of my head (and thus in no particular order):

Place the workbench along the major axis of the building so that you can deal with long lengths of (say) wood in any bench vice.

Twenty quid was the cost of a 700mm by 2400mm sheet of twinwall polycarbonate that I bought a month or so ago to install in the flat roof above my own workbench - you can't beat natural light.

The consumer unit will cover lights and sockets but some day you might want to put (god forbid :-) a freezer in the building thus an RCD protected supply might not be the best for such an appliance. So a small four-way consumer unit might be better.

Run extra cables and/or a length of string in cheap 40mm drain piping along with your mains supply cable to the workshop. Wrap the drain piping in some stripey tape to warn the next punter whats in the pipe.

The extra cabling for alarm, intercom, wired network access, wired phone extension, etc etc.

Use four-core for the mains feed - this allows switching of a separate line from the house - you may want to switch a shed-mounted light from the house, or you may want to switch off a shed-mounted PIR security light on a windy night when the light switches on and off regularly.

Rainwater barrel to collect the runoff from the roof?

HTH

Mungo

P.S. Silly question, but do you plan to bolt the shed to the concrete base? If you dont, you run the risk of losing the shed when damaging storm winds blow. Add some anchor points before you pour the concrete?

Will you be using some sort of polythene membrane over the hardcore before pouring the concrete?

Keep the hardcore about 50mm short of the shuttering boards so that the concrete goes down the full face of the shuttering boards and thus it forms a complete cap over the hardcore (when you remove the shuttering boards you shouldn't be able to see hardcore at all).

Reply to
Mungo Henning

I'd suggest running a plastic pipe with rope threaded through for stuff you think of afterwards (phone, doorbell, network, TV aerial etc. etc....) - blue water pipe perhaps. ..and maybe water as well while you're at it....

I ran 4" soil to my workshop and it's now getting really hard to pull more stuff through....!

Reply to
Mike Harrison

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:38:58 GMT, Mike Harrison strung together this:

afterwards

I hope you aren't suggesting running a blue pipe across to the workshop for the cables to go in, blue is for water, black is for power, yellow is for gas, some other colours including green, purple and grey are for communication cables.

Reply to
Lurch

of afterwards

Blue pipe is probably the cheapest and most readily available thing. I don't think using the correct colour is of any importance in a domestic garden.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 13:48:05 GMT, Mike Harrison strung together this:

Well, I was only saying there's a right way and there's your way! ;-) I personally couldn't care less what you put under the garden, but people come here to ask for the correct way of doing things, if they didn't want to know how to do it properly, they wouldn't bother asking in the first place.

Reply to
Lurch

Indeed, or a little railway system to bring you things from the kitchen. :)

Beginning to wish I'd gone for more than 40mm conduit to the garage - and it's empty at the moment. I realise now that 60mm would have been far nicer to put water in.

With 2*2.5mm t+e (easier than pulling 6mm), 2* coax (satellite, and FM/UHF (to resite dish and antennae)), it's getting a bit tight. Not to mention that I meant to add, but forgot about some old 50 pair phone cable, that might be handy.

50/60mm would have been lots easier.

Though this way of thinking tends to lead to the realisation that it'd be much easier if you put in larger pipe, with internal lights, so you could crawl into it and play with the cabling out of the rain.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

availability, safety

time, money or

are no appreciable

If you do something like this in a non standard way then it can become a safety issue for somebody coming along later who is not aware of what was done.

For example, I could wire with live on the green and yellow wire and neutral on the red. As long as I remember what has been done, then there is no safety issue. Somebody else may have a different experience.

I agree with Lurch on this point. If there is a standard published way to do something, especially with electricity, it is there for a reason and should be followed. There are always bodges and generally the cost and effort between doing a job properly and bodging it is very little. Running power cables in blue water pipe can be described in no other way than a bodge.

One is free to do whatever one likes as long as one is prepared to accept the consequences.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Reply to
Andy Hall

I'm sure most people are after the most pragmatic solution, in terms of cost, availability, safety and a whole host of other criteria, and few would consider spending any additional time, money or effort to make something 'correct' just for the sake of being correct where there are no appreciable safety or other concerns.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

"Ian Stirling" wrote | > Not too far hence you may want a LAN connection, or a phone line, | > or a water supply. | Indeed, or a little railway system to bring you things from the kitchen. | :) .... | Though this way of thinking tends to lead to the realisation that | it'd be much easier if you put in larger pipe, with internal lights, | so you could crawl into it and play with the cabling out of the rain.

Add some barbed wire fences, searchlights and alsations roaming about the garden to keep out the local lowlife ... Were you a prisoner-of-war in a former life ;-)

Owain

Reply to
Owain

availability, safety

time, money or

are no appreciable

Of course I agree that this would be a clear safety issue, and should be done correctly.

I never suggested running power cables in blue pipe - the OP said he was running armoured for power, which I would agree with, and I suggested blue pipe for everything else : phone, data etc., so there is no safety issue.

In the overall case, placing warning tape above the trench would be far more important than what services were what colour, to alert any potential digger that there is 'something' there.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

Not to my knowledge. :)

Reply to
Ian Stirling

armoured for power,

data etc., so

Blue pipe is intended for water. There are numerous other pipe types around that are the appropriate colours for communications services.

important than what

There is a specific yellow and black one for electricity.

It is important to use the correct colours for the appropriate services.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Reply to
Andy Hall

Out of interest, what would a 4-inch red pipe be used for? Never seen that before AFAICR. One is being installed the length of my street at the moment.

David

Reply to
Lobster

armoured for power,

data etc., so

But the blue stuff is probably much more readily available, and probably cheaper in DIY quantities, therefore it would be entirely reasonable and appropriate to use it in this circumstance.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.