Just six inches

[ColJack]

the safe zone extends horizontally from the switch as well as up and down, so providing the conduit terminates within the horizontal zone then no cover is required and your original idea is viable. ( depending on your interpretation you may need to earth the conduit if you don't consider it as satisfying the requirements for mechanical protection. )

ideally of course relocating the conduit so it is vertically above and directly feeding the backbox is preferable..

with regards to the coving and channeling behind it, a channeling bit for an sds drill is ideal, it's cranked and will go behind quite nicely..

alternatively you could hammer a screwdriver / rod etc through the plaster and up into the floor void ( behind the coving ) to locate it, then channel the last bit out from above if you can get access..

 

[BriantheNail]

Thank you for the diagrams Skenk - makes the situation even clearer.

Mikeyd, the cable is grey sheathed twin (no earth wire) as its to a light switch only

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Oval metal conduit.... Lighting circuit with no earth....

These are strong indicators of an installation "of a certain age" - it would be prudent to have it all inspected.

Oh - and under no circumstances must you use metal light switches, or any light fittings which require an earth connection.

 

[ricicle]

Nor use metal screws if the back box doesn't have insulated lugs...

 

[Steve]

If its standard plasterboard coving, its dead easy to cut a piece out, then later replace it. In my new house the previous owner had a "canopy" thing above the bed, removed it, and left two 3 inch gaps in the coving. I went to B&Q, got a length of coving, cut 2 bits off the end, sanded to shape, and glued them in with adhesive. Easy.

 

[BriantheNail]

I appreciate the caveats regarding h&s and modern practices, but sometimes I wonder if the powers that be are taking away our basic human rights to kill ourself.

What I find odd is that when I put a door from the house into my integral garage, I had to fit a fire door:

But how many fires occur in an attached garage compared to in a kitchen (chip pans for example)?

Yet there is no requirement to have a fire door on a kitchen................

 

[ban-all-sheds]

No, but there is little expectation of you storing several 10's of l of highly inflammable liquid in the kitchen....

And on the whole, the regulations concerning concealed cables are aimed at preventing you from killing other people, which is something you never had a basic human right to do.

 

[BriantheNail]

good answer - a point easily overlooked

 

[ColJack]

And on the whole, the regulations concerning concealed cables are aimed at preventing you from killing other people, which is something you never had a basic human right to do.

says who?
I have every right to kill someone who I deem is an immediate threat to my own life or that of people I love.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Actually you don't.

But in this case I was talking about dangerous wiring practices.

 

[ColJack]

so you're telling me that if there's some nutter comming at me with a big sword with every intention of lopping off my head, I have to stand there and take it? that I don't have the right to pick up a weapon and try and kill him before he kills me?

what utter *******s..

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I have every right to kill someone who I deem is an immediate threat to my own life or that of people I love.

If armed police are legitimately trying to apprehend you they might indeed be an immediate threat to your own life, but you would not have the right to kill them.

An in general terms, in any situation, if a court disagrees with your determination, you will be officially informed that you did not have the right to kill.

 

[BriantheNail]

But what about my conduit guys?

Please check:

What I said was, regardless of storing 2000 lbs of nitroglycerine in my garage, how many garage fires have you heard of compared to those which start in the kitchen?

thank you

 

[ColJack]

my mates garage and 4 others burnt down.
something went wrong on his car ( no idea what.. ) and it caught fire, taking out the rest of the row ( detatched garages nowhere near the house mind.. )

 

[ColJack]

I have every right to kill someone who I deem is an immediate threat to my own life or that of people I love.

If armed police are legitimately trying to apprehend you they might indeed be an immediate threat to your own life, but you would not have the right to kill them.

An in general terms, in any situation, if a court disagrees with your determination, you will be officially informed that you did not have the right to kill.

but that's the point, they're not an imediate threat, they won't open fire unless i provoke them..
from their prospective I'm the threat to them, and they DO have the right to defend themselves against me..

take this resent nutter in cumbria..
driving down the road shooting people at random.
if I was in my car and saw what he was doing I would have been well within my rights to drive my car into his with the express intent to injur or kill him outright to stop him. Had someone done so they would probably have been hailed as a hero and not vilainised at all..