plastering cable directly

mariodiy · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:41 pm Post Subject: plastering cable directly

I\\\'ve removed a skirting board and placed an electricity cable where the cavity is, to feed a jacuzzi bath. I have now plastered directly over the cable without putting in any kind of conduit...is this safe, or do I really need to dig it out and install conduit?

Lectrician · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:27 pm Post Subject:

Aslong as you have run it inside a wiring zone, it is fine.

I wiring zone is defined by an accessory mounted on a wall (socket, switch, blank plate). A safe wiring zone is vertically above and below a accessory, the width of the accessory, and also horizontally left to right as above.

You may also run cables in safe zones which are 150mm from any ajoining walls (internal corners of a room), and where the wall meets the ceiling.

If you want to run outside these safe zones, you need to bury the cable deeper than 2" (and make sure it is 2" deep from the reverse side!), or install the cable in earthed conduit or similar. You can also directly cover cables with a metalic armouring or concentric construction, such as SPLIT concentric cables, SWA cables, MI, FP etc

Ratter · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:43 pm Post Subject:

You might want to think about whether you might ever want to remake a connection or extend the cable run - if you put the cable direct in plaster you cannot pull through a bit of slack if you need it or pull through a longer cable.

mariodiy · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:53 pm Post Subject:

Thanks folks - I've adhered to the safe wiring zone limitation and I don't think I'll ever want to move the cable.

I really wanted to know if there was any danger of the cable overheating or the like, as might be the case when installing loft insulation on top of electrical cabling?

As long as it's safe in this respect, I don't mind about other issues.

Cheers, Mario