Outside house lights without wires showing

[JohnW2]

This is why wire coat hangers were invented. Another solution is to stuff a loop of earth sleeving through the hole, then drop the chain onto it.

Indeed - but have you ever actually done this?

I have, on a number of occasions, and I now have less hair as a result . If all one has is, say, a half-inch hole in the brick to work through, life is not at all easy. Indeed, if, as is quite often the case, one is dropping one's string/chain/whatever through the cavity from nearly two storeys above, it's a challenge in itself to get the string/chain to be anywhere near the hole below! ... or maybe you are much better at it than I am!

Kind Regards, John

 

[RF Lighting]

It’s a bit like using cable rods. It’s a skill you learn and with practice it gets much easier to get things where you need them. Also having a few things like a dentists mirror, various sized rods with hooks, stiff wire, serrated padsaw blade, magnets etc really helps.

I think my best shot was from a 20mm hole through the back of a socket in a loft conversion in a Victorian house and back out a 50mm hole in the cellar four floors away.

 

[JohnW2]

It’s a bit like using cable rods. It’s a skill you learn and with practice it gets much easier to get things where you need them. Also having a few things like a dentists mirror, various sized rods with hooks, stiff wire, serrated padsaw blade, magnets etc really helps.

Yes, I have all such thinks, but, as you say, it must be a lot of experience which makes you good at it! With all the aids available to me, I have 'had fun' when trying to operate though, say, 15mm-20mm holes!

I think my best shot was from a 20mm hole through the back of a socket in a loft conversion in a Victorian house and back out a 50mm hole in the cellar four floors away.

Ah, 50mm moves the goalposts a fair way - I might not struggle too much with that - but one doesn't really want to be putting a 50mm hole through an outside wall for a light feed (per OP)!

Kind Regards, John

 

[RF Lighting]

For an outside light you drill the 20mm hole at the light and the 50mm hole where the wiring is coming into building - normally under the floorboards or in the loft etc. Somewhere where it can be hidden.

There’s knacks to routing cables both up and down cavities

 

[JohnW2]

For an outside light you drill the 20mm hole at the light and the 50mm hole where the wiring is coming into building - normally under the floorboards or in the loft etc. Somewhere where it can be hidden. ... There’s knacks to routing cables both up and down cavities

I was thinking of the 'loft' scenario and (per the recent discussions) 'dropping something down' the cavity, rather than 'pushing something (rods or whatever) up'. That would involve 'fishing' for the string/whatever trough the (lower) 20mm hole, which I don't think I'd find easy.

However, as you've said, I don't doubt that "practice makes (something approaching!) perfect", and I personally certainly haven't had a lot of practice.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Tigercubrider]

I wonder if some of those super efficient magnets would help. I have run a wire upwards through a cavity from a conservatory to under a bath by shoving a noose into the cavity and snagging the end

Neodymium (?) magnets might help a dropped string be attracted to a fishing device at the bottom?

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

...or to any wall tie?...

 

[bruce225]

Thanks guys might have a think on garden up lighters or lights in soffits when the time comes

 

[sparkwright]

Indeed - but have you ever actually done this?

I have, on a number of occasions, and I now have less hair as a result . If all one has is, say, a half-inch hole in the brick to work through, life is not at all easy. Indeed, if, as is quite often the case, one is dropping one's string/chain/whatever through the cavity from nearly two storeys above, it's a challenge in itself to get the string/chain to be anywhere near the hole below! ... or maybe you are much better at it than I am!

Kind Regards, John

What? Hooked out a draw wire with a bit of old coat hanger?
Yes, hundreds and hundreds of times.

As you indicate, not much fun at all, and hard work if you're on your own.

Every now and again you get one that's 'too' easy - no doubt mostly luck.

Horizontal cavity fishes can be tedious too - some narrow oval conduit with a draw wire threaded through it is my usual method.

Soul destroying work, yet equally rewarding when it's done.

 

[JohnW2]

What? Hooked out a draw wire with a bit of old coat hanger? Yes, hundreds and hundreds of times.

Through a small hole (say 15-20mm)?

As you indicate, not much fun at all, and hard work if you're on your own.

As RF has said, it obviously gets easier with practice/experience - so, if you have done it 'hundreds and hundreds of times', you ought to be pretty good at it by now!

As I've said, in my limited experience (mainly when trying to do it 'on my own') a lot of the 'fun' can be in getting the string/whatever anywhere near the hole through which one wants to hook it!

Kind Regards, John

 

[sparkwright]

Yes, nearly always a 20mm hole.

Often one would be drilled through an existing metal back box, so you would remove the knockout and drill a 20mm hole. Anything bigger would be irksome. No one wants to start making bigger holes in metal back boxes.

It does get easier (mostly) and you do get more ambitious at attempting the impossible.

Wall ties are the enemy.

 

[JohnW2]

Often one would be drilled through an existing metal back box, so you would remove the knockout and drill a 20mm hole. Anything bigger would be irksome. No one wants to start making bigger holes in metal back boxes.

All true, but what we've been talking about here is a hole through the outer leaf of a cavity wall, where one would rarely find a back box.

It does get easier (mostly) and you do get more ambitious at attempting the impossible. Wall ties are the enemy.

Certainly one of the enemies. I've never lived in anything other than an old, or very old, house, and the wall cavities (when they exist - none in my present house, just 13½" or 18" thick solid brick!) are often full of assorted rubbish - not just 'rubble', but squashed cans, bit of beer bottles, fag packets and goodness knows what else!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Notch7]

I presume it's not posssible to run the cable around internally below the plaster (say in a new extension) and go out through an external light......because that cable wouldn't be in a safe zone?

A house a few doors up, owned by an electrician has just had an extension done and he has cables poking out for external wall lights.....which I presume must be in the cavity

 

[sparkwright]

All true, but what we've been talking about here is a hole through the outer leaf of a cavity wall, where one would rarely find a back box.
Certainly one of the enemies. I've never lived in anything other than an old, or very old, house, and the wall cavities (when they exist - none in my present house, just 13½" or 18" thick solid brick!) are often full of assorted rubbish - not just 'rubble', but squashed cans, bit of beer bottles, fag packets and goodness knows what else!

Kind Regards, John

Well, again for outside lights I usually use a 20mm hole, if only to allow maximum space to get some fixings in the wall for the light fitting.

Quite often, particularly on bungalows, you can drill a 20mm hole from the outside at a very steep upward angle, and then push the cable rods up.

If a bungalow, you will often have the advantage of a big open cavity in the loft.

A cable rod with the end snapped off makes a good rod to start with.

Also, a rod with the end snapped off but with a 6 inch piece of 1.0 mm2 T+E will also pass up the cavity surprisingly well.

 

[JohnW2]

Quite often, particularly on bungalows, you can drill a 20mm hole from the outside at a very steep upward angle, and then push the cable rods up.

Yes, that was one of the earliest suggestions in this thread, and I imagine that it is one of the more promising possible approaches.

Kind Regards, John