No, I think I have some somewhere , when I find one Ill take a pic for clarity
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Horizontal safe zone with 'dry lining' back boxes
- Thread starter JohnW2
- Start date
The sockets/accessories, are always little larger than the box behind it, so in your troublesome example - you would still have some space around the perimeter of the box, in which to 'sneak' a cable around, and safely back to the middle of the safe zone.
As you say, I suppose it'd 'debatable'. However, from the (non-electrician) person with a drill or hammer/nails in their hand is probably likely to go by "what they can see" and if that is actually a 'finger plate' (which they might well not even realise is not part of the faceplate), that's probably what they will regard as defining the 'zone' (if they've heard of such things
).Kind Regards, John
True, provided one didn't mind an extremely tight 90° bend in the cable.
Sorry, I thought I read yours Mrs was Irish so assumed a greater knowledge than might have been justified.
Except, dressed properly, there is no need for it to be tight.
Perhaps. I haven't got time at the moment but will probably reply at greater length later.
Goodness, you must have a very good memory - I can't remember when/why I mentioned that here
My wife is, indeed, half-Irish (mother was Irish), but she was born in England, and has spent her entire life to date in England, and I don't recall her every having used the word (if she even knows it!). However, as I said, I'm slightly familiar with word, not the least because her mother, when she was alive, occasionally used it!
The brick wall which, as I've explained, rendered it totally daft that I had contemplated using a plasterboard box in the first place, would (without a lot of brick-destroying effort) preclude using 'a deeper box'.
Yes I agree, that is my position, the standard socket, the smallest permissible one that could fit sets the zone boundary therefore whichever BS rated socket fits the box and is ever likely to be used sets the zone dimensions.
Oversize sockets would not normally dictate the zone unless one could be absolutely sure that in all events that oversize socket size will be maintained. That would be impossible to ensure with any certainty.
PS - This is one type we were speaking about that might be named a pattress or plinth etc, the ones I used in the passed had squarish corners internal and were made of darker wood and went well with brass faceplate, I favoured the "Georgian" type ropy effect edge faceplates over the "Edwardian" type personally, but you get the idea.
Incidentally I would never have imagined that they dictate zone dimensions because they are optional and not a part of the faceplate.
Conversely, if sockets were always universally mounted with faceplates with no exceptions by all and sundry then yes I would then probably accet that dictate the zone.
That is my perception of things, others may disagree though.
PPS - I have never put a cable outside the edge of the metal backbox even though it might be possible to do so within my perception of a zone described by a faceplate, that would be pushing it rather to the extreme wouldn't it?
You might, conceivably, put a piece of 1mm T&E sideways and bend it 90 degrees around an outer edge but I would not even consider that as professional for several reasons, including the bend would need to be too sharp for one thing.
If I were to mark a wall for zones I would draw around such backbox and draw lines, horizontal/vertical/to the wall`s corners then chase to the lines and no further then use a clip to secure the cable with the "pin end" nearest the line, keep the cable fairly straight and it would never stray beyond the marked zone , similarly with capping the extreme edge of the capping within the zone.
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If I see an electric shower fitted on a bathroom wall then my first assumption would be that the width and height of the shower heater box unit dictates zones where pipes and cables might reasonably be hidden therefore do not drill or nail within such zones, it would take me something better than a bog standard cable/pipe locator to convince me it might be safe to go within that zone.
I once came across a local authority grant job officer who was overkeen with zones and was insisting to the electrician on site that where cable backbox holes had a cable exiting to the corresponding hole on the next backbox was the "zone he wanted the cable to run to" I quietly told him that where the permitted zones actually were and he changed his tune sufficiently from insisting to preferring if possible.
I once came across a local authority grant job officer who was overkeen with zones and was insisting to the electrician on site that where cable backbox holes had a cable exiting to the corresponding hole on the next backbox was the "zone he wanted the cable to run to" I quietly told him that where the permitted zones actually were and he changed his tune sufficiently from insisting to preferring if possible.
I'm not totally sure about that. I'm going to ask this question in two stages ....
... firstly, if you were a man with a drill in your hand and saw this on a wall, would you (like, I imagine,most people) believe that this accessory created vertical and horizonal 'zones' (where you should not drill!) equal in breadth and height to the breadth and height of the accessory?
I totally agree, but only because of the application of common sense to what would otherwise be a 'strict rule'.. The problem then becomes the question of 'where does one stop?' - if we agree about your yellow mark, what about my orange one, or my blue one, or ..... ?
'Knowing where to stop' is always an issue with potentially 'creeping' applications of common sense. Take speed limits. We might agree that driving at 71 mph in a 70 mph zone is not something to worry about. So if 71 is OK, then what about 72? - and if 72 is OK, what about 73 etc. etc
.However, this wasn't my point. I'm waiting for ebee to answer my "Question 1" before I move to Q2
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