Chasing cable in Lath & Plaster wall.

[Steve335]

Hi I'm getting a room skimmed over tomorrow.

I currently have a wire that is external fixed in trunking parallel with the door frame so doesn't look to bad...

I was going to try and chase it into the wall but a trial cut shows its lath and plaster.

Would you bother?

I'm thinking cutting through the horizontal laths probably isn't a good idea...

Any tips?!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Echo the husky]

As a general rule, you would cut only a hole at the top and bottom of the wall and above/below any noggins to get past those, then fish the cable through. What cable is it? If it is a mains cable you may need to follow some installation requirements. If it is extra low voltage such as an aerial cable etc. crack on. Cutting through all the laths all the way up will not end well. I sure as hell wouldn't have mini trunking on my newly plastered wall though.

 

[rsgaz]

only a hole at the top and bottom of the wall and above/below any noggins to get past those

Yep

And if there is a loft above that ceiling and there are no noggings, you can drill down through the top plate of the wall and fish the cable directly to a plasterboard back box cutout, without cutting out an access hole at the top of the wall at all.

Gaz

 

[Echo the husky]

Even better! If I still had my long hand auger with extension shafts I could drill through the noggings from the loft, part of it became detached one day and is now in a stud wall somewhere.

 

[rsgaz]

I could drill through the noggings from the loft

Yeah, I have 8 feet of those quick chuck hex extensions for doing exactly that, not just the rubbish magnetic ones, the ones with the pull back collar/sleeve. And also a 1/4 hex arbour for putting holesaws on the end too, for when a flat spade bit hits a screw or something.

Gaz

 

[Echo the husky]

That's posh, I had the old square end augers and extensions, with a wooden T handle to manually drill down through!

 

[Steve335]

It's an electrical cable following some remedials last year. I can't cut it to fish it behind so I guess I'm stuck with trunking.

 

[Steve335]

As a general rule, you would cut only a hole at the top and bottom of the wall and above/below any noggins to get past those, then fish the cable through. What cable is it? If it is a mains cable you may need to follow some installation requirements. If it is extra low voltage such as an aerial cable etc. crack on. Cutting through all the laths all the way up will not end well. I sure as hell wouldn't have mini trunking on my newly plastered wall though.

It's an upstairs kids bedroom so not a major issue re. aesthetics.

 

[sparkwright]

If the cable goes from floor to ceiling (hence why you talking about cutting the cable) then this may be a bit awkward.

Does the trunking go over the skirting board too, or does the cable run behind the skirting board?

Had there been a socket or accessory in line with this cable, you could have perhaps got away with sinking the cable into the plaster.

The cable would be better behind unbroken laths though, to reduce the risk of the plaster cracking, and it's less likely the cable could ever get drilled through.

See safe cable zone diagrams.

If you do decide it's all too much effort, you could at least remove the trunking, make sure it's all neatly plastered, then put the trunking back.

This way the cable could be fished in at a much later date, without having a dreadful patch on the wall where the trunking was plastered round.

Maybe you know an electrician who could quickly re-route this cable for you...

 

[Steve335]

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the help.

I removed the trunking prior to plastering and will just refit smaller trunking for now and as suggested look at other options next time I have a sparky in.

It's skirting board to ceiling but you only really notice the section that is proud of the door frame