Chasing concrete walls

[1andrea]

I have just bought a ground floor flat and the wall and floors are solid concrete.

Does anyone know what will be the best thing to use to chase out the walls and ceiling for a rewire? The electrician wants me to have surface mounted but I really dont want it. There is no access available from upstairs.

I had a look on HSS Hire Shop website and there was one type of chaser available for hire would this work?

Thanks
Andrea

 

[davy_owen_88]

A chaser plus an SDS+ drill with flat chisel should do the trick. The chaser will make a lot of dust, and a standard vacuum cleaner isn't suitable for connecting to it, so you might want to rent one of those too unless the house is empty and you have a good P2 mask.

 

[1andrea]

Will it take a lot more time to do?

 

[davy_owen_88]

More time that what? Chasing with a spoon? Dynamite? Surface mounting?

 

[RF Lighting]

Yes. It will take an awful lot longer than surface mounted.

If you are going to this trouble them make sure the electrician installs conduits in the chases to make it 1000 times easier if anything ever goes wrong.

Also the wall chaser machine will cover every single last inch of your flat in thick dust.

 

[1andrea]

More time that what? Chasing with a spoon? Dynamite? Surface mounting?

Than it takes to chase brick walls

 

[ColJack]

can you not just stud out the walls with 2x1 and plasterboard.???

if you're getting a guy in to patch the walls anyway it might be an easier option..

or dot n dab it...

the most you would lose is 2 inches off the walls and ceiling. ( might wanna do the ceilings deeper as it can then take recessed down lighters.. )


there is also the question of what damage to the structural strength you are going to be doing with 1"x1" chases everywhere..

 

[1andrea]

can you not just stud out the walls with 2x1 and plasterboard.???

if you're getting a guy in to patch the walls anyway it might be an easier option..

or dot n dab it...

the most you would lose is 2 inches off the walls and ceiling. ( might wanna do the ceilings deeper as it can then take recessed down lighters.. )


there is also the question of what damage to the structural strength you are going to be doing with 1"x1" chases everywhere..

That was my next question!

Would it be easier to do this instead of all the chasing.

Thanks for replying

Andrea

 

[zappa]

A chaser plus an SDS+ drill with flat chisel should do the trick. The chaser will make a lot of dust, and a standard vacuum cleaner isn't suitable for connecting to it, so you might want to rent one of those too unless the house is empty and you have a good P2 mask.

Don't forget the goggles!!

 

[sparkyspike]

Why don't you ask your electrician what he recommends, if he has already seen the job, bearing in mind you don't want it surface mounted? He may be able to tell you if you can reuse existing conduit etc. At any rate he should be able to explain to you the best way to do it. Concrete ceilings can be a drag. If you are going to do the chasing yourself, then you can save yourself a lot of cash, but it's never a clean job. But an SDS chasing drill causes less dust than a chasing machine (which is neat and fairly quick but produces loads of dust) like Davy Owen and RF said.