Chasing lighting cables into wall

[Roflcopter]

Evening all,

I want to put some wall-mounted lights into our bedroom on either side of the bed, with a dimmer switch below. One-way switched to keep it simple.

It's a semi-detached house, and the wall in question is the adjoining wall with next door. Looks like it's plasterboard mounted directly onto the breeze blocks, no gap - so it seems that my only option is to chase the cables into the wall.

The depth of the chases will be not much more than 10mm unless I go into the breezeblocks which I really don't want to do if I can avoid it.

- I guess than 10mm is nowhere near deep enough to hold any kind of trunking?

- I gather from what I've been reading that they won't require capping since the cables will run vertically up from the lights/switch to the loft. Am I correct?

Cheers,

Chris.

 

[Roflcopter]

Never mind, found this thread (not sure how I missed it during my searching of this site, but there you go...)

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=58812

So it seems that the only thing I'll need to attack the brickwork for is installing the pattress boxes.

Stanley knife at the ready for this evening

Chris.

 

[Lectrician]

You often find the plasterboard is not tight to the wall - the dabs of board adhesive will keep it off slightly.

Cut your metal back box in first, and see what gap there is before you start chumping at the wall with a stanley, padsaw and old screwdriver!

 

[Roflcopter]

I was hoping that there would be a sufficient gap to feed the cables down, but I can't see one. I'll have another look when I do the cutouts for the back boxes though.

The wall is going to be repainted (and coved) so it's no big deal if I do have to cut the plaster and make good again, just a hassle if I ever need to get at the wiring again

 

[Roflcopter]

While I'm here... how do I affix the capping to the wall, bearing in mind that I'll be going into breeze block?

Ta,

Chris.

 

[Lectrician]

No need for capping if you are going to fill the hole yourself. Capping is to protect the cable from the plasterers trowl - nothing else.

Make your chase the width of the cable, and secure the cable to keep it home every so often. Then fill your chase. On a small narrow chase like that, on plasterboard, it can be far better to use a powdered filler mixed up rather than a messy plaster. Do one coat, let it dry, do a finish coat, sand if required.

 

[Roflcopter]

I thought perhaps the capping would help if I ever needed to replace/remove cabling after the chase has been filled - it has enough space for the cable to slide freely up and down inside the capping.

Anyway, I've already done one chase wide enough for the capping so I suppose I might as well make use of it

Thanks for all the advice, this really is a top notch forum!

Chris.

 

[Dippy]

Capping is to protect the cable from the plasterers trowl - nothing else.

That's good to know - I was worrying about having to put capping over my new wiring.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing my own 'filling' or not, as I'll be having a plasterer in to do some work anyway. Opening up a channel wide enough for capping seems a pain. What's the best alternative - oval trunking?