Electric Cabling and cavity walls

[Ianm]

Whilst I have been mooching around the website I noticed an article about wiring standards. It stated that cable should no longer be run through cavity walls due to the possibility of damp breaking down the insulation and the dangers this can cause.

I am currently rewiring part of my house and was going to run a couple of cables through the cavity as this is the easiest and neatest route. Should I rethink or ignore the article as being overly cautious.

(I think I can guess the answer!)

 

[MANDATE]

I think you have more chances of winning the lottery, than the insulation breaking down

 

[breezer]

as it says you are not allowed to run cables in a cavity, but then are you a qualified electrician that knows all the regs?

The problem is that if you do run the cables in the cavity when it comes to selling the house, it could be a condition that they are run in the proper manner at your expense.

You should only ever do a job once, the correct way, saves hassle in the future.

 

[Ianm]

Thanks guys.

No I am definately not a qualified electrician - I am pretty green at all this. I am trying to do the best job I can so I wan't to understand where the dangers are. The trouble is, as with everything in life, experience then shows where you have made mistakes!

Actually the more I've learnt the more I'm getting the screaming abdabs about the wiring in the rest of the (old) house. spurs off spurs off spurs etc etc.

On a related topic can anyone point me in the direction of a good write up on supplementary bonfing?

Ian

 

[Ianm]

oops - should have been bonding

 

[breezer]

(you could have clicked the edit button to change it)

try this it gives you an idea

 

[Ianm]

I know the topic has wandered from the original and I hope it's OK in this forum.

Having read the article breezer pointed me at it (and other articles) the discussion is always about bathrooms. Are there not similar dangers in kitchens. My project is wiring a new kitchen so do I need to add supplementary bonding to the sink and all the pipework or not?

tia
Ian

 

[breezer]

yes you do need to bond everything in a kitchen, its just that bathrooms seem more popular on the web and so come up first on searches. Also kitchens usually have their own ring circuit due to the apliances that can be on at once. i.e toaster / kettle

 

[Ianm]

thanks for that.

Just to confirm I bond all the sink and all pipes to the cold water pipe, which further back has an earth connection to the consumer unit.

Is that correct?

 

[breezer]

not quite, you should connect all the "items" together then a cable back to the main earth block.

The difference between this and the way you said is that it would be relying on the water pipe as a conductor, not the earth cable going to the earth block.

 

[Ianm]

Thanks breezer

Pity I didn't know that before I put the cupboards on the wall where my route back to the consumer unit is! You live and learn

I've had some more fun and games today so I'm going to start a new thread, if your'e reading I'd welcome your ideas

Ian