Electrical cables under loft boarding

[Jabberwocky]

I am currently re-boarding my loft (previous owner - botched job, nuff said) and taking the opportunity to lay more loft insulation in the process.

The existing insulation is only a few inches deep so I am topping up with 150mm deep Spaceblanket over the top. These are unrolled easily down the length of the joists and I have enough slack in all electrical cables to lift them to run on top of the new insulation.

Having added this top up insulation, it is proud of the joist top by 20-30mm in places. My plan is to lay the boards on top and just compress the insulation in the process (have tested this and it works no problem).

My question is - is this okay from an electrical cable perspective. Cables are on top of all the insulation, but will be pretty tight against the underside of the loft boards because I have compressed the insulation slightly. Is that okay?

Any thoughts welcome!

 

[vv2806]

It has been a while since you posted the question but if you still would like to know - no, it is not OK. The regs require that the electrical cables run at least 50 mm under the floorboards. If you had ask at the sparky's forum they would tell you.

 

[Jabberwocky]

See that post at //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=177830 if interested.

In the end I tacked all the cables to the beams in line with regs as per the Sparkys guidance.

Great forum this - always get an answer!

 

[vv2806]

Thanks for the link, I wouldn't find it otherwise and it is an interesting read. I only came across your topic because have been searching info about loft insulation.

 

[Chri5]

Some higher density insulation when compressed with loft boards could push the boards on the ceiling out and / or cause cracking to the ceiling finish.

Make sure the material isn't over compressed otherwise.........