Electrics and Drilling

[carella]

Good evening, I hope you will understand that I'm not very good at these things and seek your advice.

My son (aged 19) wants to drill holes about 1.5 feet above two double electrical plug points. Obviously, I'm rather worried about this for safety reasons and understand there is a tester I can purchase to check that it's safe before drilling.

Can anyone give me/us advice about do's and don't and what we should purchase.

With many thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[JohnD]

You are not supposed to drill directly above, or below, or to either side of an accessory. Nor within 150mm of the junction of wall and ceiling, wall and floor, or wall and wall in an internal corner.

This is described as the safe zone because if you can see it, you have to assume that a cable goes to it, and is (should be) run directly vertically or horizontally to it.

Electricians are supposed to run their cables in these safe zones in the knowledge that workers are not supposed to drill into them.

If you turn off the power to the socket, and undo the faceplate screws, you will be able to see if the cables appear to go into the back box from above, below or the side. This will give you a clue as to where the cable goes.

You can buy cable detectors in the DIY shops. they are useful but not totally reliable. It is useful to run them over the wall around a known live socket to see how they indicate.

If you drill directly into a cable, sometimes there will be a flashbang immediately, and sometimes you will have done damage without knowing it until one day something unpleasant happens.

 

[Spark123]

Firstly pop the socket forward and see if the wires go up or down the wall. You can get a wire detector from the likes of B&Q / argos which will pick up the presence of cables.
I'm a bit slow tonight!!

 

[JohnD]

I'm a bit slow tonight!!

Tonight

 

[carella]

Thank you JohnD and Spark123 for your fast responses which are most appreciated and are of great assistance.

I have also "googled" for a wire detector, which will definitely be on my shopping list

I would prefer him to leave well alone anywhere near those points, just not worth the risk.

Many thanks again.

PS - your banter is very similar to the forum I usually frequent!! Take care

 

[JohnD]

p.s. as a rule of thumb, if you have an older house with wooden floors, the socket cables will quite often be run under the floor and go up to the sockets. If you have concrete floors, they will usually come down from the ceiling to the sockets. In kitchens they sometimes run horizontally between sockets.

Light switch cables almost always come down from the ceiling; except on landings, where they will also go down to the downstairs switch.

 

[ricicle]

Is this ground floor or first floor?

 

[carella]

Thank you John.

We now live in a flat (second/top floor) and haven't lived here that long to "know" the place.

I've just had a look on the Argos website and there are two wire detectors - do you think the cheaper of the two will be ok to purchase please?

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/s...gId=10651&langId=-1&searchTerms=wire+detector

I really do appreciate you taking the time to help. Thanks.

 

[JohnD]

Don't know. "Which" tested detectors in 2005 (long time ago).

they liked the Rapitest WPS115
but said it is by no means perfect. Like the others on test, it's not reliable for locating wire under plasterboard

 

[carella]

Thanks, I've copied it to Notepad and will read it up!

 

[steve1811uk]

I have the cheap tester from Argos and would not recommend it. It's unreliable and the battery only lasts a very short time. In fact I don't use it anymore as I've got to know where most wires are. Steve.