Found a cable behind plasterboard

[johnbuckley]

Ok so after many years of putting up with scruffy t&e cable coming out of the wall below kitchen wall cupboards which fed the under cabinet lamps: I decided it was time to route it behind the plaster board to exit above the wall cabinets and be out of sight.

The cable (marked red in the attached pic) needs to be extended so I plan to join it with Wagos and fix it into a wago light box behind the plasterboard. On cutting the access hole I found another cable (marked green) unattached to anything and not terminated in any way.

The cable is, or looks like 1mm t&e, I find it difficult to tell the difference between 1 and 1.5. I've tried to find out where this cable comes from and I can't; I can't get it to be live, I've tried all light switches and nothing makes it live, Ive also checked all of the plug sockets to see if it could have been attached as a spur cable even though I would guess that the cable is too small for that; I'm a bit stumped and although it appears to be a dead cable I don't feel comfortable just stuffing it back behind the plasterboard, so really just looking for some reassurance that, If i terminate it in a wago box that would be fine.

The house is a bout 8 years old and we were the first owners so no chance of any previous diy jiggery pokery and I'm lost as to why this cable is even there.

One other question; the cooker hood fcu is supplied by what seems like 1 or 1.5mm t&e and is on the ground floor lighting circuit breaker; is this normal practice?

Thanks in advance

 

[ETAF]

often the cable is marked, size - maybe the bit you have its not on that section

I had various kitchen extractor fans fitted by Electricians and they all went on the Lighting circuit

 

[johnbuckley]

often the cable is marked, size - maybe the bit you have its not on that section

I had various kitchen extractor fans fitted by Electricians and they all went on the Lighting circuit

Thanks for that. There are no markings on the cables to identify the size. Good to know that the cooker hood on the lighting circuit breaker is not unusual.
The mysterious cable is another story!

 

[accelerator]

Can you ask the housebuilders what the mystery cable might be?

 

[johnbuckley]

Can you ask the housebuilders what the mystery cable might be?

It was contracted out and the electrician that did this house has retired abroad now so I doubt there'll be any joy there

 

[endecotp]

You can now get pretty cheap inspection cameras on eBay etc. that you could feed into the hole and hopefully work out where it goes.

 

[johnbuckley]

You can now get pretty cheap inspection cameras on eBay etc. that you could feed into the hole and hopefully work out where it goes.

Thanks; yeah I've got one of those and can only see the direction that the cable goes. I've switched everything on in the kitchen and surrounding rooms to see if I can make the cable live; just see what it may be connected to and it remains a dead cable. It really is a mystery and I may just end up terminating it in a wago box and leaving it where it is; I just hate things that are illogical!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thanks; yeah I've got one of those and can only see the direction that the cable goes. I've switched everything on in the kitchen and surrounding rooms to see if I can make the cable live; just see what it may be connected to and it remains a dead cable. It really is a mystery and I may just end up terminating it in a wago box and leaving it where it is; I just hate things that are illogical!

Buy, beg, steal, or borrow a signal injecting cable tracer. You connect the signal injector to the end of the cable, then a sort of stick tracer, makes a noise. It gets louder, the nearer you are to the cable.

 

[johnbuckley]

Buy, beg, steal, or borrow a signal injecting cable tracer. You connect the signal injector to the end of the cable, then a sort of stick tracer, makes a noise. It gets louder, the nearer you are to the cable.

I thought that was a wind up until I looked it up. Good idea and I'll see if I can locate one reasonably. Thanks