Is this legal?

[Joolz89]

Hi,

I recently fitted a new socket to my living room which is attached to the main ring which I located under the floor.

I tapped into the ring with a 30A junction box which is attached to a floor joist, and then ran the spur to a double socket which I chased into the wall.

Have I broken the law by this DIY or is it legal? I only found out about the regs on DIY after the deed and I am having a bit of trouble establishing if its legal or not.

Also if it is legal could I do the same in my garage which has a seperate consumer unit from the house but only has two double sockets running from it

Cheers

Joolz

 

[jj4091]

Electrical regulations are not enforced by any laws, so you have not done anything illegal. However all screw type connectors should be easily acessible under the regulations & you have therefore not complied with them, but not broken any law, it would have been better if you had used crimp connectors in order to comply. As far as your garage is concerned I would imagine you are talking about using a junction box mounted on the surface of the wall, which is not contravening any regs.

 

[Joolz89]

So, What I really need to do is lift my floor boards and replace the junction box, what exactly should I use for the T in?

cheers

Joolz

 

[Steve]

So, What I really need to do is lift my floor boards and replace the junction box, what exactly should I use for the T in?

cheers

Joolz

You should have done the spur from the back of another socket.

Do this, then borrow some crimpers and crimp and heatshrink the 2 original wires together. Crimped joints needn't be accessible.

Alternatively, if there is slack on the cables, move the joint up and put it in a single backbox with a blank plate or a single socket on it.

 

[jj4091]

So, What I really need to do is lift my floor boards and replace the junction box, what exactly should I use for the T in?

cheers

Joolz

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CTBUTTslashY.html

 

[Steve]

So, What I really need to do is lift my floor boards and replace the junction box, what exactly should I use for the T in?

cheers

Joolz

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CTBUTTslashY.html[/QUOTE]jj, how do you fit 3 cores into that? A bit risky, no?

 

[RF Lighting]

You will get a more reliable joint with a joint box, rather than 2no. 2.5mm² conductors into a butt crimp designed for 1no. 6.0mm² conductor.

Butt connectors are superb for straight through joint, but that is all.


to OP, is the joint box easily accessible?

 

[jj4091]

My apologies, I copied & pasted the wrong link then got distracted, I meant to put http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/BHCRIMP10.html which would then need to be insulated, but as RF Lighting says it is probably better to leave it as you have it.

 

[Joolz89]

RF,

To gain access to the junction box I will have to lift a panel in the floor boards which is no major dramas. What kind of junction box should I have used? At the moment it has one of the circular 30 Amp junction box with screw connectors. Which is secured to a floor joist.

Cheers

Joolz

 

[RF Lighting]

The junction box you have is fine.

There are issues with access to the joint not strictly complying with the regs, as ideally there should be no hidden joints, but as you have things at the moment isn't the end of the world.

The problems come when folk laminate floor over the trap, and then get upset when access is required to the JB for what ever reason.

We've all seen far worse wiring jobs that a JB under a floor.

You'll know for next time

 

[electronicsuk]

The junction box you have is fine.

There are issues with access to the joint not strictly complying with the regs, as ideally there should be no hidden joints, but as you have things at the moment isn't the end of the world.

Amen to that. Just recently there's been a lot of talk on crimping in place of junction boxes, but if you've already done the work, it's your own home and you can still access the joint one way or another then there are far more exciting ways to break the regs.

 

[northlad]

not a leccy as such, more a transformer builder. at work they frown on crimping solid cables, we have to solder the crimp aswell, not sure why, surely a crimp is the same as a joint box terminal? am i right?

 

[Joolz89]

Thanks for the info and advice.

I will leave it were it is, if access is needed it is very simple to get too, as the trap is right on the edge of the room and it would take me 2 mins to lift the edge of the carpet and gain access.

Cheers


Joolz

 

[Taylortwocities]

not a leccy as such, more a transformer builder. at work they frown on crimping solid cables, we have to solder the crimp aswell, not sure why, surely a crimp is the same as a joint box terminal? am i right?

Under wiring regs a crimped (or soldered) connection is considered as 'permanent'.
Screwed terminations are not.

 

[plugwash]

what about the following method for joining three cables

1: thread heatshrink over wires from one cable, make sure the heatshrink is far enough away from the ends to not be affected by the heat and thick enough to go over the cores from two cables.
2: strip the wire ends and bind them together into a triangle with thin tinned copper wire. Have two cables going out one way and the remaining one going out the other. The one with a direction to itself being the one with the heatshrink on.
3: solder them
4: thread the heatshrink on and use your soldering iron to shrink it.
5: enclose the lot in a chockbox.