Legrand

[altec]

Q1. Are legrand a good make?

Q2 Whats the story with domestic wiring in houses which have concrete upstairs floors (i.e large slabs lifted in when the house is being built)
How are the cables got upstairs, are the floors chased? Sounds like a hell of a lot of chasing. Does round conduit have to be used?

 

[plugwash]

when such building methods are used commercially i think false cielings are the normal method

failing that they seem to run trunking on the walls
if you have to chase plaster is a lot easier to chase than concrete

 

[securespark]

Never used Legrand, but why are you choosing them over any other make?

Just interested.

 

[Inspector]

Legrand is the Rover 45, Hager is the Lada, MEM and MK are the Rolls Royces.

 

[Big_Spark]

Legrand are a cheaper varient of Merlin-Gerin, not very common in the UK, but they can be found. Most peoples experience of Legrand is via thier wiring accessories(Sockets, switches etc) rather than their Distribution equipment (MCB's, Enclosures etc)

Regarding the concrete floor, it could have been done several ways. Pre-wired conduit, formed channels in the slab which are filled after installation, conduit run through the hollow cavities in the slab, it is likely the slab was not lifted into place, but formed insitu. If this last was the method used, then the conduit would have been installed into the reinforcing grid prior to the concrete being poured.

 

[altec]

thanks for the replys, no these concrete slabs are lifted into place with a crane. The legrand i was thinking of are the units where you can fit individual switches, dimmers etc. into a front plate which can be got in 1,2,3,4 gang etc.

 

[Big_Spark]

You mean Grid Switches. Their OK, but MK are far and away superior.

 

[kendor]

Over the years i've even seen MK produce faulty items, a famous example was the pins coming away on their plugs but in fairness they are quick to remedy any faults in manufacture
worst case i've seen was ceeforms (can't remember the manufacturer) with wrongly marked identification on the terminals inside L and N reversed, they probably used the same plug die for a run of sockets forgetting that the markings reverse!

 

[Big_Spark]

I'd agree, all manufacturers make the odd stuff-up, things slip through the QA cracks, thankfully it is not common for the likes of MK, MEM, Hager and Merlin-Gerin to fall into this trap.

 

[AdamW]

Whats the story with domestic wiring in houses which have concrete upstairs floors (i.e large slabs lifted in when the house is being built) How are the cables got upstairs, are the floors chased? Sounds like a hell of a lot of chasing. Does round conduit have to be used?

I live in an upstairs maisonette with a concrete slab floor. The guy downstairs from me has wooden battens onto which is mounted his plasterboard ceiling.

Some houses actually have the underside of the concrete for the downstairs ceiling. In this case there is a cable conduit set into the concrete which carries the cables for lights.