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- 27 Apr 2008
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Hello all,
When this house was last decorated (before I bought it) they had obviously not invented the spirit level, the 90 degree square or decided that doing a decent job was the right thing.
Anyway, we decided to strip the horrible (terracotta coloured) 20 yr old blown wallpaper out of the kitchen this week so we can paper & paint it a lighter colour etc.
Well, looking at the state of the walls I can see why they used blown wallpaper so much, it has hidden so much & the walls need a bit of repair & re skimming first there is the nightmare of this houses previous owners electrics to deal with.
Even my wife was shocked at the way the mains cable (2.5mm t/e) appears to have been fitted (but not surprised).
(Diagonally - the Grey strip of plaster)
View media item 8961
Down in the bottom left corner (just to the left of the ball on the cat scratching post) is a single socket, from here there is (ISTR) an unfused cable feeding the cooker extraction fan & I bet it also feeds a double socket that is inside the fireplace space that now houses a cooker.
(I may be removing the extractor & its cable or fitting a FCU)
(The socket has the gas cooker plugged into it for the ignition & timer)
Top r/h corner the cable comes out under the floorboards in the bedroom above, I can't remember but there was possibly a junction box there (eek!).
Anyway, I was made redundant last month so this is supposed to be just a paint & paper job, doing as little as possible to tidy the kitchen up.
However, looking at how close I came to being electricuted while fitting a notice board my inner voice is screaming at me to move that cable into safe zones at the very least so that neither my family or the next drill into it. (this reminds me to dig my plug in RCD out & put it in the drill box).
AFAIK a safe zone is 150mm from the ceiling & directly above the socket?
(Please do not mention notification or paying a qualified electrician to do this - I already know these things).
When this house was last decorated (before I bought it) they had obviously not invented the spirit level, the 90 degree square or decided that doing a decent job was the right thing.
Anyway, we decided to strip the horrible (terracotta coloured) 20 yr old blown wallpaper out of the kitchen this week so we can paper & paint it a lighter colour etc.
Well, looking at the state of the walls I can see why they used blown wallpaper so much, it has hidden so much & the walls need a bit of repair & re skimming first there is the nightmare of this houses previous owners electrics to deal with.
Even my wife was shocked at the way the mains cable (2.5mm t/e) appears to have been fitted (but not surprised).
(Diagonally - the Grey strip of plaster)
View media item 8961
Down in the bottom left corner (just to the left of the ball on the cat scratching post) is a single socket, from here there is (ISTR) an unfused cable feeding the cooker extraction fan & I bet it also feeds a double socket that is inside the fireplace space that now houses a cooker.
(I may be removing the extractor & its cable or fitting a FCU)
(The socket has the gas cooker plugged into it for the ignition & timer)
Top r/h corner the cable comes out under the floorboards in the bedroom above, I can't remember but there was possibly a junction box there (eek!).
Anyway, I was made redundant last month so this is supposed to be just a paint & paper job, doing as little as possible to tidy the kitchen up.
However, looking at how close I came to being electricuted while fitting a notice board my inner voice is screaming at me to move that cable into safe zones at the very least so that neither my family or the next drill into it. (this reminds me to dig my plug in RCD out & put it in the drill box).
AFAIK a safe zone is 150mm from the ceiling & directly above the socket?
(Please do not mention notification or paying a qualified electrician to do this - I already know these things).
