Moving and Adding Sockets

[SRSUK]

Hi All,

Am new to the site and have searched but couldn't find an answer so sorry in advance if this has been covered.

I have an old house and in the main bedroom there are only 2 plug sockets. 1 is a single socket with 2 sets of wires and the other is a double with 3 sets of wires.

They are fitted very close to the floor and have very little slack in the cable. I want to move them up to allow for higher skirting. Can this be done by using a 30ma junction box to run the existing wires in to and then use a single 2.5mm cable to the required height?

Secondly can I run a spur of the socket with 2 sets of cables? It's on the ring and rcd protected.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Can this be done by using a 30ma junction box

I think you'll find that 30A would be more appropriate than 0.03A..

If the JB is to be inaccessible (e.g. under the floorboards) then it should be a maintenance free type, such as the Ashley J803.

Note that any cables concealed in walls must be in "safe" zones: //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:walls.

to run the existing wires in to and then use a single 2.5mm cable to the required height?

Better to keep to using 2 x 2.5mm².

Secondly can I run a spur of the socket with 2 sets of cables? It's on the ring and rcd protected.

1) How do you KNOW it's on a ring?

2) Floorboards up..., cables being extended..., sockets added... - why not rewire that section of the circuit, avoid extending with JBs, avoid adding spurs...?

 

[SRSUK]

Yes 30A would do it bit of a typo there sorry!

That was my plan as the skirting is already of and I have a gap all the way around, I would conceal the JB under the boards and run the cable horizontally up behind the skirting to sit the new socket on the top edge of the skirting. So you would run the 2 cables to the JB and then another 2 cables to the socket?

Well a sparky that I recently used said it was on the ring and RCD protected, otherwise I guess I have no way of telling!

I wouldn't know how to rewire that section. We are doing a renovation that has massively gone over budget, so was trying to do some jobs within my scope if that makes sense?

 

[stillp]

It'll go even more over budget if you have to redo some of the work.

 

[SRSUK]

It'll go even more over budget if you have to redo some of the work.

Hence the reason I am asking for some advice

 

[sparkwright]

Unless you can confirm which each cable actually 'does', I think you may have to use a junction box for each individual cable, so you're not altering the design too much.

For example, if you were to to use just one junction box for the socket that has three cables at it, then you would end up with two spurs at the junction box, which is incorrect.

 

[stillp]

It'll go even more over budget if you have to redo some of the work.

Hence the reason I am asking for some advice

Sorry, I meant it would be worth the effort to trace those cables and replace them with longer lengths now, rather than perhaps having to do that after you've decorated.
Did you really mean you're planning to run the cable horizontally behind the skirting? If so, that's not allowed.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Unless you use skirting trunking. Looks like skirting till you tap it.

 

[JohnW2]

Unless you use skirting trunking. Looks like skirting till you tap it.

... or drill/nail/screw into it It has always rather amazed me that trunking that is often designed to look like something other than trunking is actually 'allowed'!

Kind Regards, John

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

...and you'd do something that stupid why?... What would your purpose or motive be?

 

[stillp]

...and you'd do something that stupid why?... What would your purpose or motive be?

Presumably because he thought it was skirting, not trunking?
I must admit I've never seen skirting trunking that looks like ordinary skirting though.

 

[JohnW2]

...and you'd do something that stupid why?... What would your purpose or motive be?

I suppose one of the same purposes as any other time I put a nail, screw or hole into something which, as you said yourself "looks like skirting", and hence which I believed was skirting.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Presumably because he thought it was skirting, not trunking?

Quite so.

I must admit I've never seen skirting trunking that looks like ordinary skirting though.

Some of it is pretty convincing. I'm not sure whether you would count it as 'trunking' (or regard it as 'allowed') but I've seen some wooden stuff that is totally indistinguishable from 'ordinary skirting'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

I've seen skirting in which someone has routed a channel along the back to run cables in but I've not seen anything convincing sold for the purpose.