Plug socket in ceiling space?

[Ak23]

I have a plug socket on the ceiling of ground floor living room. Was used for a projector previously. Re-decorating the room and do not want the plug socket there. Is it a complete no-no to loosen and move socket fully to sit in the space above the ceiling. All the connection look tight enough and I know it will fit. Is this a worse scenario than using a junction box and having that sit in the ceiling space for example?

I know it is on the upstairs ring only.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Are there two cables (six wires) connected to the socket?

 

[ericmark]

The rules say that any connection either needs to be maintenance free or accessible, however accessible is not defined. So a junction box under a floor board marked JB under here could be seen as OK until some one fits some floor covering to hide it.

I remember on a large contract electrics being installed then a wall was built, and I raised the question what happens if some thing fails, it is not accessible, and was told oh it's OK we will just knock the wall down, it is accessible. This was Sizewell 'B' power station so not an unplanned job.

However you do need to consider the future, I had a flood which resulted in ceiling being replaced, I looked at cables and thought where do they go, I should know, lived in the house from new, but could not remember, and we tend not to make as built plans for domestic premises, so how would you find it in the future?

I tend to fit blanking plates, so you can see there was something there, so know there are wires there.

 

[Ak23]

Thanks for both your quick replies.

there are 3 cables.

regards cables in the ceiling space and future works surely there are live cables all over the place and it just a question of them being safe / not damaged. I don’t see how one that is terminated safely is any different to one in the same ceiling space. Are you saying that if I use a no maintenance junction box (one that doesn’t have screws) I am probably ok and that is inherently safer than me just pushing the plug socket into the ceiling space? I definitely want to avoid a blanking plate both for how it looks but also because I can’t see how that would be any safer. If any remedial works are required and the ceiling is down or the floorboards are up if anyone goes through an electric cable without checking it then that is on them surely.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

However you do need to consider the future, I had a flood which resulted in ceiling being replaced, I looked at cables and thought where do they go, I should know, lived in the house from new, but could not remember, and we tend not to make as built plans for domestic premises, so how would you find it in the future?

When my place was refurbed in the 1980's, with lots of changes, I went to a lot of trouble to measure up and draw out to scale where all of the outside services ran, all the 5x manholes etc., on an A3 sheet, with the boundaries. I did a separate one for the heating system, another for the phones and yet another for the LAN wiring.

My drawings have come in handy twice - Once when our foul drain for the upstairs became blocked, 20 years after the original refurb. I found pieces of the original cast-iron pipe fall pipe had been allowed to fall into the drains. The second time when they replaced the old rusted steel gas main at the back, with a new service along the road at the front. Our meter had been moved in the refurb so had some new pipe joined to the old steel pipe. I was able to mark the joint with an X on my drive, to save them a lot of unnecessary digging to trace the pipe.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Thanks for both your quick replies.

there are 3 cables.

regards cables in the ceiling space and future works surely there are live cables all over the place and it just a question of them being safe / not damaged. I don’t see how one that is terminated safely is any different to one in the same ceiling space. Are you saying that if I use a no maintenance junction box (one that doesn’t have screws) I am probably ok and that is inherently safer than me just pushing the plug socket into the ceiling space? I definitely want to avoid a blanking plate both for how it looks but also because I can’t see how that would be any safer. If any remedial works are required and the ceiling is down or the floorboards are up if anyone goes through an electric cable without checking it then that is on them surely.

The reason for being required to use a maintenance-free connector is that the regulations consider that screw terminals can loosen with time. This may result in either an over-heating connection or failure of a circuit. To fix this without access to the connection (or even knowing where it is) is a problem.

 

[sxturbo]

Remove the socket, pull the cables into the loft space and reconnect them using wago connectors, install them in a wago box with the required bracket, and jobs a gooden.

Fill the hole in the. Ceiling and paint.

 

[Tigercubrider]

where does the power come from?
It's unlikely to have been a new build, so either there's a feed cable from the downstairs sockets, or power was taken from the upstairs mains?
Can't you just find the feed source and remove power?

 

[Ak23]

Is there a favoured maintenance free junction box on here? If one is safer than another I am perfectly happy to pay a premium.

 

[sxturbo]

Is there a favoured maintenance free junction box on here? If one is safer than another I am perfectly happy to pay a premium.

Wago box with connectors

 

[Ak23]

@Tigercubrider it was freshly rewired when we moved in 10 years ago. I know the plug socket is on the upstairs ring. It also only has 3 cables so is presumably a spur but I wanted to avoid having the floorboards up in bedroom above esp as I don’t know I would 100% find where it feeds from anyway.

 

[Tigercubrider]

probably the closest

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It also only has 3 cables so is presumably a spur but I wanted to avoid having the floorboards up in bedroom above esp as I don’t know I would 100% find where it feeds from anyway.

Three cables, or just three wires (L+N+E) of one cable? One cable does suggest it is a spur, so you could trace it back to where it originates, disconnect and remove it completely.

 

[bernardgreen]

It also only has 3 cables

three cables or three wires

 

[Ak23]

One cable with three wires