Removing wall light but not sure what to do with the wiring?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi

I actually have three wall lights in total in my lounge, and I'm planing on replacing two of them this weekend. But the third one we want to get rid of altogether. Once I've taken the light off, this will then in involves filling any holes that were there as a result of the light, and painting over.

But I don't know what to do with the wiring to get rid of it/get it out of the way safely.

If pictures would help let me kow and I'll post them ASAP.

Huge thanks

Max

 

[LearningSpark]

Trace the cable back to its origin and disconnect there or leave the back box sunk in the wall and fit a blanking plate. Do not just terminate the cable then plaster over.

 

[Taylortwocities]

If you are lucky, the cables may be run in conduit/capping from the light position up to the ceiling / down to the floor.

Pull the cables all the way out and joint them using crimps & heat sleeve over.

If you use a junction box it must be accessible.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Max - the basic idea is that people should not be taken by surprise by the presence of a cable hidden in a wall - it could actually be fatal to drill into a cable you had no idea was there.

Obviously if there's a wall light present, or a socket, a switch etc then that should give someone a pretty good clue that there'll be cable(s) running to it (and these should be horizontal or vertical).

See //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:walls

So just removing a wall light and leaving the live cable there is a no-no.

 

[pjcomp]

Assuming the wall light cables come down from the ceiling, you'll need to get in the room above, lift the floorboards above the lighting position, and locate the cable you want to get rid of. If you can, pull it up; if not, ideally trace it back to where it comes from, whichmight be the lounge ceiling rose, or might be a junction box somewhere under the floor. Alternatively, it might be fed from one of the other wall lights and you can terminate it back at that point. If you're unlucky, the one you want to get rid of will be the middle one of the three ....

PJ

 

[DIYNotIan]

Thanks for all the time and help guys.

The two remaining wall lights are now installed and working fine. The wires from the one we no longer want have temporarily been screwed into a "Terminal block", which I have then wrapped a load of insulation tape around.

As for the wiring, there was 1 red and 1 black wire at each wall light....., not two of each at any light.

Having only recently had new carpets laid, I am reluctant to pull them up again. So we are thinking of maybe terminating the wires safely (a blanking plate?) and then hanging a picture to hide the plate..... AT least it will then be safe and hidden. When the comes to sell up in future we can then put in another light (or perhaps the old one).

Does that all sound ok?

Cheers

Max

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

just be careful where you stick the nail when you hang the picture to cover the blank plate, but other than that, sounds OK

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

Have not got around to sorting this yet, but in the meantime there has been a development.

We removed the kitchen wall cupboards the other day, which had three under the cupboard type lights. We WILL be replacing with new lights, so these don't need covering or removing. However, what I noticed was that whilst two of them had single wire feeds, the one nearest the living room had a two wire feed. It got me to wondering whether this might have something to do with the feed we need to get rid of in the living room.

Here's a diagram showing the room layout and details. The two red * in the kitchen are the single wire feeds. The red @ i the kitchen is the double feed, and the red @ in the living room is the wall light we want to get rid of.

What I wondered was whether there is a way to find out whether this double feed in the kitchen is connected to the wiring in the living room light we no longer want.......but without removing carpets and floorboards upstairs?

Cheers

Max

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• DIYNotIan
• 1 Mar 2011
• 1