Safe zones and skirtings

  • Thread starter Thread starter holmslaw
  • Start date Start date
Don't get me wrong, but I thought the problem was actually people using the void behind the skirting instead of the floor void. That would be an unsafe zone.

But I'm as intrigued as you are.
 
The width of the socket creates a safe zone right down to the floor.

When the wall is finished, and cables concealed, you will still be able to see the socket front which will warn you not to fix the skirting board directly below it.

The thing you can not do is drop down from a socket, and then run the cable horizontally behind the skirting to come up again at the next socket, as there will be no indication of the horizontal run, and the chance of damage to the cable by the fixings for the skirting board will be high.
 
skirting is not a "zone"..

the zone is defined by the accessory or the pre-defined areas of 150mm from ceilings and corners ( on the basis you're not likely to whack a nail in for a picture that close to the ceiling or corner.. ), and extend from floor to ceiling and wall to wall..

they deliberately excluded a 150mm zone from the floor as the installation of skirting necessitates the use of nails or screws to fix it to the wall..

the socket on the wall defines the safe zone and the installer of the skirting will presumably realise that there might be cables in the wall directly below an accessory..

there's nothing to stop you installing cables wherever you like in a wall but straying outside the prescribed safe zones requires you to take additional measures to protect the cable.
 
As some will know, I am totally against the corner safe zones because they are not safe. And the blanket ban on cables behind skirting boards is ridiculous, the height of the skirting should be a consideration.

Take a standard house with boarded floors, job is to install new power circuits with cables in floor voids rising up to the socket positions. As the skirting is an unsafe zone how do you get from underfloor to the socket.

In the good old days you would chase the wall and hammer a piece of gently curved conduit behind the skirting into the floor void. But this seems to be non-compliant because the cable will be unprotected behind the skirting board.

So what is the modern way of doing it, not trying to catch anyone out, just interested in scheme members views who have to comply to maintain their registration.

Not trying to catch anyone, just interested in scheme members views who have to comply to maintain their registration.

Edit - spellin

surely the only problem here is running cables HORIZONTALLY behind skirting boards where they wouldn't be in a safe zone and no one would have any idea that they are there.

as far as i am concerned, if a cable runs from the socket VERTICALLY downwards, behind the skirting board to the floor, then that is a safe zone.
most domestic properties will be like this.

appologies if i've misunderstood your post.
 
How does this apply to you, Holmslaw?

How would you propose to tack cables to the walls of a grass hut and then across the mud floor?
 
You don't tack them to the walls of a grass hut - you glue them there with blobs of elephant dung.

I thought everyone knew that :roll:
 
Which wiring method is that?

I thought they stoped doing that in the 2nd edition of the Zaire wiring regs as the dung beetles were nicking the cable fixings!
 
i thaught it was quite simple, 'prescribed zones' are within 6" / 150mm of internal corners of walls and wall to ceiling, Although personally a last resort.

apart from that cables can or rather must run in any vertical or horizontal plane of an accessory.

I know the regs have some silly ideas but i am certain they wouldn't suggest that people have to remove all skirting boards in their homes in order to comply.
 
I thought they stoped doing that in the 2nd edition of the Zaire wiring regs as the dung beetles were nicking the cable fixings!
Technically no - that later edition actually came out in 1998, but as holmslaw has a time machine (how else could he be living in Zaire?) it isn't out yet for him.
 
Doh! You mean I didn't have to leave all those little 1" gaps when I fitted the skirting after my rewire? :(

:wink:



Holmslaw's messing with us, right?
 
If so he's pitched it just right - spot on consistent with his understanding of the regs...
 

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