Too short - advice please

[danny_lad]

Hi - hope someone can help me with this. I'm replacing an cracked/old 13A Socket fascia with a nice new metal-faced one. I've done this before, and feel generally OK at doing this type of task.

BUT the new (more modern) socket has the connections 'reversed' on the rear, and the wiring in the existing (ring) socket are too short to stretch to their 'new' positions - whoever originally fitted the socket wasn't very generous with the cable!

I can't pull the cable up from beneath the floorboards - it's an old property, and the ring main is well and truly plastered into the wall. I need to find some way of safely extending what is there, without a major rewiring job. The mains wiring in the property seems basically OK - looks like it was (ex-council house) 'upgraded' in the 1970s/80s.

What are my options? I could install the socket upside-down, but that would look ridiculous! Can I use 30A terminal block to extend the wiring behind the socket, i.e. use a terminal block to complete the ring and 'spur' the socket plate onto this?

Thanks in advance for your advice / safety tips
Dan

 

[breezer]

you could youse 30A choc block, but that would mean you would have to put a blanking plate over origonal socket.

can you not lower socket?

 

[plugwash]

30A chock block is an option the problem is you are unlikely to get it behind a socket in a normal box

you could put in a 45mm box but this vould involve an awfull lot of disturbance to fit

is this socket on the ring or on a spur?

i would get yourself a decent set of insulated crimps with a ratchet crimp tool

if the socket is on a spur use the blue crimps
if the socket is on the ring use yellow crimps so you have room to get 2 cables into one end

 

[securespark]

Go out and buy a metal socket with L & N in the correct positions?

 

[danny_lad]

Thanks guyz. I'll take the crimp solution, but have a spare blanking plate if it doesn't work.
Dan