Wiring Sockets on an exposed stone wall

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I’ve only ever done wiring in modern houses with trunking etc and plaster board over. We’re renovating an old stone wall cottage. The idea is to have the ground floor stone exposed for aesthetics and keeping the place naturally dry. I want to fit some electrical sockets to each wall but I’m not sure what surface trunking is required and whether it can come up from the floor or down from the ceiling. I’ll be using a qualified electrician, however, the last QE I used didn’t seem to be the full ticket. If I know how it should be I can keep my eye on the proceedings and advise accordingly. It would be good if there was some decorative trunking available as it’s going to be exposed.
Thanks
 
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... an old stone wall cottage. The idea is to have the ground floor stone exposed for aesthetics and keeping the place naturally dry. I want to fit some electrical sockets to each wall but I’m not sure what surface trunking is required and whether it can come up from the floor or down from the ceiling.
It's a very personal thing but, for what it's worth, I would personally think that, although far from the cheapest option, steel conduit would look best in that context.

Whether it should 'come up from the floor or down from the ceiling' depends upon a number of factors, such as the nature of floor and where the electricity is to come from - so your electrician would need to advise. Since you speak of the 'ground floor', I presume that there is also an upper floor (and not, say, a thatched roof-space immediately above!)?

Kind Regards, John
 
If it's a fair face brick wall, then you have two options for wiring IMO.

1. Pyro/MICC neatly clipped
2. Conduit drops behind the fair face brick - depends on wall construction but could also be capped down the other side and drilled through

Use some quality metalclad sockets and it'll look mint, use surface trunking and PVC sockets and boxes and it'll look gash
 
John has a fair point, galv tube would look alright but you do have to think about how it goes into the ceiling (if thats the way it goes) plasterers almost always make it look awful.

This is option 1 (credit to RF Lighting)

full
 
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Kind Regards, John
Well tube in the wall's out then!

I'll adjust to

1. MICC/Pyro clipped to the walls
2. Steel conduit clipped to the walls

In that order, because MICC is much easier to hide (see photo) steel conduit is big and bulky and great if you're going for a retro/industrial look but I'm not sure that would work in a cottage. You'd need to find someone that can work with the stuff though, it's a bit of a dying art
 
Well tube in the wall's out then! .... In that order, because MICC is much easier to hide (see photo) steel conduit is big and bulky and great if you're going for a retro/industrial look but I'm not sure that would work in a cottage. You'd need to find someone that can work with the stuff though, it's a bit of a dying art
I don't disagree with that, aesthetically-speaking, but I suspect that "a bit of a dying art" might be a slight understatement. Unless one is pretty sure that no alterations/additions etc. will be need in the future, one also needs to think about how alive/dead the art might be in a decade or three from now.

I would also add that as well as someone "who can do MICC/pyro", one really needs someone who can "do it well", since pyro can otherwise look less than beautiful.

Kind Regards, John
 
It’s just the walls down stairs as I can do the uppers in the stud walls and conceal the wires.
iOS Image - 3364780975.jpg
 
Can copper tube be used as exposed cable conduit? Just thinking it may look good!
 
Can copper tube be used as exposed cable conduit? Just thinking it may look good!
I've certainly done it in my time, and I can't really see why not.

I was, in fact, going to observe that one of the main reasons why people tend to favour (aesthetically) pyro over steel conduit in such a situation is because of its colour - which is something which could be largely addressed with 'gold' heatshrink (or even 'gold' paint) and suitable (brass?) clips/fixings - or, as you say, copper pipe. 'Gold'-sheathed flex is available, at least in smallish sizes, but that would probably be too flexible to be installed neatly.

Kind Regards, John
 
I wouldn’t

But, it could so long as it was really obviously feeding a socket and not being a pipe but you wouldn’t get 2x2.5 down a 15mm pipe so you’d need a 22 which is obviously bigger than 20mm conduit.

On top of that, you would struggle like crap to make the tube off into the socket. And you’d need to Earth it

You’re much better off using MICC/Pyro as it will look almost exactly the same, but it’s minuscule in comparison.
 

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