Electrical Trunking

[XCP]

Is it legal to chase surface mounted trunking into walls to make neat job? the house I am buying has quite a lot of surface mounted cables, which look rubbish.

[DrDeAtH]

If you are chasing the cables in, just remove the trunking and use capping over the top.

[XCP]

We had an electrician in our house who said all new wiring had to be surface mounted. Is it legal to hide trunking if this is the case?

[NH1]

XCP said:

We had an electrician in our house who said all new wiring had to be surface mounted. Is it legal to hide trunking if this is the case?

Nothings illegal when it comes to electrics, it may be against the regulations but they are not mandatory anyway, also you may come into bother with building control but you wont get arrested for putting a plug on. You may get into trouble in court though if your negligence causes an accident or you kill someone.

If a cable is concealed in a wall then it must be in a safe zone or adequately protected, a safe zone being above or below, or side to side from a switch or socket etc. Also if the cable is buried then it must be protected by an RCD as well. (think iron pipe if protecting the cable). You can also bury the cable more than 50mm to get round these regs.

You wouldn't bury the trunking, you could plaster over the cable direct or use capping if so inclined.

[R1 Indy]

XCP said:

We had an electrician in our house who said all new wiring had to be surface mounted. Is it legal to hide trunking if this is the case?

i would say he just wanted an easy job! BTW trunking in houses is bug bear of mine, i cringe when a customer asks me to surface mount cabling in a otherwise well decorated room.

You can bury cables how ever you like as long as its RCD protected.

But please don't put them diagonally across the wall!! I'm fed up of coming across cables chased diagonally across the bloody wall!!!

[XCP]

Amazing, thank you. This guy was adamant he had to use surface mounted trunking when putting in 2 new sockets!

That is good news.

[B17NNS]

XCP said:

We had an electrician in our house who said all new wiring had to be surface mounted.

Nonsense.

[MatrixXXx]

B17NNS said:

XCP said:

We had an electrician in our house who said all new wiring had to be surface mounted.

Nonsense.

I agree utter bol***ks

[JimbobVFR]

XCP said:

We had an electrician in our house who said all new wiring had to be surface mounted. Is it legal to hide trunking if this is the case?

Just thinking out loud here but this could be related to a lack of an RCD in your consumer unit?

As a general point your Spark is talking utter tosh but giving him the benefit of doubt he could have said much more.

[XCP]

We have one RCD that covers the whole house, but not on individual circuits. This guy fitted 2 new sockets for us and surface mounted both. He said it was to do with recent regulations. Just goes to show, you can't trust anyone.
I am greatly relieved to hear I can chase the wires in my new house, the trunking is a right eyesore.