Inside wall coated in concrete?
Discussion
Chaps,
I started to put a new socket in the wall in the dining room of zcacogp-Towers last night.
When I came to chasing the back box into the wall, I came across a snag. The wall was coated in concrete, finished with a very thin skim of plaster. This was a bit of a surprise as the other walls in the house have been plastered; it's a victorian terraced house, and the walls are london stock brick. (Naturally, setting a box into concrete will be a significantly bigger job than setting it into plaster, so I'll have another go this evening with a masonry disk on the angle grinder, make a lot of nasty dust and have a great time, but that's neither here nor there!)
However, two questions:
1. Why finish a wall with plaster? FWIW, it's an outside wall - is this relevant?
2. Would this concrete be structural? Would cutting a hole big enough to inset a socket back box be a problem from a structural point of view? (I can't imagine it would be, but the question needs to be asked.)
Oli.
I started to put a new socket in the wall in the dining room of zcacogp-Towers last night.
When I came to chasing the back box into the wall, I came across a snag. The wall was coated in concrete, finished with a very thin skim of plaster. This was a bit of a surprise as the other walls in the house have been plastered; it's a victorian terraced house, and the walls are london stock brick. (Naturally, setting a box into concrete will be a significantly bigger job than setting it into plaster, so I'll have another go this evening with a masonry disk on the angle grinder, make a lot of nasty dust and have a great time, but that's neither here nor there!)
However, two questions:
1. Why finish a wall with plaster? FWIW, it's an outside wall - is this relevant?
2. Would this concrete be structural? Would cutting a hole big enough to inset a socket back box be a problem from a structural point of view? (I can't imagine it would be, but the question needs to be asked.)
Oli.
Is it concrete (contains gravel?) or cement render?
Has the property had an injected damp course at any time - are their holes outside a couple of bricks above the floor level?
The reason I ask is that to install a remedial damp course properly you also need to re-plaster inside first with a couple of coats of sand and cement render with a waterproof ad mix and then top it off with a couple of coats of multifinish.
It could simply be that this wall was treated in this way. Either way I wouldn't be particularly concerned about chasing an inch deep hole in it for a back box.
Has the property had an injected damp course at any time - are their holes outside a couple of bricks above the floor level?
The reason I ask is that to install a remedial damp course properly you also need to re-plaster inside first with a couple of coats of sand and cement render with a waterproof ad mix and then top it off with a couple of coats of multifinish.
It could simply be that this wall was treated in this way. Either way I wouldn't be particularly concerned about chasing an inch deep hole in it for a back box.
PH5121 and B17NNS, thanks. You are right, and I need to be more accurate - the substance in question doesn't have gravel in it, so I guess it must be cement render.
There is no evidence of a damp course in there, so I guess it must be as PH5121 said - simply a trait of an older property. I have no reason to think that the wall is anything other than original (although I suspect the 4mm or so of plaster on top is not).
Thanks B17NNS for your comments about it being OK to cut into to install a socket. I thought this was the case, but reassurance is helpful.
Oli.
There is no evidence of a damp course in there, so I guess it must be as PH5121 said - simply a trait of an older property. I have no reason to think that the wall is anything other than original (although I suspect the 4mm or so of plaster on top is not).
Thanks B17NNS for your comments about it being OK to cut into to install a socket. I thought this was the case, but reassurance is helpful.
Oli.
Just one more thing to mention. I have in the past whilst chopping out a socket box in a Victorian terraced house made a serving hatch between two properties, as the partition wall was only one course of brick wide.
I just wanted to mention that so you were not too aggressive with the grinder.
I just wanted to mention that so you were not too aggressive with the grinder.
PH5121 said:
Just one more thing to mention. I have in the past whilst chopping out a socket box in a Victorian terraced house made a serving hatch between two properties, as the partition wall was only one course of brick wide.
I just wanted to mention that so you were not too aggressive with the grinder.
I hope the neighbours cooking was good! I just wanted to mention that so you were not too aggressive with the grinder.
'Tis in the back wall of the house, so any over-enthusiastic grinding will simply introduce some extra ventilation. But given the thickness of the wall I'd need something more than a small angle grinder to get through!
Thanks for the warning all the same.
Oli.
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