Rules on laying a cable in my garden

[mrmr96]

First of all, STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK!! (I'm talking about electricity, not poo.)

Anyway. I want to run an electricity cable to my garage. I live in a terrace with one house and their garage between me and my garage:

My Garage|Their Garage|Their House|My House

============PATH=====================

============ROAD=====================

So the idea is to run a lead down to the end of my garden (laid under the soil near the fence on my neighbours side) then run it underneath the slabs which form a shared access path to the back of my garden and the gardens of houses which my garden backs onto.

I'm pretty sure you'd need permission for a "permanent" cable to be run, but my idea was to avoid this rule by fitting a 13amp plug on the end which connects to my house, and an extention cord 4-gang socket on the end which will terminate in the garage. Therefore what I've got is a "temporary" extension lead, albeit made of armoured cable.

Can anyone spot a problem with this plan?

Cheers
(PS - I'll not be online again until Friday.)

[DPX]

It may come under the new elec regs from a couple of years ago that you must have the correct certificates to do and certify the work . I think small repairs are OK but new installs must be done by the correct person .
Building Control at local council could be worth a call.

[Fer]

DPX said:

It may come under the new elec regs from a couple of years ago that you must have the correct certificates to do and certify the work . I think small repairs are OK but new installs must be done by the correct person .
Building Control at local council could be worth a call.

I was told that if it is not permenant, i.e. runs off a 3 pin plug, then it is not covered by the Part-P. Anyway, this is not an issue, since it was there when he moved in!

[DPX]

all ok then , i just went down my local J**son ( cannot advertise ) and bought the heavy duty pipe for cables , really cheap . Put in a draw cord and buried it 1.5 meter down . Put the armoured cable in ( pulled ) . Sealed up both ends with some smelly wax / tar stuff . In the house I used a nice RCD to terminate the cable and then put my plug on the other side.
If it is a long way it is a real good excuse to hire a bobcat and play :-)

[AJS-]

Sorry to be really immature about this, but since laying a cable is a slang term for having a shit in some areas, this is a pretty funny topic.

[Fer]

AJS- said:

Sorry to be really immature about this, but since laying a cable is a slang term for having a shit in some areas, this is a pretty funny topic.

You risked your "one post every 12 days" to tell us this? Must have been important!

[oldsoak]

Fer said:

AJS- said:

Sorry to be really immature about this, but since laying a cable is a slang term for having a shit in some areas, this is a pretty funny topic.

You risked your "one post every 12 days" to tell us this? Must have been important!

..especially so when the OP had already said...
"First of all, STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK!! (I'm talking about electricity, not poo.)"

[Tony 1234]

mrmr96 said:

First of all, STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK!! (I'm talking about electricity, not poo.)

Anyway. I want to run an electricity cable to my garage. I live in a terrace with one house and their garage between me and my garage:

My Garage|Their Garage|Their House|My House

============PATH=====================

============ROAD=====================

So the idea is to run a lead down to the end of my garden (laid under the soil near the fence on my neighbours side) then run it underneath the slabs which form a shared access path to the back of my garden and the gardens of houses which my garden backs onto.

I'm pretty sure you'd need permission for a "permanent" cable to be run, but my idea was to avoid this rule by fitting a 13amp plug on the end which connects to my house, and an extention cord 4-gang socket on the end which will terminate in the garage. Therefore what I've got is a "temporary" extension lead, albeit made of armoured cable.

Can anyone spot a problem with this plan?

Cheers
(PS - I'll not be online again until Friday.)

I think there is a bit more to it than that, you will need your neighbours written permision to encroach onto their land, what if someone else was digging in the same area and got an electric shock (even with armour cable) this could be a right can of worms! IMHO of course.

[Wacky Racer]

I have run power from my main garage (off three wall sockets) to a new garage I have built next to it, but have buried the (fairly thick) plastic coated three core cable inside scaffolding pipe a couple of feet underground...

Never had any problems after nearly four years, the worst that could happen would be a fuse go in the "Feed" plugs.....

This was before these new "regs" came in a couple of years ago.....

Edited by Wacky Racer on Thursday 18th October 12:35

[Chrisgr31]

I would speak to the neighbours to see if there is an alternative you can agree, possibly even taking a feed of their supply and putting a meter on it so you can pay your share of the bill, or running a cable a different route etc.

Certainly if you are going to lay a cable under a path I would ensure the relevant regs are kept to, even if you subsequently claim it was done donkey years ago.

[oldsoak]

Why do you need mains electricity in there anyway?
Lighting can be provided via battery operated lamps or by investing in a 'jenny' to run your lighting/power tools from may be a cheaper and less time consuming alternative in the long run...

[DavidY]

A few inches (I can't remember by how many) you need to lay some electriacl safety warning tape, the ide being that if in future a digger goes in and finds the tape, he/she should then stop before ripping through the electrical cable.

davidy

[Observer2]

I'm not a sparky but what you're doing seems dodgy, to say the least. First, if you've laid pipe underground to carry the cable (I assume steel pipe or is it plastic), you don't also need to use armoured cable (SWA). Second, how are you going to terminate the SWA at: (i) supply end (ii) garage end (you can't terminate SWA properly in a 13A plug top or in an extension socket). Third, what load are you proposing to run in the garage and how far is it from garage to house? That will bear on the size of cable needed).

What you're proposing is (almost certainly) in effect a permamnent installation so contrary to Part P building regs, and may be dangerous. You could post for advice on http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=8 but prepare to be flamed. The professional sparkies on there are not long on patience.

[rude-boy]

Legal mine field.

Easements needed to cross over the other land. neighbours might be sweet about it, but I’ll bet they don't know that they are breaching their mortgage T&Cs if they haven't advised them, and they will want it all done via solicitors...

Then you have the Part P stuff to deal with. Now I am not exactly green when it comes to most electrics but I have had to get a sparky in to do a load of stuff at my house thanks to these and sure as hell nothing he did was as potentially difficult (dangerous) as laying an underground pipe across someone else’s land.

Personally if would say either buy a genny or if it is for an optimate/similar either bite the bullet and do it properly or move. IMO

Look at it this way. Neighbour sells up. New bloke moves in whilst you are on holiday/ before you have told him about the cable and whilst laying new patio puts his Spear and Jackson trough the cable and ends up medium rare. It isn’t going to be good for either him or you is it

[bryan35]

must be off an RCD,

the buriel depth depends on where the cable is run - paths, lawn etc,

must be armoured cable


all changes dependingon whether the feed is from a plug top or wired into a consumer unit/spur (ie permenant)

The cable colours are all over the plae thanks to the new regs,

2 core armoured is Brown, Blue, and armour is earth,

old armoured is Red is live, Black is neutral, and armoured is earth

DIY shop is Brown, Black, and Grey, where brown is live, black becomes earth and grey is neutral,

3 phase is black brown grey too, but now black is live and not earth, grey is live as well and not neutral, and brown is live as well.

hope you're not confused.

[bryan35]

one point to note, which is quite interesting,

If you install anything - electricity, gas, water, it's all completely legal UNTIL it's connected to the mains service. (or gas bottles if bottles gas)

so, you can completely rewire your house if you wish, or completely install a gas central heating system, and it's only when it comes to connecting it that you need a registered person to certify that it's safe.

until that point,it's just a load of DIY bits bolted together.

Once it IS connected however, then technically you can't work on it.

[fish]

Just to be extra pedantic you can legaly do all your OWN gas works....

[L14MNV]

I’m thinking of doing the same thing and yes, lawfully and technically speaking, there is a whole heap of hassle - possible neighbour problems, legal difficulties, the hole depth, cable type etc.

I think the best option is to just ignore everything and just run armoured cable along my fence, under his gate, then along the back of his fence then into my garage. Maybe put some plastic "stuff" around the cable to make it look more presentable?

Stand by for the “It went bad” thread.

[JustinP1]

mrmr96 said:

Can anyone spot a problem with this plan?

Someone ramming a spade/fork through it and sueing you.

A lot of hassle, cost and risk for not much reward.

A generator would be cheaper? Indeed I would rather do a deal with my neighbour to get the leccy from their garage through the wall.

[oldsoak]

JustinP1 said:

A generator would be cheaper?

Quite possibly so....http://www.worldofpower.co.uk/acatalog/SIP_04515_Suitcase_Generator.html

Edited by oldsoak on Thursday 18th October 15:16