cables buried in plaster

[carefulamateur]

I am new to this forum but from what I have read it appears to be very helpful and informative. Can anyone tell me the regulations regarding burying t&e cables in plaster walls. i.e. what depth , what protection, position etc.

Thank you

 

[Adam_151]

Cables in walls must either be:

1) protected by being enclosed in earthed metal conduit (not capping)
2) at least 50mm below the surface of the plaster
3) In prescribed zones, which are within 150mm of a corner, in the top 150mm of the wall where it joins the ceiling, or running excatly horzontally or vertically from an electrical accessory to which it is connected.

with regards to #3, as most DIYiers who want to drill into a wall do not know these zones, most people try and stick to just running cables vertically to accessories

 

[carefulamateur]

Thank you for that. If option 3 is used with cables running vertically to sockets is there no requirement regarding depth in plaster or shielding of cable?

 

[Adam_151]

Thank you for that. If option 3 is used with cables running vertically to sockets is there no requirement regarding depth in plaster or shielding of cable?

That is correct, however you may elect to use capping so when the chase is plastered over, the cable is not damaged by the trowl, if you think there might be a need to draw in new cables in the future, the use of pvc conduit may be advised. There is however no requirement for the above and if you wanted you could just clip the cable to the wall and plaster over it, however this might not be good forward planning and you may end up curseing yourself for doing as such.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/C5-43.pdf

http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/concealedcables.pdf