conservatory wiring

[daveaspy]

we have an old conservatory on the back of the house at the moment - the external house wall is covered with wood panelling. There is one electric circuit...

CU ---Radial---> surface mount dbl socket ---> surface mount switched FCU ---> flourescent lights in a suspended ceiling

the wiring runs behind the wood panelling and into the ceiling space.


The old stuff is coming down to be replaced with a more modern type conservatory. The external house wall will be plasterboarded and skimmed. I am wondering the best thing to do with the electrics on this wall. I would prefer flush mounted sockets and switches - should I mount the metal backboxes and clip wiring to the brickwork before they board it up? And if so, do I need to sink the boxes into the brickwork at all or just straight onto the bricks and the plasterboard will build up around the box to the same depth?

 

[Albert]

Do not forget the safety zones, you can do both; sink the back box into the wall or fix it on the surface. IMO, if you intend to cover the wall with plaster board, it will be unnecessary to chase the wall to fix the back box, if you make sure that the void behind the plaster board is deep enough you can use dry lining back boxes.
remember that if you chase the wall to fix the back box flush, you will find that you will need very long screws to fix the plates.

 

[daveaspy]

ok, if I take the plasterboard surface being say minimum 25mm (*) away from the brick surface then if I mount the boxes with 25mm sticking out we should be ok?


(*) there wont be much of a gap between board and wall if just dot and dabbed right? I seem to remember from when the kitchen was done a while back that there may have been 10mm maybe?

 

[Albert]

Yep, I think 25mm from the wall should do the trick. Do not forget that the plaster board thickness will be 12mm (about 1/2'') or more.

If you use dot and dabb, I think, you will have to chase the wall.

 

[garyo]

at what point would BC want to inspect the electrics on this kind of approach? Before the plasterboard is dotndabbed so that they can examine wire runs, or after so that they can look at connections into sockets, or both?

Gary

 

[Albert]

Being honest I have no idea, I know that they visit at first fix and second fix but as I do my own inspection I am not sure.