Do I have to put this in maintenance free junction box?

[veedee]

Extended a lighting circuit in the ceiling of my extension by using wago 221's

I have neatly placed the wagos in the ceiling and wondered before insulating and plasterboarding do I need to place the wagos in a maintenance free junction box

Is this mandatory?

Also do I need to do anything else before covering the area?

 

[EFLImpudence]

I have neatly placed the wagos in the ceiling and wondered before insulating and plasterboarding do I need to axe the wagos in a maintenance free junction box

When finished, will you be able to access the area for maintenance?

Is this mandatory?

As mandatory as anything is.

Also do I need to do anything else before covering the area?

It depends what you have done so far.

 

[veedee]

When finished, will you be able to access the area for maintenance?

I see where you are going with this.

If you cannot access the area, then it needs to be in a maintenance free enclosure

 

[ericmark]

If not accessible for maintenance then should use maintenance free, but no one says what is accessible for maintenance, so no hard and fast rules, and you should not be able to touch live parts without the use of a tool or key, except for a ceiling rose. However if in the void between ceiling and floor boards can be considered as an electrical enclosure again no hard and fast rule, I would say it's not an electrical enclosure so it needs to be in a box requiring a tool or key, but you clearly need a tool to lift floor boards.

I have seen many floor boards marked junction box below, which has then been covered up with some floor covering be it carpet or laminate flooring, so no longer really accessible, but also been on jobs where to maintain a machine it involved knocking down a brick wall, which was re-built after the repair, that was the planned method of maintenance, wall built for fire spread reasons.

So really down to common sense, but can't really have rules based on common sense, I know in my own house there is a join in a cable some where, as starts as red, yellow, blue, and arrives as brown, black, grey, but no idea where it is joined. And I know in a brick house junction boxes with terminal screws have gone for decades without a problem, but in a metal frame building terminal screws have come loose, and with things like batching plants servicing where electricians went around checking tightness of terminals was a regular job, but in a house, even with a 10 years EICR terminals are not tested for tightness, so if not checked, why worry about being maintenance free or not, as even if not maintenance free, no maintenance is done anyway.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

I wouldn't really want all the sawdust and plaster dust to fall into the Wagos over the years, because it wouldn't do them a lot of good, so would want to enclose them anyway.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Of course the junction must be in an enclosure. If the enclosure is not fixed then the entries must provide strain relief god the cables. That’s regulations.
The ceiling void does not count as an enclosure.
Or my whole house could be considered an enclosure!

If the junction is not accessible it needs to be maintenance free.

There’s nothing else to say.

 

[sparkwright]

As Taylor has indicated, WHATEVER happens, that joint needs to be in an enclosure - so a standard Wago box is the answer - as it it will do whether the joint is accessible or inaccessible.

 

[veedee]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Will place the connectors in a Wagobox.

 

[ericmark]

The ceiling void does not count as an enclosure.

Are you sure? The DNO plant room was considered as an enclosure, where there were bare copper bars carrying the low voltage with not insulation, so if a whole room can be an enclosure, why not the ceiling void?

I think it is wrong not to put in a junction box, as some one may lift boards without knowing we would need to affix labels on the floor boards, as easy to use feel to find things under the boards. Same with door to plant room had on the door, but we consider what is sensible, and we know sensible to put the wires in a lighting junction box, mainly so there is some strain relief on the cables.

However there is a big difference to saying I would not do that, to saying if some one does that it is considered as potential dangerous.