Hints for running cable please.

[Pickup]

Hi,

My daughter would like some downlighters in her hall (1st floor flat) to replace the pendant lamp.

Don't have any worries about wiring them up but does anyone have any tips for getting the cable past the ceiling joists (other than cutting holes inthe plasterboard and re-plastering )

Thanks

 

[securespark]

They are rather large, these joists...

Lift the boards upstairs instead. That's the only practical way to give the cable protection.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

1st floor flat

Lift the boards upstairs instead.

That might be easier said than done.

My daughter would like some downlighters in her hall (1st floor flat) to replace the pendant lamp.

Hopefully the fact that you're both expecting to have to put multiple lights in to replace one pendant will tell you that you're planning to put lights in which don't work properly, i.e. don't do the job of lighting up rooms very well. If they did work properly you wouldn't need lots of them.

Don't have any worries about wiring them up

Maybe not, but this is a flat.

You don't need a warrant for the electrical work, but you would be strongly advised to check what the Building Regulations say about fire resistance and the passage of sound if you are going to be cutting holes in the ceiling.

 

[chivers67]

What's above it another flat of loft?

 

[JohnW2]

If they did work properly you wouldn't need lots of them.

I wish you could convince my wife and daughters that that also applies to shoes and handbags - if not also clothes!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Pickup]

Thanks for the feedback folks.

The downlighters are to go in a hall which is quite long and dingy (no windows or glazed doors), appropriate fire hoods will be installed.

There's another flat above.

Sooo.. any suggestions for how to run the cables.

Thanks again.

 

[bernardgreen]

deleted

 

[SimonH2]

Well if you were really really lucky you might find that you could get a small right-angle drill adapter in and be able to drill through one joint either side. Or, with a long drill bit, put it through the hole for the downlighter at an angle and drill through the joist.

Repeat that every other joist and you've got a hole. But then you'd have to thread a cable through one joist, across a gap, and through another hole you can't see - good game, good game as Brucy used to say.

Of course, while drilling you won't be able to see if there are any pipes or cables in the way

 

[flameport]

appropriate fire hoods will be installed.

Doubtful since installing fire hoods will be extremely difficult with no access from above.
Even if they were somehow fitted, there is still the issue of sound passing through the holes you have made in the ceiling.

The realistic option is to install another ceiling below the existing one and put the lights into that.

Or forget the downlights completely and install some other type of lighting.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Maybe not, but this is a flat.

You don't need a warrant for the electrical work,

You will in Scotland.

- Electrical work adversely affecting a separating wall, eg recessed sockets (which I am reading as wall=ceiling)
- Wiring to artificial lighting
http://www.clacksweb.org.uk/document/2106.pdf
http://www.esc.org.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/industry/downloads/ScotBuilRegs.pdf

although if you run a new cable for an extractor fan at the same time, you won't.

Almost makes Part Pee look sensible.

 

[sparkwright]

If the joists don't run in your favour, and there's coving, you may be able to run the cable through this, with a little damage here and there.

 

[JohnW2]

In the past, I've seen this problem addressed by looping the cable under the ceiling joists and plastering it in where it travelled under the joists - obviously involving quite a few holes (and the smaller they are, the more fun one is likely to have wiggling cables through them!). I can't really decide whether this would still be compliant even in a single dwelling, let alone if the ceiling were part of the separation between flats - what do people think?

That system existed in a house I once owned (many moons ago). Top floor bedrooms were immediately beneath a flat roof (ceiling joists were the 'roof structure'), hence with no practical access from above (the flat roof leaked enough as it was, without people interfering with it!). As I discovered during some redecorating, the cables to central light fittings had been looped under joists and 'plastered in'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Pickup]

You will in Scotland.

- Electrical work adversely affecting a separating wall, eg recessed sockets (which I am reading as wall=ceiling)
- Wiring to artificial lighting

Domestic Building - "Repairs and replacement - Electrical fixtures, eg luminaries - Flat - Warrant Not required"

Probably comes down to a matter of interpretation.

Will take the pendant down and see what lies above.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers

F