Leaving unused cables in walls - best practice?

[Seb101]

When you leave an unused cable buried in a wall, because it is no longer needed and removing it would be more effort than it's worth - is there any best practice for terminating the ends and labelling it?

Or do you just chop it off and forget about it?

 

[John D v2.0]

It's not like gas, you just chop and forget. Or ideally remove from the enclosures containing live cables and leave it labelled for future reuse.
If you can't remove from an enclosure containing live cables you should connect all conductors to the earth terminal

 

[Seb101]

I've also removed the enclosures. It was the load run from a counter level FCU to where the cooker hood used to be, but neither the FCU or the cooker hood will be there any more, so the all the accessories and back-boxes have been removed, I tried to pull the cable through but it seems it's got encapsulated in some of the spot-and-dab plaster and wouldn't budge. So I just chopped it off and poked it back up behind the plaster.

Just thought that if anyone is doing future work, they might get a shock (emotional not electrical) when they find they've chopped/drilled through a cable which is not in a safe zone... but what can you do.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You've also disconnected the supply cable at source, I hope.

 

[John D v2.0]

Just thought that if anyone is doing future work, they might get a shock (emotional not electrical) when they find they've chopped/drilled through a cable which is not in a safe zone... but what can you do.

Sounds fine! What's the difference between a redundant cable and one for future expansion?

 

[JohnW2]

Sounds fine! What's the difference between a redundant cable and one for future expansion?

In the case of my house (after 30 years, I still occasionally discover them), one difference is that the lead-sheathed and VIR-insulated ones probably aren't intended for 'future expansion'

Kind Regards, John