Plastering over chased in cabling

[Ben565]

Hi,

I recently had my house rewired and have a couple of questions for the plasterers among you.

The electrician who carried out the work has chased in all the wiring and capped it. I've noticed that in places the capping is pretty much flush with the surface of the existing plaster, shouldnt it be a bit deeper? is this normal practice? and how would a plasterer be expected to plaster over it?

Another question, the (large) trunking to the consumer unit is fixed to the surface of the wall, on top of the original crumbling plaster which needs to be replaced. Wouldnt it have made more sense to chase it in (at least partially) and fix it to the wall rather than the crumbling plaster? How would you replaster it now? boarding is out of the question as it requires doing with Lime. Presumably the whole lot will have to be fetched off and re-fitted.

I can supply some pictures if that helps.

 

[Micilin]

Pics please yes.

Have you paid him? Of course as you know they need to be deep enough to get plaster on them otherwise it will crack .

Sounds like a lazy electrician,presumably qualified but makes no difference as many are not tradesmen regardless of the papers they have.this one isn't.

What was his brief? Did you specify chasing in to the unit?

 

[Ben565]

Sadly yes already paid. The business was highly rated on TrustaTrader, the job was done on time, to budget, everything works and was certified. So I assumed the job was done properly. It's only afterwards that I've started noticing things that have made me question the quality of work.

The brief was to chase everything in and flush fit electrical sockets. He did advise that the trunking to the CU couldnt be chased in as it was too deep to be plastered over, which it is, but doesnt make sense fixing it on top of plaster which he knows is being removed.

Will post some pics later this evening, at work at the moment.

I should add, the original plaster only looks like it's about 10mm thick if that. Dunno if this is normal or not. It may be the original plaster in the house is too thin, the electricians have chased into the brickwork in places.

 

[Micilin]

10mm is not too thin for plaster. Regardless of depth of plaster the electrician should have chased deep enough or at least brought ant problems to your attention.
No excuses.

Sadly it is becoming more common that the idea of a 'trade' is dying. By which I mean not just doing the bare minimum for your self but thinking about others coming after you. In turn the man before you did his bit to hel you.

Eg sparks tucked his wires in for the plasterer, the plasterer cleaned out the boxes for the sparkle.

The Chippy put his frames in to minimise the plaster thickness, the spread made sure the bottoms of the walls were cut clean for the skirting and cleaned the frames.


Etc

 

[Ben565]

Sorry for the lack of any pictures.

I did call the electrician back for this, he agreed some were a bit shallow and has gone around all the chases and re-done them a bit deeper, minimum 5mm but mostly 10mm clearance over the capping now.

Should have been done right to begin with but fair play came back and did them again FOC. There were 2 or 3 other guys helping him with the rewire so possibly was one of them.

 

[Micilin]

Sorry for the lack of any pictures.

I did call the electrician back for this, he agreed some were a bit shallow and has gone around all the chases and re-done them a bit deeper, minimum 5mm but mostly 10mm clearance over the capping now.

Should have been done right to begin with but fair play came back and did them again FOC. There were 2 or 3 other guys helping him with the rewire so possibly was one of them.

Fair play to all concerned, just make sure they are pinned well so that they don't move. Nice to hear something sorted sensibly.