socket outlet heights help????

[happyhero]

Hi can anybody advise please?

My Mum is going for a rewire in her house and we know the sockets are not high enough according to regs. We also know that the regs cannot normally be applied retrospectively i.e. they cannot make everybody rewire there house to bring them up to date as the regs change,


BUT

what if she is having a rewire just to renew the cables?

Surely the regs won’t ask that every socket is moved to the correct height because it’s being rewired. Her sockets are ok and there are conduits to them so a rewire will not be too bad unless of course all the sockets have to be moved and therefore require loads of channelling out of the walls.

Can anybody advise on this or even quote the regs regarding this situation, i.e. new cable but sockets can be left alone?

Any help appreciated.

 

[JohnD]

You are not compelled to move sockets in an existing house.

Where are the sockets now? On the skirting boards or above them?

If on the skirting board this is not a good place, you will bang them with your ankles and crack them with the hoover and furniture, and this has been frowned on for more than 30 years..

If about 12" up from the floor (1970's standard) this is perfectly reasonable.

If someone on the house is old or disabled, or is going to be one day, then higher sockets are an advantage. If the walls have to be chased out for wires or sunken backboxes (surface fittings are really naff) then you might as well put them at the more current higher level. 18" above the floor is going to look perfectly normal as we get more used to them, and low sockets are going to seem really weird.

If it is rented out or sold in future people will be very happy with higher sockets.

But you are right, chasing walls makes a lot of dust and grit.

 

[happyhero]

Cheers for that JohnD, the sockets are mostly just over the skirting with a couple in the skirting (1930's house).

Out of interest what is the regs regarding height with light switches?

 

[JohnD]

For new build or places likely to be used by the disabled (so you can reach them from a wheelchair) both sockets and light switches can be put between 450mm and 1200mm from the floor (say, 18" and 4').

I think sockets look OK at the lower level, and light switches look OK at the higher level, even for the AB, and are easy to reach with little bending. In kitchens, garages and workrooms/offices sockets are very convenient if placed about 150mm above the worktop/bench/desk height.


(there is a very easy way of putting sockets just above the skirting, where you bang a gap in the plaster where the skirting meets the wall, and poke the cable up it. This technique is now obsolete.)