Tidy loft cables

[chriselevate]

Just wondering the best way to tidy the cables the previous owners have left in the loft. The cables are lighting cables. I guess they should be clipped to the joists and left loose when they leave the joist to run on top of the plasterboard to the light fitting?

When the cable has to cross a joist, what’s the method to do that? I don’t want to notch or drill a hole in the side of the joist so wondering how to go about this?

Thanks.

 

[sparkwright]

The correct way to run cables in lofts is to clip the cable along the side of the joists.

Where cables have to go across the joists, the cables should be run towards the eaves, so they can't be walked on. The cable gets clipped to the top of the joist.

There should be no diagonal wiring, everything should be neat and 'square'.

It may be that there is no slack in your cables to neatly arrange them.

One method to overcome the problem of diagonal wiring is to fit a wooden batten (diagonally if there's no alternative) to the top of the joists, and clip to the side of that.

Not ideal, but what can you do?

 

[chriselevate]

Ahhh right. That makes sense. Thanks so much!

I did wonder how they would cross a joist.

I guess one option I could do is cut the cables, used wago boxes and fasten them to the side of the joist?

Not ideal and it’ll get quite expensive with the additional cable but guess this would solve the problem as I could then run right out to the eves and then along the correct joist and clip it correctly?

 

[sparkwright]

Are you boarding the loft, or simply trying to tidy the wiring up?

 

[chriselevate]

I need to add some more insulation over the rooms (where they have a ceiling roses and some spots) and then a central area I’m thinking of using a loft zone solution to raise and board the area for light storage.

 

[RF Lighting]

Just leave them be and chuck your insulation straight over the top if they’re just lighting cables. Don’t if they’re not!

 

[chriselevate]

Thanks for that guys. I’ll do a general tidy up and clip them in vertical/horizontals and not do any diagonal runs. Appreciate your help and advice as always. Thanks.

 

[chriselevate]

Where cables have to go across the joists, the cables should be run towards the eaves, so they can't be walked on. The cable gets clipped to the top of the joist.

When a cable runs to the eves, should it run inside or outside of the eves? There's a few that I can do this with so just wondered what the preference when the cable gets to the eves. thanks.