DIY Help..... Wall Chasing?

[TheAnimus]

So i want to chase some wires into the wall, anyone got any tips?

I've decided to hire a wall chaser with dimond disc, as the walls i have are an incredibly tough agrigate block type wall.

Are there any trunkings i should put in, too allow wire to be fed through?

Anyone got any good guides?

[schmunk]

If you don't own a Collins / Reader's Digest DIY manual, buy one now. That's my top tip!

[Andeh13]

I second schmunk, they are excellent books & will more then likely have all the infomation you will need. We used to have one but i dont have it with me at uni so cant look it up for you, sorry mate.

[Andaho]

nice photo schmunk - jim carrey your dad?

[Whalefish]

The Which Book of Wiring and Lighting by Mike Lawrence.
Very good if you want to do some DIY wiring.

[mycarsavw]

Unless you're a qualified electrician, you're going to run into some issues when you come to sell your house.

Have a read of;

Building Regulations Part P - Planning, building and the environment - Communities and Local Government

and;
Planning Portal - Associated Documents

If you do it to a high standard you can elect to have Building Control inspect your work and hopefully they'll sign it off for you. If they don't sign it off you'll either have to rip it out and have another go or get someone (a professional) in to sort it out for you.

Just a heads up from someone who's been there.

[TheAnimus]

whilst its mildly infurating that someone who's got an engineering degree and has proved knowledge of more than enough electronics to wire a house, i do understand the need to get it signed off..... which is kind of why i want to do it now.

I'm having a new kitchen, and recon i'll be able to perswade the bloke to have a quick shifty at my handywork then, and also get the plasterer to skim over it for me.

could just go the whole hog and get them to do it for me i guess, but figure i could do with saving the money (new kitchen has seriously dented funds).

Thanks for the advice guys, looks like i'll be picking up a copy of the collins diy guide.

[schmunk]

mycarsavw - I had posted an angry rebuke, until I noticed that TheAnimus had beaten me to it by confirming it is mains wiring in his kitchen. Therefore, ye, he will need to consider whether the work is notifiable.

However, most any work one does outside the kitchen and bathroom is not notifiable, so if he had been doing this wiring in his sitting room, or bedroom, he could just do it without worry (except for quality of workmanship, of course...)

[TheAnimus]

sweet!

i figured i'd channel the TV wires for my bedroom whilst i was at it (run the two sky leads + vhf + power + hdmi + etherenet in the wall).

So don't need that that bit signed off

[JPreston]

How does this signing off business work in practice, can you not just do it yourself and just never tell anyone about it? I realise the colour coding of the cable will approximately date it but just say your dog ate the certificate or something?

[mycarsavw]

mycarsavw - I had posted an angry rebuke, until I noticed that TheAnimus had beaten me to it by confirming it is mains wiring in his kitchen. Therefore, ye, he will need to consider whether the work is notifiable.

However, most any work one does outside the kitchen and bathroom is not notifiable, so if he had been doing this wiring in his sitting room, or bedroom, he could just do it without worry (except for quality of workmanship, of course...)

I saw your angry rebuke we're all adults, I can take it.

My F-i-L is an electrician, I've had this conversations many many times. Outside of the kitchen/bathroom, yes you are ok but only to an extent. Like you say, it's better to get it double checked just to be sure.

If you get an electrician chum to do the work and he gets "Dodgy Dave" to issue you a certificate, god help "Dodgy Dave" or the electrician chum when something goes wrong.

Wiring/chasing is fairly straight forward, as long as you work through methodically and slowly you'll be ok. Obviously make sure you turn off and/or remove the fuse for the area you're working in. If you can turn off the whole house, even better. You have no idea of the quality of workmanship of the previous owner so they may not have done things "properly" or isolated circuits from each other

[Nick]

The easiest way is to not give the wall too much of a head start and then either go for a quick burst all out sprint and take it down at speed or settle into an easy pace and wait for the wall to tire before closing in.

Or have I read the thread title wrong?

[Buzzsaw]

Haveing helped my father to build an extension the other year, and him being a chartered surveyor, it was all done by the book.
We installed the wires and backing boxes.
An electrician connected it together.
the building inspector ok'd it ( and the rest of the extension).

Other options which we've used in the past include:
putting in plastic ducting (good if you need to make any changes to the wiring in the future, and saves on having to fill in a big trench in the wall!), then plaster over.
If you can run the wires somewhere they will not be seen (behind cupboards, under worktop, along doorframe) then a surface mounted plastic duct may work. Just paint it after to match the rest of the wall.

[Howard]

The easiest way is to not give the wall too much of a head start and then either go for a quick burst all out sprint and take it down at speed or settle into an easy pace and wait for the wall to tire before closing in.

Or have I read the thread title wrong?

[bigblue]

If you're doing any sort of AV wiring I'd put some fairly wide ducting in, if at all possible possible, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you never know what else you're gonna run through it, so a wee bit of extra space is handy. And secondly, because certain types of plaster/filler ruin certain types of AV cables, it just eats right through the sheathing.

Also (I'm sure you would anyway, but just in case) put in a few string "pulls" just in case you do wish to run any more cables through it.

If you don't have any DIY manuals to hand, AVForums DIY section has a load of posts giving advice on how to chase cables, might give you a bit of a head start. That's pretty much all I read before I took to my walls with a vengeance. Possibly more luck than judgement that it went well, but hey !