any electricians/sparkies on here?

[ik9000]

Just taken up the floor in one room to lay some insulation and the wiring we had installed for us back in October has a nick in it. Just through the outer grey sleeve; the inner core (brown in this case) is intact so no copper showing etc. Would i be ok either using a bit of insulating tape (which I own) or a couple of these heatshrink sleeves?https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heat-Shrink...dp/B07CWVR8KV/ which I also own as well as a heatgun. Alternatively if neither of those are suitable what should I buy to reinstate protection here. It's on a lighting circuit to a bathroom light if that makes a difference, but above the plasterboard ceiling. Length is small, prob 0.5-1.0cm total and the nick is just to one side/short edge of the oval cable (not all way around it).

[Ferral]

So has the grey outer been sliced right through to the cable inside. If the brown & blue (there will also be a line of copper in the center which is your earth) have not been damaged at all just use some electricians tape to wrap round where the slice is in the outer sheath.

The outer grey is literally there as mechanical protection to the internal cables, when installing stuff like this it can go into steel trunking which can be quite sharp if it is the prefabricated stuff or conduit and end up getting nicks and cuts, that is what it is there for. Provided no damage to the sheaths on the internal cables you have nothing to worry about.

Lighting should be on a 6 Amp RCD and 1.5mm individual cables or twin & earth equivalent.

[ik9000]

yes, it's just the outer grey of the twin core. We just took a stanley to a spare offcut to compare and it is definitely not through (or into) the brown sleeve to the inner cable, but the brown sleeve is visible, just not itself damaged. It's right on the side so the other two are not affected or showing at all. Pics below. The light is directly below the plasterboard (that red plug+ screw is one of the three fixing screws)

[Ferral]

So whoever did the install has nicked that outer sleeve, it is what it is designed for. Really that brown shouldn't be exposed like that as if something were to hit it or sever it then it causes problems. However the likelihood of anything happening to it is minimal so I would just wrap round it with some red sparky tape.

Other option would be seeing how much loose cable you have and trimming back to there and rewiring into the light. Whenever I do wiring I give a good 6 inch or so spare with the twin and earth and then another 3 inch from where you trim the grey outer away but some sparkies leave very little to play with. It is a bit naughty as you need a bit of loose incase anything happens like a light fitting coming loose and if it were to drop and then a live or the loop pulls loose you could have a live fitting if it is metal and could cause an electrical fire.

I would recommend though just putting some sparkies tape round that bit as it is not something that is going to be getting disturbed on a regular basis or something that is moving

[ik9000]

thanks. I've got blue brown and green/yellow tape so will use the blue. Alternative is the black shrink wrap from above link but if tape will do it saves me having to use the heat gun. I've just got to find which box I stuck the tape into when we were packing the house up!

[IAmATeaf]

If you have shrink wrap put that on, will offer much better protection than electrical tape.