I live in a flat but with reinforced concrete floors and ceilings, into which the original wiring has been embedded and not fed through conduit. Also, the solid brick walls have a very thin layer of plaster and as a result, the cables that run down from the ceiling to the light switches, and from the sockets to the floor make the plaster bulge as the plaster depth is just too shallow to hide them adequately. As a consequence, I have resigned myself to the fact that surface trunking will be required for the majority of a pending rewire. I am not an electrician, but my main interest is that the cable runs can look as neat as possible/practicable. I am looking a skirting trunking (domestic looking, low profile and not the commercial items) and coving trunking for ceiling/wall edge runs.)
Now I have a couple of questions:
1) I wish to utilise the original flush light switch/socket cut-outs in the wall, but can additional sockets be kept at the same height which is about 300mm? Or has every socket location need to be 450mm height?
2) Does skirting trunking contravene that fact that the safe zone does not include a run across the wall at floor level, or is it ok because it is classed as trunking?
3) Is it ok to chase the wall from the back of the skirting trunking up to the socket so that no cables are visible? Or has the cable up to the socket also be in trunking as well? This involves channelling into the brick itself however.
As I say, I am not an electrician, so won’t be touching anything myself. I would just like an insight into some of the problems I could face before getting quotes etc. Any help or advice will be appreciated, especially when dealing with obstacles like solid ceilings and floors. Thanks.
