DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice regarding a exposed wire hanging from my ceiling.

I've recently purchased a property and the smoke alarm was a bit of an eye sore so I removed it from the ceiling in the living room. This has exposed 6 wires from the ceiling.

My question is what is the safest way to cap off these wires so they can be pushed back up in to the ceiling ready to plaster over the gap?

I bought a connector block from b&q and capped all 6 wires individually, and then wrapped the hell out of everything exposed with electricians tape. Will that suffice to push back up into the ceiling or does the wire need to be traced and removed by a professional?

Apologies for the incredibly noob question, very new to this and admittedly, I have no clue what I'm doing.

Cheers

The first question is what voltage. With low voltage we have to show with devices where cables run. It's called safe zones and what it means is we use common sense to work out where cables run. So if we see a socket we know it must have either vertical or horizontal cables feeding it so we should be very careful drilling in vertical or horizontal lines from the socket.

Removing an item means we also remove the indication that cables may be present so in the main we have to ensure these cables and made dead.

The regulations don't actually have any different requirements for low voltage and extra low voltage but common sense says there is a lot less danger with 12 volt to 230 volt cables.

Often we need to use blanking plates so cable routes are still shown rather than simply plastering over unused sockets or switches.

Without seeing the ceiling hard to answer but likely some ceiling rose or similar is required to show there are live cables.

ericmark wrote:The first question is what voltage. With low voltage we have to show with devices where cables run. It's called safe zones and what it means is we use common sense to work out where cables run. So if we see a socket we know it must have either vertical or horizontal cables feeding it so we should be very careful drilling in vertical or horizontal lines from the socket.

Removing an item means we also remove the indication that cables may be present so in the main we have to ensure these cables and made dead.

The regulations don't actually have any different requirements for low voltage and extra low voltage but common sense says there is a lot less danger with 12 volt to 230 volt cables.

Often we need to use blanking plates so cable routes are still shown rather than simply plastering over unused sockets or switches.

Without seeing the ceiling hard to answer but likely some ceiling rose or similar is required to show there are live cables.

Thanks for the response.

I'm not sure on the voltage tbh, I have a picture of my attempt to tape this up but I won't be able to post it until later on today if that helps.

I've been told something about a junction box? Would that be an option?

My overall aim is to plaster over this hole as the cable will never be in use. But I've been told the work required to trace and remove the unwanted cable would be time consuming and likely expensive, is there any safe way to cap off or kill this cable and leave it in the ceiling so it can be plastered and forgotten about, or does it absolutely need to be removed?

My other alternative is to fit a new fire alarm in its place so the cable is again in use, its not really what I want but it could avoid a lot of hassle and may be the easier option?

Thanks again.

Two options disconnect cable as source and connect to earth, or fit something where the alarm is which shows there is electric power.

With 12 volt personally I would not worry. There is no difference to low voltage and extra low voltage in regulations but common sense says 12 volt is not a problem.

Regulations say must be RCD protected but I have never seen a RCD which will work under 50 volt so a bit silly really.

Only you can decide if regulations are OTT in your case.