flexible conduit, CAN YOU WIRE A HOUSE WITH IT?

[rich.250]

What is people's obsession with wiring houses to make it easier next time, come on face it, you rewire a house now, if in 40+ years you want to rewire, just channel it all out and start again. It bugs me this obsession people have, yeah ok it's nice to help the next guy but Im dammed if I'm going to be using conduit in walls etc, clip it, skim it, sign it off!

Personally,
You'd never catch me or a member of my staff doing this. They'd be out the door!
Do it right and do it once. Even if it is just PVC capping or any type of conduit is far superior! Done many a Rewire with no chasing needed, which says it all.
Unprotected cables in plaster is rough!
Bring back the old school sparks who took care......

 

[jimjimjim]

Aaahhhh OP, 5 pages of people telling you you're wrong and how to do it their way.

If you want to wire it in flexy conduit, then go for it.

Jim

 

[uksparks]

I do use capping, but not all the time, as I do my own plastering I know I am being careful, it's not rough at ll not capping it, it doesn't add any protection.

 

[uksparks]

Personally,
You'd never catch me or a member of my staff doing this. They'd be out the door!
Do it right and do it once. Even if it is just PVC capping or any type of conduit is far superior! Done many a Rewire with no chasing needed, which says it all.
Unprotected cables in plaster is rough!
Bring back the old school sparks who took care......

Putting capping on is a pain in the bum when rewiring as you have to make all the chases 50% wider. It's not rough and nothing wrong with it, I do take a lot of care and doubt you would be ble to pick any faults as such with my rewires.

 

[davesparks]

It is rough and not that many years ago it was considered completely unacceptable.

Capping for new walls and oval conduit for chases in existing walls is the minimum standard as I was taught it.

 

[ayjay]

regarding flexable conduit i think its a great way to go! perfect for a house rewire, the surface drops to the switches look magic btw
just do a 5 day course on how to--- then the install, simple--

 

[R G]

regarding flexable conduit i think its a great way to go! perfect for a house rewire, the surface drops to the switches look magic btw
just do a 5 day course on how to--- then the install, simple--

I see Wickes had better get loads of Flexy Conduit in after this thread , along with loads of How To Leaflets. OMG


Whats wrong with the old school trusted methods ---Chase wall install cables in capping , plaster up---Job Done !!

 

[Engineer54]

I see Wickes had better get loads of Flexy Conduit in after this thread , along with loads of How To Leaflets. OMG


Whats wrong with the old school trusted methods ---Chase wall install cables in capping , plaster up---Job Done !!

That's not old school methods, .....that would have been metal and later plastic conduit drops to switch and socket back boxes and the like!! The advent of the use of capping, is what gave the domestic electrician the name of House Basher!! lol!!

 

[D Skelton]

Personally,
You'd never catch me or a member of my staff doing this. They'd be out the door!
Do it right and do it once. Even if it is just PVC capping or any type of conduit is far superior! Done many a Rewire with no chasing needed, which says it all.
Unprotected cables in plaster is rough!
Bring back the old school sparks who took care......

It is rough and not that many years ago it was considered completely unacceptable.

Capping for new walls and oval conduit for chases in existing walls is the minimum standard as I was taught it.

It's people like you two that cost decent sparks work!

A year or so ago I lost a fairly lucrative contract because some bell end went in after first fix and started bad mouthing my work. The cheif complaint was that I hadn't capped the cables, that it was 'against regs' and I was a cowboy as a result!

I have never once used capping in a domestic rewire, I probably never will either unless someone specifically wants it. I use a damn good plasterer and he hasn't ever caused damage to any exposed cables. Also, the fact is, once skim coat or easifill is in, capping or no capping, they both look exactly the same!

When I rewire a place, I expect it to last 50 years. If the guy after me has to chase out when rewiring, so what?! I love it when I find a bit of reusable conduit in a switch drop, I consider it a lovely bonus, but I don't run around cursing the name of the last spark if there isn't anything reusable!?

 

[cobrauk]

Putting capping on is a pain in the bum when rewiring as you have to make all the chases 50% wider. It's not rough and nothing wrong with it, I do take a lot of care and doubt you would be ble to pick any faults as such with my rewires.

Any type of conduit/capping/ega tube gives you chance of pulling out and replacing any damaged cables try that with buried in plaster.
we always use ega tube as a rule

 

[Engineer54]

I forgot to maybe mention, that my house in Cyprus is completely installed with a embedded plastic conduit containment system (not the flexible crap, quality rigid conduit) and obviously all wired in singles. I hasten to mention that the house is a concrete framed brick/block infill with concrete floors... not the typical UK house construction. It does mean however, that you need to initially think about things very carefully, as well as considering what may be needed in the future. Hopefully i managed to cover everything, but only time will tell!!! lol!!

 

[davesparks]

It's people like you two that cost decent sparks work!

A year or so ago I lost a fairly lucrative contract because some bell end went in after first fix and started bad mouthing my work. The cheif complaint was that I hadn't capped the cables, that it was 'against regs' and I was a cowboy as a result!

I have never once used capping in a domestic rewire, I probably never will either unless someone specifically wants it. I use a damn good plasterer and he hasn't ever caused damage to any exposed cables. Also, the fact is, once skim coat or easifill is in, capping or no capping, they both look exactly the same!

When I rewire a place, I expect it to last 50 years. If the guy after me has to chase out when rewiring, so what?! I love it when I find a bit of reusable conduit in a switch drop, I consider it a lovely bonus, but I don't run around cursing the name of the last spark if there isn't anything reusable!?

I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

When I was an apprentice I was taught that you always cap or pipe t&e under plaster.
I can remember being taught in college that t&e must not come in to contact with wet cement, and I wonder if it was all born out of that? Seeing as how basecoat plaster used to be sand and cement. And sometimes you still do get walls plastered with sand and cement.

And on many occasions I have been thankful that we did use pipe as things have had to change or be repaired later.
On one occasion we had a cable manufacturing fault and had to replace a bit after the chases were filled. Ok so you could argue that it doesn't matter as the cable maker has to pay for the work whatever you have to do, but I'm sure the client wouldn't agree that re chasing a wall would have been better.

But I also wouldn't have bad mouthed your work to your client. If they had asked my opinion for whatever reason I would politely decline to pass comment whatever my opinion of your methods. Obviously if I was asked for an opinion on something downright dangerous I would say something.

 

[D Skelton]

I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

When I was an apprentice I was taught that you always cap or pipe t&e under plaster.
I can remember being taught in college that t&e must not come in to contact with wet cement, and I wonder if it was all born out of that? Seeing as how basecoat plaster used to be sand and cement. And sometimes you still do get walls plastered with sand and cement.

And on many occasions I have been thankful that we did use pipe as things have had to change or be repaired later.
On one occasion we had a cable manufacturing fault and had to replace a bit after the chases were filled. Ok so you could argue that it doesn't matter as the cable maker has to pay for the work whatever you have to do, but I'm sure the client wouldn't agree that re chasing a wall would have been better.

But I also wouldn't have bad mouthed your work to your client. If they had asked my opinion for whatever reason I would politely decline to pass comment whatever my opinion of your methods. Obviously if I was asked for an opinion on something downright dangerous I would say something.

I get what you're saying, but it is this constant rhetoric by people that should really know better, that t+e without capping is dog rough. It isn't!! It is entirely down to personal preference, and to say otherwise is what is feeding this general consensus amonst the less skilled electricians, that any other way is wrong.

You only need to run yer mouth a few times in the wholesaler that not capping cables is cowboy'esq, and thick people will take it literally! Then people like me lose work!

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Capping is not really suitable for chased out walls,it never sits flat in the chase. Fine on bare blockwork though. 20mm plastic chased in on rewires is our standard practice,taken into the box and finished above ceiling level. Each to their own but I have to agree with Davesparks,T/E plastered straight in is an unprofessional job IMO.

 

[Engineer54]

To be honest, i too think it's ''dog rough'' and i'm not too keen on capping (of any kind), or the oval conduit!! But it doesn't really matter what i or the many others here think, if it's not written down in black and white then you can do whatever you like. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't pass muster on a specified project/job...

 

[Andy78]

Horses for courses, time and a place and all that.

Sometimes I use capping, sometimes I clip, sometimes I use conduit. Totally depends on the job. If I have bare walls I will be more inclined to use capping. If inside stud walls I prefer to use conduit.
If I am making a slim chase then I have no problem using clips and filling over the top of it. Agreed it's not installed to the highest standards, but it certainly isn't rough by any means.

It makes no difference to be installed behind capping or embedded in plaster, once it's in, it's in. I certainly don't view a capped cable as rewirable by any means.

 

[shanky887614]

Capping is not really suitable for chased out walls,it never sits flat in the chase. Fine on bare blockwork though. 20mm plastic chased in on rewires is our standard practice,taken into the box and finished above ceiling level. Each to their own but I have to agree with Davesparks,T/E plastered straight in is an unprofessional job IMO.

?

are you saying you struggle to get a chase flat?

mine are perfectly square and when I use capping it sits perfectly flat, doesnt matter if I use hammer and bolster or grinder and sds

 

[Deleted member 9648]

?

are you saying you struggle to get a chase flat?

mine are perfectly square and when I use capping it sits perfectly flat, doesnt matter if I use hammer and bolster or grinder and sds

I'm saying with capping the chase needs to be wider than I want to chase it out, capping is more of a faf to get to fit, and less satisfactory than tube. If you are going to cut it out wide enough for capping why not make a far better job of it using conduit with a narrower,slightly deeper chase? I use a twin blade cutter with a vacuum attatchment,no mess...easy make good...and a tube I know can be rewired/altered or whatever without damage in the future.

 

[7029 dave]

I like to use slip tube, not really, not that old.lol Those old boys!! must have taken ages to fit out under the floor boards etc, deffo was an art.!!

 

[shanky887614]

I like to use slip tube, not really, not that old.lol Those old boys!! must have taken ages to fit out under the floor boards etc, deffo was an art.!!

that the old pipe with wooden ends?