Electricians Tips from a professional electrician

[littlespark]

Electricians Tips from a professional electrician in the UK Electrical Forum

Sometimes you need to work in an old house, and there’s a number of threads on here about how to, say, fit downlights in a lathe ceiling.....

Here’s a start... on lathe and plaster walls without making a huge mess....

Mark where you want the socket to go. Height wise, measure an existing one from either the floor or the top of the skirting.


Next, use a pad saw to find a gap between the lathes. Hit and miss jabbing with the saw until it breaks through.

I will be using a regular dry lining box, so you don’t want to be too close to a vertical joist. Use the pad saw to feel to the left and right. If you can feel a joist, just adjust your planned position.

Once you have the final position, you can draw around a regular metal back box to give your cutout size.

Using a multi tool on a fairly slow speed, you can chip away at the plaster, but not the lathe quite yet.
yet.

Now, with the multi tool on a high speed and a fine toothed wood blade, you can cut neatly through the lathe without much problem. A small wood screw screwed into the middle of the lathe and held tight in pliers will help as the lathe will want to push into the hollow wall.

Now for the biggest tip I can give. Very very important whenever you are doing anything like this;



Always remember to charge your phone fully, or it will die when you’re in the middle of trying to make a hints and tips thread???

 

[Pretty Mouth]

but have found that any that leaves a cut end of laths unsupported will eventually cause problems.

Exactly this. The plaster to the sides of the cut out is not supported, so very weak. It can be reinforced though, using timber battens, without too much trouble:

• Cut the hole out of the lath and plaster for the backbox with multitool (we're gonna use a steel BB).
• Cut a couple of timber battens, something about 2" X 1" should do. They're going to go inside the wall, vertically, to either side of the hole, and need to be long enough to extend beyond a couple of un-cut laths, both top and bottom. About 150 - 200mm long is about right.
• Reach inside the hole, and carefully pull away the plaster 'keys' from either side of the hole where the battens are to go. We want the battens to press right up against the back of the laths without being fouled by any bits of plaster.
• Now the fiddly bit.
• Liberally coat the face of one batten with PVA, water based gripfill, or similar. Maneuver the batten through the hole and into position vertically to the side of the hole, glue side pressed up against the back of the laths. Hold in place, and drive a screw through the plaster, through an un-cut lath, and into the top of the batten. Repeat for the bottom of the batten. You can put screws through the cut laths into the batten too if you like.
• That side is now reinforced, and will be about as strong as you can hope for in a lath and plaster wall. Do the same for the other side of the hole with the other batten. You can now fix the backbox in place by screwing through the sides into the battens.
• Filler over the screw holes and you're done.
  

 

[Intoelectrics]

Exactly this. The plaster to the sides of the cut out is not supported, so very weak. It can be reinforced though, using timber battens, without too much trouble:

• Cut the hole out of the lath and plaster for the backbox with multitool (we're gonna use a steel BB).
• Cut a couple of timber battens, something about 2" X 1" should do. They're going to go inside the wall, vertically, to either side of the hole, and need to be long enough to extend beyond a couple of un-cut laths, both top and bottom. About 150 - 200mm long is about right.
• Reach inside the hole, and carefully pull away the plaster 'keys' from either side of the hole where the battens are to go. We want the battens to press right up against the back of the laths without being fouled by any bits of plaster.
• Now the fiddly bit.
• Liberally coat the face of one batten with PVA, water based gripfill, or similar. Maneuver the batten through the hole and into position vertically to the side of the hole, glue side pressed up against the back of the laths. Hold in place, and drive a screw through the plaster, through an un-cut lath, and into the top of the batten. Repeat for the bottom of the batten. You can put screws through the cut laths into the batten too if you like.
• That side is now reinforced, and will be about as strong as you can hope for in a lath and plaster wall. Do the same for the other side of the hole with the other batten. You can now fix the backbox in place by screwing through the sides into the battens.
• Filler over the screw holes and you're done.

I find this the best method also. ^^^^^^^
If possible though I build a "saddle" out of ply wood that you can fit through the cut out and twist into position.
The saddle is made of 2 stirps of ply as the vertical battens then one strip screwed to the back as the horizontal batten. I pre drill the fixing holes so not to split the lath's and then pull the saddle tight up against the inner wall whilst inserting the fixing screws. The back box can then be fixed in place, packed out if required to the depth needed. This method works best on double socket outlets as the saddle slides through the wider gap then twisted into position.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Even easier is to back the cut ends of the laths with a dob of plaster, if needed a piece of plasterboard as well.

 

[littlespark]

and here's me thinking i was doing well with my multitool sculpting

 

[Intoelectrics]

and here's me thinking i was doing well with my multitool sculpting

Hey, we can all keeping learning a thing or two! Its great when we can throw around ideas that makes life easier for us all!!

 

[Intoelectrics]

One of the best tips I learned as a lad was to hold a vacuum cleaner hose (obviously with the vacuum cleaner switched on) just below where you are drilling or cutting. Saves time cleaning up after and also helps keep the dust down.
With the advent of battery operated vacuum cleaners this is even easier than ever nowadays!

 

[telectrix]

do same regularly. another tip is to stick a small cardboard box ( like what 5 sockets come in) to the wall with masking tape, just below where you are drilling. then all the crap goes in the box.

 

[nicebutdim]

do same regularly. another tip is to stick a small cardboard box ( like what 5 sockets come in) to the wall with masking tape, just below where you are drilling. then all the crap goes in the box.

With the added bonus of there being no possibility of forgetting to switch it on.

 

[Pretty Mouth]

do same regularly. another tip is to stick a small cardboard box ( like what 5 sockets come in) to the wall with masking tape, just below where you are drilling. then all the crap goes in the box.

There's a similar trick when chiselling out vertical chases. You position the wet pant's tool caddy at the base of the run to catch the rubble.

 

[Lister1987]

do same regularly. another tip is to stick a small cardboard box ( like what 5 sockets come in) to the wall with masking tape, just below where you are drilling. then all the crap goes in the box.

I use an envelope works just as well.

 

[littlespark]

C’mon guys... we’ve got a reputation to uphold....
The trade that doesn’t clean up after themselves. ?

 

[brianmoooore]

The trade that doesn’t clean up after themselves. ?

Exactly! I've always made it quite clear to my customers that I'm a reasonably priced sparky, but an extremely expensive cleaner.

 

[littlespark]

I do like to surprise my customers sometimes... start clearing the jobsite, putting tools back in the van... and turn up at the door with a brush and pan.

9/10 times i get " don't worry about that... we'll get it"

 

[Dave OCD]

We always make the effort to clean up properly and customers really do seem to appreciate it , I just think that you could do a first class job but if you leave a load of dust and crap behind that's the lasting impression you create.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I have a Karcher vac that has a power take off when you switch on the multi tool the Karcher starts up, when you switch off the tool the vac keep running for about 6 - 10 seconds to clear the hose, the Fein multi tool I have has a purpose made vac port that fits around the head of the tool and collects practically all the debris.