No clipping in loft?

[Shocking]

My mum inlaw wants new kitchen fitted in her council bungalow when I looked in the loft none of the cables have been clipped down just layed across insulation it had a rewire about 2 years ago (ring,lighting and cooker curcuits)
whats the regs on this?

thanks for any help guys.

 

[Electricalserv]

My mum inlaw wants new kitchen fitted in her council bungalow when I looked in the loft none of the cables have been clipped down just layed across insulation it had a rewire about 2 years ago (ring,lighting and cooker curcuits)
whats the regs on this?

thanks for any help guys.

Well it should be clipped or at least ran in conduit. But I've came across this before and some of the insulating teams are just smashing the insulation in and its no good for the cable. It causes unnessesary over heating if clipped direct underneath.

 

[malcolmsanford]

One of them regs to get my vote would be 134.1..1

 

[Shocking]

Tanks 4 quick reply but if we do some minor works in kitchen how does this wiring in loft effect signing job off?

 

[telectrix]

as it's not part of the workyou are doing, just note it in comments on existing installation, unless you want to crawl around clipping it.

 

[telectrix]

as regards insulation, one of my pet hates, surely the insulation should be installed according to building regulations. can somebody point me to the relevant reg. that states that insulation should be installed so as to render the electrical installation as unsafe due to the derating of the cables affected by the insulation.

 

[Shocking]

Thanks all

 

[Chr!s]

This is something i see a lot of, not sure about everyone else. Personally i prefer to see it clipped. In saying that if there's two foot of insulation up there its unlikely to be disturbed, if this is the case and the cables are lay flat and neatly on the insulation then there's not much if anything you could pull it up on.

Chapter 52 needs to be considered.

GN1 "Sheathed and or Armored cables in horizontal runs which are inaccessible and unlikely to be disturbed, resting without fixing on part of a building, the surface of which being reasonably smooth".

So the key points are, how accessible are the runs, and what is the likely hood of them being disturbed.

Chris

 

[electromonkey]

I just hope I'm retired by the time all these houses that have all this insulation need rewiring. It's bad enough when it's "fresh" god knows what it'll be like in a couple of decades.

 

[Big n Daft]

To my way of thinking insulation should be panels between the rafters on the underside of the roofing membrane, not rolls of hell thrown all over the loft!!!:angry_smile:

 

[mogga]

I love these DIY progs going on n on n on about insulation not one of them points out the derating of cables nor the space required aroind any downlighters fitted they just bang on n on about how much it can safe NOT much use if house goes up in fire

 

[ringer]

I thought that clipping direct was to enable any heat build up in the cable to dissipate by conduction into the fabric of the surface it is clipped to. Surely if it is just laying on insulation then heat build up in the cable is not going to dissipate so readily.

 

[Octopus]

A bit of a side issue but:

I've seen a number of lofts recently where the Council funded schemes have allowed people to have their loft insulation topped up to about 10+ inches. In all cases they don't seem to have ANY regard for the cabling and/or more worryingly downlighters!

 

[telectrix]

i had a problem with this a few months ago. 5 downlighters in a ceiling with a shallow loft space above. the job was to be inspected by the labc gestapo, so made sure all cables were clipped neatly.. inspector waS 10 mins , passed the job, then along came the insulation monkeys. 2ft of fibreglass jammed in all around and over downlights. BI then passed the whole job and customer wondered why 3 of the halogen GU10s blew in the first week. took me an hour to rip 2 wheelie bins full of the crap out

 

[Octopus]

How can BI pass a job with a blatent "hazzard" present?