I have a customer with a wood framed house in which his party wall in the lounge is triple boarded. He has two twin sockets 15 feet apart on this wall which appear to have been a modification both wired on a single spure. The current modification is to incorporate both sockets in the ring. The bottom of the sockets are about 20cm** from the floor. Cable cannot be run down the wall because of restrictions at the top of the wall, nor run under the floor which is solid concrete so the only two options are:
a) to run the cable in accordance with regs at socket height in the horizontal safe zone.
b) to run the cable at floor level behind the new skirting, which is contrary to regs.
Now with a) the threat is that somebody is going to screw shelves/cupboards etc to the wall at cable height without noticing the other socket 15ft away and realising there may be cable behind. Also this approach would, to my mind, seriously reduce the integrity of the building, channelling out the board where it is not supported behind.
The problem with apporoach b), which to my mind would be significantly safer, is simply that it is not iaw regs.
So which approach would you use?
** I know that is below current regs but this is an old existing installation.
a) to run the cable in accordance with regs at socket height in the horizontal safe zone.
b) to run the cable at floor level behind the new skirting, which is contrary to regs.
Now with a) the threat is that somebody is going to screw shelves/cupboards etc to the wall at cable height without noticing the other socket 15ft away and realising there may be cable behind. Also this approach would, to my mind, seriously reduce the integrity of the building, channelling out the board where it is not supported behind.
The problem with apporoach b), which to my mind would be significantly safer, is simply that it is not iaw regs.
So which approach would you use?
** I know that is below current regs but this is an old existing installation.