Home DIY

I have a Kangol at home, but it’s pretty beat up.

That's actually not bad, the hole saw suggested afterwards might be an improvement but I would suggest drilling a pilot hole for the hole saw.

Reciprocating saw, you might fuck up the walls, but if you're careful/skillful you won't. Angle grinder, you will certainly fuck up the walls. Not sure why an angry grinder is the better option there.

Has anyone suggested lowering the whole ceiling yet

I assume you joke, but in all seriousness that would actually hide a lot of shit and solve the wiring issue...

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Whenever I post my sweet bikes on here, I don't even get a sniff of acknowledgement (sulk).

I now know pipes are your thing. You bunch of weirdos.

That's an 'eclectic' lighting arrangement.

It definitely adds a certain character to the place. That's only half of it...

wow.

Do you rent or own the place? WTAF is going on there?

Interesting, I could probably achieve that with minimal fuss.

Would that be to stop the dishwasher pulling grey water back on itself?

I am indeed the owner of this art installation. My first place, moved in in August.

It's a solid 30's block, and those pillars and a lot of the ceiling are concrete so would be a bugger to chase these in. They were previously contained within a real cheap plastic casing running all over the ceilings - it actually looked a whole lot worse. I'm quite happy with it now.

The place was modified at some point though without planning permission, a room was removed to open it out, so I suspect that also has something to do with it.

This bit in the living room is great.

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If you do insist on having the cables on the surface, get some fire clips. You'll need to drill into the walls and put rawl plugs in for the screws, but if you have a fire, there will be a lot of live cables dangling down which is BAD.

They're annoyingly expensive, but also a requirement of the regs.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/prysmian-ap7-fire-rated-alarm-cable-clip-7-8-8-2mm-100-pack/89697

You're not even really supposed to have cable like that clipped to the surface without extra mechanical protection (the plastic trunking you removed). You could maybe argue that the cables are out of reach/danger of mechanical damage, but it isn't ideal. Maybe have a look at some more sympathetic trunking like round profile stuff:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-pvc-white-round-floor-trunking-22mm-x-22mm-x-2m/8169f
https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-pvc-white-micro-trunking-16mm-x-8mm-x-2m/86007
Again, if you use plastic trunking, remember to also use some fire clips on the inside:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-fire-rated-safe-d-f-clip-25-30mm-100-pack/930ft

You mean gorilla tape doesn't meet the safety regs??

Okay cheers for this. I only took it down last week and I'm not planning on it staying like this for long.

I was planning on doing this, and bought some bits, but it's not going to work.

Therefore thinking of some sort of copper / galvanised trunking. Which is beyond my expertise. If anyone wants to dm me other solutions so I don't hog this thread i'd love to hear them.

Ha, I didn't want to suggest metal conduit - it's hard and expensive to install. If it's anything but very neat, level and square, it'll look a bit shite. Not to discourage you, but it's definitely worth getting someone in who knows what they're doing.
Might be tricky though as metal conduit is more common in industrial and commercial installations, so domestic electricians might not actually be that experienced with it.

I've put PVC conduit in places, and that's tricky enough, and you just bend that with a bit of heat by hand!

Yeah I definitely need someone in. There's too many hard right angles in close proximity which is why I couldn't make that above solution work...

Hence why a false ceiling isn't actually such a ridiculous idea...

I'm no expert but yeah I think that's the goal.

but if you have a fire, there will be a lot of live cables dangling down which is BAD.

Yeah that's not brilliant is it?

Coroner's report: subject tried to evacuate the building, but the heat had already melted several 240v cables, one of which tripped the subject, and the other electrocuted him in the groin. To death.

In reality, the breaker would most likely trip from a live to earth fault if enough sheath had melted off to expose bare live conductor - not sure how keen I'd be to find out tho!

They tend to come with something like this so you can easily loop the hose

+1 for dropping ceilings.

if you're in north london we have a good plasterer who does this

hooray! You're welcome.

PM'd cheers

ha, thanks @6pt

This could mean the pipe wouldn't need dealing with tho - which may be a disappointing result for thread.

Although saying that, it would mean the wires would still come out of the false ceiling to get under the beams. Unless you drop the ceiling under the beams, which would significantly reduce the height of the hall and part of the living room...

So this may be a no.

Sorry really hogging this thread now. I'll stop.

You could drill though the beams and feed the wires through. But what tool would be best for it? I'm going to open with hand drill and Auger bit.

Get a builder in, point at the wiring chaos and say FIX THIS SHIT I DON'T CARE HOW