Home DIY

Construction time and lack of cold bridging.

You can build entire houses out of them.

They can be cut on site.

I'm sure they can be, especially if you enjoy pissing money up the wall.

It’s a log cabin in the garden it’s got a membrane underneath and not especially concerned about damp. I should have really just asked you as you’ve already offered so much help in my paint decisions!! I’m painting the whole thing white inside and laying a cork floor.

Electrics question.

I want to move a socket. Into the socket are 4 cables. 2 go upstairs and 2 go to the kitchen.
The 2 from upstairs are the original loop and then when someone has wired part of the kitchen they have extended the loop from the socket.
Rather than extend all the cables can I wire one from upstairs to the kitchen loop and then take the other one from upstairs and the kitchen extend those to move the socket and create a loop?

Am I making any sense?

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Are you sure it's a Ring Main in the first place? Are you saying the '4 cables' are two sets of Live and Neutral? As a ring main should have six 'cables' when you count the earth.

Take a picture of the socket you are looking at.

Kitchen Fitter electrics are dodgy at best, lethal at worst.

Excuse my crude terminology.
4 sets of cables, live, neutral and earth in each.

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Ha, ha.

OK, that's not a pure ring circuit. A ring has two sets of L, N and E in it.

You have what looks like a ring circuit and two spur circuits. It's bad enough as it is without adding another one.

Kitchen fitters you say?

Time to get it checked out properly before you start adding anything more to it.

So.

Get a qualified Sparks to do a periodic inspection test. They should be done every 10 years on a domestic property. But that doesn't happen.

Ever.

Do you own or rent?

All I'm aiming to do is move the socket along the wall so not really adding anything that wasn't already there.
No doubt its a bodge already.
I found a socket that had been moved in a bedroom and they'd run the extended cable under the carpet. Where they'd joined the new length they'd just used electrical tape and left under the carpet like that. Mental.

We own the place.
We'll get a sparky in to check everything as we have some work we'd like done to get some electrics into an out building.

OK. Get a test done on the dangerous electrical system first.

I'm not going to give you advice on, as you say 'a bodge', because that would be really stupid.

Fix the obvious faults first. You don't have a safe electrical system in the first place. Why do you think doing DIY will make it better?

We'll get a sparky in to check everything

Make sure they give you a signed certificate. The photo alone is a C2 fault. I'd imagine there are a few others.

My aim is to move a socket not make anything better.

Well that isn't the way it works.

If you bought your house after 2005 you fall under Part P regulations. You should have a signed inspection certificate.

Moving a socket requires a Small Works Certificate. So you need a sparks.

The socket you have posted the photo of is inherently dangerous. Why do you want to add to that danger?

I don't want to add danger which is why I was asking for advice.
You've given me some good advice and information but you're also being rather shouty. So let's leave it at that.
Thanks again.

I think @Mr_Sworld has to be really clear with what he's saying as an electrician, giving advice on an internet forum, so someone doesn't burn their house down and say he said it was ok. I don't read it as shouty but more the above.

He is a professional, giving you the advice that it is dangerous and you should fix it. Surely that’s helpful? He’s not trying to do you over, he’s actively trying to prevent something bad happening.

From a purely practical point of view, I can't see how you would add a fifth connection to that mess without tidying up what's already there.

A set of Wago connectors ought to do the job nicely.

(was the socket covering that junction also somehow connected to that lot?)

I reckon bookcase and books less likely to go mouldy because the cork surface is warmer than the wall behind, so greatly reduced risk of condensation in the 'book zone'.

I've put up some shelves (twin slot rack style) in a kitchen alcove and want to rig up some under-shelf lighting.

I was thinking of some led strips plugged into to a hidden extension plug - anyone got recommendations? Don't want them to be overly harsh.

Feeling a tiny bit pleased with myself.
I’m very much a ‘learning on the job’ DIYer. When I bought my first house, I had planned to spend many a happy hour learning from my Dad, as I used to 20-25 years ago but then he passed away suddenly with sepsis and that was the end of that little fantasy.
I wanted to box in these ugly pipes but the proper pipe boxing was ca.£100, which seemed a bit punchy for some plastic.
So I cut some flat ducting in half into L-shapes and butted it up against some timber. Just need to finish it off with sealant. As you can see the floor is very unlevel. It’s not a difficult or a professional job but it feels quite gratifying.
The end.

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A set of Wago connectors ought to do the job nicely.

5 way would just be adding to the mess and making it worse, likely resulting in being accepted as a forgotten about, dangerous problem.

If the upstairs wires are actually a ring as presumed and the two kitchen wires are a ring that's been incorrectly added, it could be sorted with 2 way connectors. And 3 way connectors if it's safe to take the socket from the junction.

Proving that the kitchen wires aren't two separate spurs and the upstairs is actually a ring is required first.

Proving what's going on is the important first step.... 5 ways aren't!

likely resulting in being accepted as a forgotten about, dangerous problem.

Ignoring the bodginess of how the joint has been made*, what's dangerous about what is or might be going on here?

(* which very much shouldn't be ignored)

likely resulting in being accepted as a forgotten about, dangerous problem.

Ignoring the bodginess of how the joint has been made*, what's dangerous about what is or might be going on here?

(* which very much shouldn't be ignored)

If that lot is currently connected into the back of a socket, you at least have two spurs ran from it, with a socket on each.

Is there more than two sockets on the kitchen"ring" or spurs?
Is the breaker suitable for the number of sockets/run of cable etc?
Its been done incorrectly, so the question is how badly.

I'm sure that the terminals of a socket weren't intended to be used as a junction box and adding a 5th cable to move the original socket isn't going to improve matters.