Good solutions for service voids and ....ing plasterboard

[Alan Ambrose]

Hi,

 

In our 'old build' I have been running some new cables over the last few days in a crazy awkward place behind a consumer unit (as it happens) and through some metal studs and voids containing properly itchy fiberglass. Super time consuming (unless you want to hack the wall to pieces) and annoying. Also some of the plasterboard had already been hacked about a bit and some had gone a bit soft in places (or was that just me). So the finish leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Well it reminded me that in our 'new build', I would really, really, really like (a) to have a proper service void that I can pull new services through easily when needed, and (b) walls clad preferably with something other than plasterboard.

 

I know that's ... unconventional, BCO will hate it etc.

 

But somebody somewhere must have figured out (a) a better approach to service voids; (b) not expecting all services to be 100% designed up front and stay like that for the life of the building; (c) an alternative to plasterboard.

 

Alan

[ProDave]

My take on service voids.

 

For just cables, a service void made of 25mm battens works well with 12mm plasterboard and 35mm back boxes.

 

Safe zones are your friend.  As long as you have one socket on a wall, you can run your socket cables horizontally all around the room at socket height in your service void.  Then should you want to add an additional socket anywhere, the cable is waiting for you.

 

If you want run a batten horizontally at that height making it easy to fish any new cable along the wall.

 

Adding new cables is all very well but where are they going to / from?  In each bedroom I left a strip of floor board at each end with no tongue and groove and screwed down.  So it should be possible to lift the carpet, unscrew that strip of board and feed a new cable down into the service void below.

 

What have you against plasterboard?  Fermacell is an alternative but a lot more expensive and harder to fit

[Russell griffiths]

It’s got nothing to do with building control, as long as your cables are in the proper safe zones, and properly supported. 

If I was doing mine again I would do it like on the continent with a large duct that I can pull new cables through. 

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> It’s got nothing to do with building control

 

I was meaning BCO love plasterboard for fire reasons.

 

>>> What have you against plasterboard?

 

It's crumbly cut-once stuff. If a 'professional' had done the wire pulling job I just did - for time reasons they would have made a swiss cheese of the plasterboard and roughly patched up the holes. That's fine - until the next time.

 

>>> I would do it like on the continent with a large duct that I can pull new cables through. 

 

Like a square plastic ventilation duct? Or a cable tray kind of thing?

 

Alan

[ProDave]

27 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

t's crumbly cut-once stuff. If a 'professional' had done the wire pulling job I just did - for time reasons they would have made a swiss cheese of the plasterboard and roughly patched up the holes. That's fine - until the next time.

It can go crumbly in old houses, usually due to damp.

 

But the same cable pulling issues applies to whatever you use.  If there is no service void or duct, then any wall covering material will need cutting holes to thread new cables through with the patching up afterwards.  Just think yourself lucky this is not plastered on the hard brick walls............

 

For fishing cables, this tool is up there amongst my "I could not do my job without it"

 

[Iceverge]

I'm with you @Alan Ambrose.

 

It would be nice to be able to add extra wiring and or pipes at a suitable point in the future with minimal disruption. 

 

Occupants needs change , tech changes, it's impossible to foresee everything from day 1. 

 

Dropping from the top down via a service void is very handy, for example in a bungalow with vertically battens. Everything can go up to the attic and then across and down. Just a small hole in the plasterboard to make and fish out your wire . 

 

This is more of an issue in a two story as you're faced with either pulling up the floor or pulling down the ceiling.  

 

A suspended ceiling with push up tiles is the obviously solution off the shelf but they are ugly. 

 

 

 

 

 

[saveasteading]

Electric flexible conduit with drawcord.

They go in as standard in Spain, and means that a rewire is a very simple operation.

It comes of necessity as all construction tends to be solid. It has a cost of course which is why it is not done much here.

 

[ProDave]

15 hours ago, saveasteading said:

Electric flexible conduit with drawcord.

They go in as standard in Spain, and means that a rewire is a very simple operation.

It comes of necessity as all construction tends to be solid. It has a cost of course which is why it is not done much here.

 

Most houses in England were brick, "platered on the hard" so a rewire required a plasterer to follow the electrician.  such a primitive idea.

 

I was glad to move to Scotland where timber frame and plasterboard are the norm.  Occasionally I met a plastered on the hard wall and hated every second of it.

[Alan Ambrose]

OK I'm leaning towards the 'drop down from service void above' (I guess that could also work 'from below' if you have a basement) and 'duct/flexible conduit' solutions. Of course, cable trays are used everywhere in offices for this purpose. Maybe there's a way to build them into the walls at socket height.

 

Alan