Cables under suspended floor

[larry]

I'm looking at extending an existing radial circuit whilst I am working on a ground floor suspended floor. 

Current cable is sat on the soil.

Presumably it is better practice to clip this to underside of joists? 

Or even use a ventilated cable tray, or is this overkill?

 

Circuit is on a 20A RCBO. Currently serves two rooms with no high demand appliances. Plenty of space in the CU, would there be a benefit to asking a sparky to split the radial in half so each room is a separate circuit (currently single circuit with two cables at the RCBO).

 

Thanks 

[Mr Punter]

Clipped to side or underside of joists is fine.

[larry]

Thanks so much. Perfect. 

[FuerteStu]

Cable should be secured, personally, if it's bad in one place, chances are it will be worse elsewhere.. Pull in new circuits rather than fudge an existing bad one

[Mr Punter]

16 minutes ago, FuerteStu said:

Cable should be secured, personally, if it's bad in one place, chances are it will be worse elsewhere.. Pull in new circuits rather than fudge an existing bad one

 

I may be missing something and am no sparky.  Where is the issue with the existing setup?  If the cables are in decent condition, securing to the joists with some cable clips will keep them off the soil.  Why spend money and resource stripping them out and replacing?

[FuerteStu]

1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

 

I may be missing something and am no sparky.  Where is the issue with the existing setup?  If the cables are in decent condition, securing to the joists with some cable clips will keep them off the soil.  Why spend money and resource stripping them out and replacing?

Is there any way of knowing the cables are in a good enough condition for the rest of the circuit? The whole house in fact? 

 

As far as I know, it's never been  acceptable to leave them sitting on Soil. As I said before, if you find one bad thing, you usually find worse by digging deeper

 

If it was a poor installation to begin with, it's a gamble I wouldn't be willing to take. 

 

For the sake of running a new cable in. It shouldn't be that difficult, and gives peace of mind. 

[ProDave]

What are you doing with this floor?

 

If you are about to properly insulate it and replace it, then you are probably not wanting to ever take the floor up again, so for the cost of some new cable, it would be madness to leave old cable in place, even if it looks okay.

[larry]

Thank you both.

 

Just for context:

 

Loads of problems with the setup when we moved here but mostly new circuits upstairs wired to a new CU. All tested and all good. I could make a list of the horrors unpicked for entertainment value but might need a new thread. 

 

The ground floor bit I'm looking at hasn't been touched for years and the bits I'm adding will be with new wire. I won't be using old wire. It's this I want to make sure I'm clipping/securing right. Whilst the first socket in this room will be connected with the existing old wire for a time, once we do the other room it'll be easy to then get this section also replaced as easy access to the boards near the CU. Just want to do this section right before I fix boards back again ...as ProDave I do not want to have to lift this again as I am indeed insulating. 

 

Any other advice always welcomed of course...

 

 

[larry]

And thanks, sorry I didn't make clear in original post i wasn't keeping old cable under new floor.