Plastering kitchen vs unknown socket locations

[MortarThePoint]

I keep having a recurring disagreement with my wife over the kitchen. She wants to buy and fit a second hand one but I'd like to make one. I know, we're both wrong 😔.That's the background, but it's now creating issues on site as the plasterer is due to plaster the kitchen tomorrow. We're going with fully plastered (blockwork) behind our imaginary units. We plan to have tiles between worktops and high level units. I haven't cut any back boxes in yet and that makes me twitchy. How worried should I be or should I just chill as butchering the plasterwork under tiles is no biggy.

 

I plan to feed the sockets from horizontal runs in the void behind the cabinets with a vertical chase of about 300mm to the back box, bottom of which to be 150mm above the worktop surface. So I shouldn't have to do horizontal chases. When I cut back boxes into blockwork it looks a bit like Wolverine did it as I use an angle grinder and have to overcut before chipping out. If I wasn't tiling, I guess I'd use EasyFill 60 and a decorators filling knife to tidy up?

 

The plasterer gets it so smooth it feels like a crime to start hacking away at it. @nod how do you feel when people start hacking away at work you're proud of? I should probably wait for the plasterer to leave before I ruin his finish.

[MortarThePoint]

Here's a typical example of by back box "handy work"

[nod]

14 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said:

I keep having a recurring disagreement with my wife over the kitchen. She wants to buy and fit a second hand one but I'd like to make one. I know, we're both wrong 😔.That's the background, but it's now creating issues on site as the plasterer is due to plaster the kitchen tomorrow. We're going with fully plastered (blockwork) behind our imaginary units. We plan to have tiles between worktops and high level units. I haven't cut any back boxes in yet and that makes me twitchy. How worried should I be or should I just chill as butchering the plasterwork under tiles is no biggy.

 

I plan to feed the sockets from horizontal runs in the void behind the cabinets with a vertical chase of about 300mm to the back box, bottom of which to be 150mm above the worktop surface. So I shouldn't have to do horizontal chases. When I cut back boxes into blockwork it looks a bit like Wolverine did it as I use an angle grinder and have to overcut before chipping out. If I wasn't tiling, I guess I'd use EasyFill 60 and a decorators filling knife to tidy up?

 

The plasterer gets it so smooth it feels like a crime to start hacking away at it. @nod how do you feel when people start hacking away at work you're proud of? I should probably wait for the plasterer to leave before I ruin his finish.

Unfortunately we never see the customer

 BUT I spent three weeks restoring the mouldings to a large ceiling in the Littlewoods building in Liverpool (Listed) I went for some lunch and came back to find my tools and radio buried under the collapsed ceiling 

Polish demolition crew had been given permission to rip down a ceiling that was beyond repair 3rd floor As you know in England we don’t count the bottom floor as 1st 😁

[MortarThePoint]

1 minute ago, nod said:

Unfortunately we never see the customer

 BUT I spent three weeks restoring the mouldings to a large ceiling in the Littlewoods building in Liverpool (Listed) I went for some lunch and came back to find my tools and radio buried under the collapsed ceiling 

Polish demolition crew had been given permission to rip down a ceiling that was beyond repair 3rd floor As you know in England we don’t count the bottom floor as 1st 😁

 

Wow, 😮 that must have been gutting 

[nod]

1 minute ago, MortarThePoint said:

 

Wow, 😮 that must have been gutting 

Yeah it was Job stoped whilst the conservation guys came down 

I’d recently dislocated my shoulder so struggling with Harvey work 

It was quite funny the poles spoke no English But when there boss realized what they had done 

He stood there with his hands on his saying F##ck Over and over 

Expensive mistake 😁

[ProDave]

29 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said:

We're going with fully plastered (blockwork) behind our imaginary units

STOP right there.  25mm battens into the blockwork and 12.5mm plasterboard.  THEN your idea to retro fit the wiring and feed up to each socket will work.

[MortarThePoint]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

STOP right there.  25mm battens into the blockwork and 12.5mm plasterboard.  THEN your idea to retro fit the wiring and feed up to each socket will work.

 

Why won't it work for wet plastered? I agree your suggestion makes it much easier, but I'm not keen.

[ProDave]

6 minutes ago, MortarThePoint said:

 

Why won't it work for wet plastered? I agree your suggestion makes it much easier, but I'm not keen.

It will, but you will be chisseling out plaster, fitting the wiring and back boxes than patching up the plaster.  So much easier with dry lining.

[FuerteStu]

There is always another option.. 

I've fitted bench trunking in several kitchens now and people love it! 

 

It can be fitted to the underside of cabinets against the wall. 

 

It hides all the spurs for amenities as well as Sockets. Leaving an easy tile, easy clean splashback. 

 

You'll only need to chisel out a drop into it (or hide it in trunking inside a cabinet) then a drop underneath the units for appliance feeds. 

 

showimage.bmp

[MortarThePoint]

30 minutes ago, FuerteStu said:

There is always another option.. 

I've fitted bench trunking in several kitchens now and people love it! 

 

It can be fitted to the underside of cabinets against the wall. 

 

It hides all the spurs for amenities as well as Sockets. Leaving an easy tile, easy clean splashback. 

 

You'll only need to chisel out a drop into it (or hide it in trunking inside a cabinet) then a drop underneath the units for appliance feeds. 

 

showimage.bmp 10.85 kB · 1 download

 

Neat, I'd wondered about something like that. They're presumably completely hidden to normal eye level

[FuerteStu]

1 minute ago, MortarThePoint said:

 

Neat, I'd wondered about something like that. They're presumably completely hidden to normal eye level

Yes. You only see the flex for things like a toaster or coffee machine. 

 

 

[George]

Oh well now I wish I'd have done that. 

[joe90]

On 03/12/2023 at 20:32, MortarThePoint said:

should I just chill as butchering the plasterwork under tiles is no biggy.

I don’t think so unless you can delay the plasterer? Get the ring behind the cabinets. Tiles will cover a multitude of sins as long as most of the wall is “finished”. 

[Ferdinand]

In those circs I would

 

1 - put one row of tiles along the worktop back,

2 - have the boxes immediately above that, leaving

3 - sockets in plaster, no need to make the plaster good (assuming you use the appropriate double-socket-box cutter) since there are no exposed chasings into plaster, and

4 - no need to cut all those tiles.

(Just changed my Avatar from Little Miss Ditzy to Mr Lazy)

 

(Mr Brave is also available, i you need one 🙂)

F

[Temp]

On 03/12/2023 at 20:32, MortarThePoint said:

How worried should I be or should I just chill as butchering the plasterwork under tiles is no biggy.

 

Depends how many you have to do. 

 

It's not my favourite job cutting and refilling but if the plasterer can't be put off it's not a nightmare.

 

What does the electrician say? A bigger issue is running fat cables for an electric hob after the whole house is plastered.