Advice on insulated plasterboard around electric cables

max861 · Mar 13, 2023

I'm currently refurbishing a room and in the process adding some internal wall insulation.

The wall has been stripped and my electrician has completed first fix for new sockets and lighting.

The walls are solid brick and as I am installing insulated plasterboards, we agreed rather than chasing the cables into the wall, he has installed all sockets and cables clipped to the surface of the wall as this will be hidden by the plasterboards. (I will be insulating with Celotex 52.5mm insulated plasterboards).

However I am now thinking, how exactly will the plasterboards hide the cables?

Would the insulated plasterboard be cut into to accommodate the cables? I believe this isn't recommended as it could breach the insulation properties of the boards
My plasterer planned to use dot and dab so would he need to apply additional adhesive to make up the difference?
Would the plasterboards need to be mechanically fixed to batons instead of dot and dab?
None of the above and just get the electrician to chase the cables into the wall?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

James · Mar 14, 2023

Dot and dab will hold the board away from the wall enough for the cables to be clear.

Dustydazzler · Mar 14, 2023

As above if the cables are dressed flat and perhaps capped with some nice plastic capping then you should get away with a normal amount of dot and dab adhesive

max861 · Mar 14, 2023

Amazing, thanks for confirming.

Also, appreciate it's an electricians forum, but what about copper pipework? My plumber is coming this week to install/reconfigure the pipework for new radiators and even if clipped as closely to the wall, they are 15mm pipes so they will obviously protrude out a lot further then cables.

The plan was for him to also fix to surface but I'm thinking now it may be better to chase the pipework in the walls as I'm assuming it would be too deep to fill with dot and dab?

DPG · Mar 14, 2023

max861 said:
Amazing, thanks for confirming.

Also, appreciate it's an electricians forum, but what about copper pipework? My plumber is coming this week to install/reconfigure the pipework for new radiators and even if clipped as closely to the wall, they are 15mm pipes so they will obviously protrude out a lot further then cables.

The plan was for him to also fix to surface but I'm thinking now it may be better to chase the pipework in the walls as I'm assuming it would be too deep to fill with dot and dab?

I can't see the plasterer being too happy if he has to dot and dab over surface mounted copper pipes.