lathe and plaster --- Pulling cable drops---

[tuckermot]

Hi all
I am going to start rewiring a 1930,s house in 2 weeks time ,the upstairs dividing walls in the bedrooms are lathe and plaster .I am going to be pulling the upstairs lighting feed to all the points and dropping the switch drops before chasing as going to leave the house running as its ocupied.I have not come against lathe and plaster walls before i can sort back boxes out using dry line back boxes but not sure if i can cut out back box and pull the cable from the loft through the middle of the lathe and plaster with draw rod and in to the dry line back box how do you do it ??

Richard

 

[telectrix]

same as in any cavity wall for your drops. suggest cutting out for boxes with fein multitool. if possible, i would use existing positions and use old cable as draw wire. set up a few plug in lights to tide them over.

 

[londonlec]

Im currently doing one of a similar age/description.

I managed to use the existing conduits to pull the switch lines in.

In places there wasnt conduit I fished the cable down the wall with trunking lid, there was the odd noggin to get around though

I used metal backboxes and fixed pieces of wood behind lathe and plaster to get a decent fixing.

 

[londonlec]

same as in any cavity wall for your drops. suggest cutting out for boxes with fein multitool. if possible, i would use existing positions and use old cable as draw wire. set up a few plug in lights to tide them over.

Yeh I used a jigsaw to cut out boxes, make sure you buy a pack of blades though! The plaster kills them.

 

[tuckermot]

Hi tel

I would use old switch drop cable to pull through new cable from above in the loft but these are new switch drops going in .I take it there is no sort of nogging between the lathe and plaster so going to try and pull through with a draw rod/wire do you think this will work ?

 

[Richard]

There can be noggins, normally at a diagonal which can trick you if you end up having to notch the plaster to get round it! I have successfully drilled from above with a meter bit before now. If you have/can get your hands on a fein multimaster, it might make your life slightly less painful.

Rich

 

[telectrix]

generally you won't have trouble with noggins if you fit switches at a sensible height ( i.e. where we've always put then before the bureaucrats decided they should be sited for dwarfs).

 

[tuckermot]

whats best to use Metal or dry line back boxs in lathe and plaster

 

[Silly Sausage]

where we've always put then before the bureaucrats decided they should be sited for dwarfs).

Behave yourself, we all know that's new builds.

 

[sjm]

Lathe and plaster can be a nightmare. What I've done in the past is use surface mount pattress, if possible, or cut out a section of lathe and plaster between uprights (using fein multitool) replace section with plasterboard, including noggins etc, cut plasterboard for dryline box job done. Making good is required but the finished job wil, IMHO, last longer than just cutting out the lathe and plaster, which will reduce the structural integrity of the wall.