Safe zone

[kingeri]

Was at a job this morning, gent had drilled into a strapper, mangling the sheath and line conducter. The said switch cable was in a safe zone in the room next door, running from light switch up to loft. The two rooms were separated by a stud wall, approx 7cm thick. So, the guy was drilling into the wall in the next room, on a wall with no accessories, and no apparent safe zones. Got me thinking about the regs....how do they apply in this case?

 

[Richard Burns]

If the wall is less than 100mm thick and you can tell where the switch is then the zone carries through to the other side.

 

[JUD]

 

[kingeri]

Thanks guys. That's how I understood the situation, just it got me thinking that in this case, there was nothing very safe about the 'safe zone'!

 

[JUD]

Safe zones are only safe if you know where they are.

Unfortunately there's a lot of people that don't have a clue and just drill away.

 

[Guitarist]

Safe zones are only safe if you know where they are.

Unfortunately there's a lot of people that don't have a clue and just drill away.

Totally agree. They are a bit of a nonsense really as nobody outside the profession has a clue about them.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Totally agree. They are a bit of a nonsense really as nobody outside the profession has a clue about them.

I visited a friend in Brum a couple of weeks ago, & he had just had a spark & plasterer in to repair the cable that he had drilled through while trying to fit a shelf.

The cable was in a safe zone & when I pointed it out to him I was met with a blank stare & glazed eyes.

 

[Strima]

Safe zones are only safe when people know about them. People don't even know about Part P so how can we expect them to know about safe zones, just ask a kitchen fitter.

 

[Plonker 3]

Safe zones really are there only for us sparks give us sparks some leeway, or otherwise everything would have to be installed with a earthed metallic sheath to stop people doing serious damage to themselves.

 

[kingeri]

Why the name 'safe zone'? What's so safe about them?

 

[telectrix]

"prescribed zone" is a better term.

 

[telectrix]

"prescribed zone" is a better term. funny how most joe public see a pair od radiator pipes coming out the bottom of a wall, and correctly assume there are pipes buried above, but see a socket and they think the cables appear there by magic.

 

[Guitarist]

"prescribed zone" is a better term. funny how most joe public see a pair od radiator pipes coming out the bottom of a wall, and correctly assume there are pipes buried above, but see a socket and they think the cables appear there by magic.

Maybe they are wireless sockets