question for kitchen fitters

[sunnybob]

Erik, I know, youre right. But I need to decide if the absolutely huge and painstaiking effort involved is worth the reward of a visually more pleasing end result.

Because of the way the units are built in there is no way I can move the spur switches under the cupboards. The only one I could move would be the extractor hood, and that will require rerunning the wires all the way from the main consumer unit (about 10 metres) to avoid a joint being buried behind the new tiles.

I also cant put a central control panel in for the same reasons, the spurs are spaced around a 10 ft run of worksurface, firmly in the wall above each appliance.

The tiles (yet to be chosen) will be large rather than small, so siting joints to suit the switches will not be an option. But I also agree that split tiles look awful. I shall cut holes in the tiles to fit the plates.

I just need to decide how much work I want to do. And of course if I do start resiting back boxes, the kitchen power is going to be off for a couple of days, so I would need to move fridges and run extension leads. You can see I'm trying to talk myself out of it, cant you? :roll:

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Find the make of the majority of the fittings and change the odd ones to match, at least within one run. Use larger tiles so the faceplates aren't slipping into the grout lines, and it doesn't look so fussy. Do your best with whatever adjustment is available on the screws. Then use the spare time to go and do something you enjoy. Life is too short to tear the wall apart.

 

[sammy.se]

I would use a grid system, and combining all the switches and fuses into one or two face plates. This can get rid of a few boxes, with only a small amount of rewiring.

https://www.electricaldirect.co.uk/brow ... d-switches

 

[sunnybob]

Sammy, you dont understand the way Cypriots build houses. :roll:
Reinforced concrete shell, filled in with large terracotta blocks with vent holes all through. Then the conduits are laid on the floor and cut into the blocks. The back boxes are cut into the blocks and cemented in place. Then a concrete screed on the floor with tiles over. Then the walls are screeded with an inch minimum of concrete and then tiled over.

Aint no way in this world I can just "move all the wires into one place" It would be easier to build another house.

I have decided to attack the worst run. One of the spurs is the hood extractor. I can run a new wire all the way from the consumer unit, through the current socket and up above the hob hood, and place the spur switch up there. I can do the same with the other spur in that run (2 down 3 to go). Then I have to get dusty and dirty and just chop new boxes to line up and also to be in a horizontal line with the run on the other side of the hob. This second run is not too far out of alignment, but I just cant relocate any of them so adjustments are the name of the game.
I have no problem buying a matching set of all the face plates. 'er indoors is happy with plain white so they wont break the bank, and she wants larger tiles anyway, and also shiny for easy cleaning so the rebuild will be quite quick and relatively painless.

I'm allowing myself 2 days for this 'cos I aint as young as I used to be. She's being sent off to the beach and shopping to let me work in peace. This is the last inside job I'm doing, I have one more outside wiring task to do as soon as a damaged ankle heals enough to let me climb a step ladder, and thats it for the rest of the year. 8)

 

[sammy.se]

Thanks for the explanation Bob, sounds like a tricky job! Good luck

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Get a nice piece of wood half an inch or so thick and an inch or so larger all round than the area your sockets cover, mould the edges, polish it and mount it to the wall. Replace the sockets in line screwing them to the wood, not the back boxes.

 

[sunnybob]

My mrs would have a one word answer for that (she's more polite than me, I would need two words :roll: :lol: )

 

[That would work]

Rip it all off! It wouldn't take as long to do as this thread! :lol:

 

[sunnybob]

The tiles arent chosen yet. Thats her thursday job. with luck I'll be ready by then and it should be all over by the weekend.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

The tiles arent chosen yet. Thats her thursday job. with luck I'll be ready by then and it should be all over by the weekend.

The only thing worse than choosing tiles is choosing door knobs. Both are abysmal jobs. I have learned that you need to take the tiles out into natural light, because the weird lighting in warehouse caves changes the colours, sometimes significantly. Well done not volunteering for making the buying decision.

 

[sunnybob]

Well done not volunteering for making the buying decision.

48 years and counting...I make NO decisions on household decor. I just tell her if its possible and how much it will cost her. 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[sunnybob]

Well, as always, a simple project turned into a 5 day task. I decided I couldnt live with one set of sockets 2" higher than the set only 5 foot away.

Then I looked along the other side of the L shaped surface and there were two more sets of sockets, and the last set was 3" higher than the lowest set. (hammer) (hammer) :roll:

I took out 2 single switch plates and incorporated them into the ring main (they were only very small loads, whats the point of having a 13 amp fused spur for a 240 watt extractor hood?) Its not even that now as I replaced the halogen with LeD. Same with an ignition spark unit for gas hob, so thats now on the oven spur.

All tested out fine, just the tiling to finish off.

 

[Bod]

Well done!

Bod.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Much better!

[edit] Just thought about it: The only thing about the hob is that the oven spur will/should be capable of 6kW (25A) continuous, although modern units often don't need that. It means, without any in-line fuse for the hob's spark igniter, it can tolerate a substantial fault leakage before the circuit trips off.

I know you understand mains well, also that any kind of leakage detection - RCD or ELCB (if you're of a certain age) - will catch a live-to-ground fault fast, but it's probably a good idea to fit a 13A socket somewhere out of sight for the hob, so at least then you can fuse it down to 3A in the plug top.

Just a thought. Aesthetically it's a vast improvement already!

E.

 

[sunnybob]

Erik, a good point, but whatever we say about "foreigners" Cypriot electricians are well up there in terms of protection.
This house is 12 years old, but was not fully connected to the mains for about 4 years. When that joyous day happened, I had the original electrician here to meet the authority guys for their inspection. The two most miserable cypriot jobsworths I have ever seen :roll: They were looking for ANY reason to fail it. My electrician Theo, wouldnt let me near them, and he was right (hammer) (hammer).
They spent an hour wandering round poking into corners and then insisted on a SECOND RCBO for the pool pump before they would pass it.
That pump has TWO RCBO's, ONE MCB, and a double pole isolating switch. :roll:
I have no less than 10 x RCBO's covering only 13 MCB's in 2 seperate boxes in a 4 bed house. =D> =D> =D> =D>
Even my missus couldnt electrocute herself here. 8) 8) 8)

 

[RogerS]

That's a cracking result, sunnybob. You don't fancy popping over here to sort some of mine out ? You can carry out your 14-day quarantine in my house ...job done.

 

[Bm101]

Welcome to the 23rd century Bob.





*ducks

 

[sunnybob]

Roger..... having just looked up your whereabouts
Location In the eternally wet North
That there is what they call a deal breaker :roll: :roll: (hammer) (hammer)

I do enjoy "technical" jobs though, ones that require a lateral thinking approach. Cutting the new lower shelf was surprisingly simple with the worx multitool and a slicing blade, but shortening the conduits without removing the cables was interesting. My 50 year old Marples wood chisel was surpisingly good at slicing plastic :shock: :lol: but it was not happy with cutting the concrete nubs out. :roll:

Chris; ,,,,, twenty THIRD century? Man, I was shocked that I reached the twenty FIRST. =D> =D> =D>

Tiling finished; This was the set of five that wandered down the slope.

 

[MikeG.]

......... My 50 year old Marples wood chisel was surpisingly good at slicing plastic :shock: :lol: but it was not happy with cutting the concrete nubs out.........

:lol: I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you repent, grind, hone and strop, then that will be the end of it - I will not look for you, I will not pursue you... but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you... and I will kill you :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[novocaine]

No offence mean't here Mike, and I'm in total agreement with your reasoning, but my money is on Bob if it comes to that level of response.
Whilst I understand you have a set of skills you have gained over the years, some of Bobs skill can't be spoken about in polite society (nor without signing NDA's and the like) :shock:.