Flat mains cable?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm looking for a mains wiring system to help with the restoration of a period farmhouse. This is a 1720 property without cavity floors - the ceiling of the kitchen is the floor of the bedroom above. I don't want to lose any further height by making any kind of cavity floor, so I'm looking for a mains wiring system to replace the mains cables that are currently just tacked around the walls. Does anyone know of any safety approved flat wiring systems that can go on walls or perhaps under a carpet?

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't expect that there would be any safe way of putting a mains cable under any carpet. Is there a skirting board? If there is you might be able to hide the cables in a groove sawn or routed into the back, but you'd need to be careful with nails.
ANyway I'm sure there's regulations about these things, which are often all about your future safety when the positioning of the cables is long forgotten.

 

[Anonymous]

As Hampton has suggested, cables can be hidden behind skirting boards. If you don't have the wherewithall to rout out grooves (and getting the cables to stay in such relatively small grooves is quite difficult), you'll find that Homebase sell cavity skirting board kits - or you can create these easily yourself. The skirting simply has battens fitted to the back of it, top and bottom, so that it stands proud of the wall with a cavity behind.
Alternatively, I have in the past run cables surface mounted along the top vertical face of ceiling joists (just under the floorboards above), in an unobtrusive part of the room. If you choose the location carefully (eg: the nearest joists to the wall farthest from the door), you'll find that they are to all intents and purposes invisible unless you actually go looking for them.

 

[Anonymous]

No such thing, mains cable needs a certain amount of insulation. Next best bet is skirting on standoffs and singles, which are what, 5mm upwards.

When younger I used low v flat cable under carpet, something like 3mm thick, wouldnt do that today though.

Also dont overlook the fact that some of your loads might be runable at 12v, eg lighting, small appliances. These can be supplied using enamelled copper wire, which is as near to invisible as wire gets. Being low v it can be routed much more freely too.

NT