Decorators applied mist coat… to electrical sockets

Squarehed

Squarehed

Squarehed

Associate
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
383
Location
London
We’ve got decorators in who applied a mist coat to a new plaster job. They popped faceplates off the wall (which I planned on replacing anyway). However the socket behind and wires now look like this.

Apart from the obvious ‘which wire is which colour’ problem, how bad is this and what should we be doing to remedy?

Example:
 
Scrape or clean of a little bit of the wires. But even without that it's pretty obvious which wires are which. Complete non issue if you ask me. Maybe the painters prep was a little lacking but are you otherwise happy with the job?

Id be more concerned with the plastering as around the socket isn't very tidy. As a DIYer I'd do a neater job than that, nice and squared off around the inside edges.
 
Last edited:
I've seen this happen quite a lot, seems to be almost standard practice :(

Not really anything you can do, maybe scrape a bit off each cable to show the colour if you really care?
 
A assume they were spraying the paint?

It’s quite sloppy, particularly on the back of sides/backs of sockets.

There shouldn’t be any impact on the wiring, it can be scraped back if needed and it will probably just fall off in time as the wires flex anyway. It’s water based so shouldn’t impact the plastic.
 
Are they not meant to cling film things like that or something, it seems just thoughtless and rushed to just blast everything in sight with paint including electrical wires.
 
Seems to be typical of some. I had a plasterer rip the bag from something i'd covered to fill a hdmi cable with plaster, that and plasetering in cables to walls and ceilings.
 
The paint should flake off a little if you bend the cables about so to speak. I've come across this a few times after completing an electrical first fix, I return to second fix and all cables are coated in paint and all markings I'd made (particularly useful for large light switches) are now covered in paint. The first time it happened to me, I felt like my world had fallen apart :cry:
 
Thanks for advice all!

Yes, the paint went away quite easily so swapping faceplates wasn't an issue.

However, as predicted by many of you, fixing them to the wall proved tricky as a result of old work on backboxes and the plasterers. I've wired the frontplates but left it to the decorators to fix to the wall. We'll see...
 
Last edited:
russ9898 said:
The paint should flake off a little if you bend the cables about so to speak. I've come across this a few times after completing an electrical first fix, I return to second fix and all cables are coated in paint and all markings I'd made (particularly useful for large light switches) are now covered in paint. The first time it happened to me, I felt like my world had fallen apart :cry:
Click to expand...

Mostly for keeping the plaster's muck out, but and outcut of wide PVC capping cut to the length of the box, and just tucked under the lugs helps stop the cables getting covered :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom