Extra Electrical Socket for TV. DOY or Electrician?

rhysduck

rhysduck

rhysduck

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Guys,
I need an extra socket half way up the wall in the bedroom for when the TV is wall mounted.

The nearest socket is on the opposite wall.

Is this something I can do myself or get an electrician in to do it? I have access from the attic if that makes a difference (which has electric up there).

Thanks.
 
You can do it yourself if you are confidant in your abilities.

Its been a few years since I've done this so......

Run a mains cable from the existing power point (attic or room, your choice) to where you want your spur (extra power point sticking out of the circuit). A spur off an existing spur would be okay I believe, but don't go crazy. My house had about 8 coming off one when we moved in.

I've found it can be fiddly getting the wires to stay in with the others already in there so just take your time.
Wire up the new point and you're good to go. (tidy up, chase channels if required etc...)

I'm not sure if new electrical work has a requirement to be signed off, I know kitchens and bathrooms do.
 
Find two sockets on the same circuit (close to one another too), take the link between them out, and include your new socket in it, then link the three back up, too keep the ring going.

You can do as above, but having spur's isn't needed, you have the whole attic space to work with so it's very easy just to include the new socket in the ring.
 
Is it a socket outlet in the attic or just the lighting joint box?

You would be lucky if an electrician charged more than £40/50 for the work.
 
If it helps, we paid recently paid an electrician £50 to add spur, run under floorboards, add 2x2 sockets and test. Took him 2 hours.
 
rhysduck said:
I want an electric socket half way up the wall :)

Thanks guys.. Not a clue what half of you mean but it's helpful.
Click to expand...

If you are unsure then it'd be best to get a sparky in to be honest, I'm sure it wouldn't cost a bomb, depends on the area and how awkward it may turn out to be.
 
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Not trying to be funny.. But you have no idea what you are doing, call an electrician if you want it installed correctly.
 
It is pretty straight forward to do however since you are legally obligated to get it signed off afterwards (and if you're a total beginner then this is a good idea anyway) then it might just be easier to get a sparky to fit it for you.
 
It is very unlikely that sockets on a ring main will have wires in the attic, they will run under the bedroom floorboards, this means either running a spur, ( which have length restrictions on the cable run), which will need floorboards lifting and depending on which way your joists run, may require channeling the joists or drilling through them just to run the cable.
If you go to join it into the ring main instead of a spur you still have to lift the floorboards and channel or drill the joists to run the cable through.
Plus as you want it half way up a wall you will have to channel for the cable and put capping over the cable and then plaster the channel over.
For safety sake if you are unsure get an electrician in.
 
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trackrat said:
It is very unlikely that sockets on a ring main will have wires in the attic, they will run under the bedroom floorboards, this means either running a spur, ( which have length restrictions on the cable run), which will need floorboards lifting and depending on which way your joists run, may require channeling the joists or drilling through them just to run the cable.
If you go to join it into the ring main instead of a spur you still have to lift the floorboards and channel or drill the joists to run the cable through.
Plus as you want it half way up a wall you will have to channel for the cable and put capping over the cable and then plaster the channel over.
For safety sake if you are unsure get an electrician in.
Click to expand...

I don't understand how you can say the cables will be "very unlikely" in the attic, it's 50/50 chance if they come from below or above, And 8/10 any job I go too (new or old), the upstairs is wired from above.
 
I did this in our master bedroom with very little prior knowledge of electrics, just a lot of reading on how to do it correctly and safely. It's really not rocket science. Electrons come from the positive brown or red wire and return to the grid via the neutral black or blue wire. Oh and connect the yellow and green one just in case :p.

Our upstairs ring main was wired under the floorboards. Very simple to lift up carpet and a floorboard, I then drilled a hole in the plasterboard wall at a downward angle and used electricians' rods to fish the 2.5mm^2 cable up from the floor to behind the wall. Then I used one of those push fit plasterboard backboxes for the socket and ran the tv coax down from the attic.

It really wasn't hard and I'm so glad I learnt how to do it myself, as over the years it'll save me a fortune in sparky costs. And balls to declaring it; deny all knowledge if ever asked.
 
^ Fair enough :) Thanks.

I believe upstairs is wired from the attic, as there's main cable up there on both sides (for all 3 bedrooms).
 
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