Moving ceiling rose

[Kemik]

Hi guys,

I am moving a ceiling rose around 60 cm to be above the dining table rather than in the middle of the room. The rose comes from a junction box so is an easy, single wire (new build house).

However, if there is a joist in the way, how do I get the wire across to the other side? At the moment the only hole is one around 1" wide for the existing wire. I think I might need to make this slightly bigger to accommodate a maintenance free junction box with the aim of extending the wire to the new location.

Will I need to make a hole big enough for my drill and drill through the joist? That would take a fair bit of replastering... Access from above will be difficult as it is all carpeted.

 

[HardwareGeek]

You might be able to get away with 1 hole and a long spade bit, you can drill the joist at an angle rather than straight on so you don't need to get the drill up into the ceiling etc

First check how much slack you have on the existing cable and see if you really do need a junction or not, if it will reach you will get by with 1 small hole to fill rather than a jb size hole

You can then drill a 25mm hole where you want the new light - a 25mm hole on the existing cable side of the joist, and use a 16mm 300mm+ long spade bit to drill through the middle of the joist at an angle and fish the cable through the joist and fish back out from the other hole where new light will be - might be fiddly but will be the least disruption and repair afterwards

Or you can roll carpet back and do the same from above with solid board cutting holesaw ( you can get cheaper kits) and plastic blank plates or bit of batten and re-fix the cutout piece into place

If you can get the carpet back down neatly then carpet up is probably the easier then damaging ceiling

 

[Kemik]

First check how much slack you have on the existing cable and see if you really do need a junction or not, if it will reach you will get by with 1 small hole to fill rather than a jb size hole

You can then drill a 25mm hole where you want the new light - a 25mm hole on the existing cable side of the joist, and use a 16mm 300mm+ long spade bit to drill through the middle of the joist at an angle and fish the cable through the joist and fish back out from the other hole where new light will be - might be fiddly but will be the least disruption and repair afterwards

Or you can roll carpet back and do the same from above with solid board cutting holesaw ( you can get cheaper kits) and plastic blank plates or bit of batten and re-fix the cutout piece into place

If you can get the carpet back down neatly then carpet up is probably the easier then damaging ceiling

Unfortunately there is zero slack. There's only just enough for me to write the junction box.

Just checked above too, it's the bathroom so no way I'm coming at it from above. Would have been cleaner otherwise.

I've just drilled the new hole and it looks like I'm right next to the joist so not the other side of one afterall This means it should be easier. Just cut the plasterboard big enough for me to slide the junction box back up and then feed the new wire to the new hole. Would have been better if there had been slack in the roof but unfortunately not. I could try pulling it to make sure but don't really want to risk it. Looks like I'll be testing out my plastering skills too for this 6cm x 4cm hole for the junction box

 

[HardwareGeek]

If you cut a neat hole and keep the cutout piece and use a bit of batten or something across the hole screwed into plasterboard each side then screw the cutout back onto the batten and skim over, even 1 strike filler can work pretty well and leave a hole thats not too noticeable unless you know to look for it

Ps. if your not too worried about maintenance free jb you might be able to just make the first hole a little bigger feed the new cable over from new hole and fish out the new cable from old hole and connect with wagos or choc block and push back up into ceiling then you only have a small hole to skim - not compliant but much less to repair afterwards