Tool to find electrial cables in walls

kikel

What do people use to find electrical cables in concrete walls? How reliable are they.
I've done a search but found nothing. What are they called.

fishdog

What do people use to find electrical cables in concrete walls?

In theory cables should only be run ertically. In practice, things can be different!

Look for obvious signs, where electrical points are located on both sides of a wal. Look in the attic, under the floor and think where would you run a cable.

How reliable are they

Not very! I would not trust them!

Steve

fishdog wrote: »

Not very! I would not trust them!

I agree, I've used them with limited success.

Most wiring is run vertically from a socket or light fitting to the ceiling or floor but there are cowboys and diy'ers that disregard this rule.

kikel

Thanks for the replies.

davelerave

if its a metal box you could try a metal detector .ive had no luck with the diy things .the tone generator /oscillator thing is great for bunches of wires

Kashkai

In my experience, they are worse than useless. I recently drilled into my house alarm wiring while putting up a curtain rail. In my defence, I had used a borrowed wire detector that found nothing where I was drilling and the wiring was 4 inches to the left of where it should have been if it had been run vertically up from where the wiring entered the plasterwork. And so I drilled into the wiring, shorted the alarm and cursed liked a trooper.

I'm afraid that its trial and error if drilling into a wall anywhere near suspected wiring. The best you can do is to very slowly drill into the wall and when you cut through the surface plasterwork, try to see if there is a wire underneath before you drill further into the blockwork.