getting rid of a lightswitch.

hooplah

Hi folks,

We have recently moved into our home.

One of the first things we did was get the place rewired.

We had a lightswitch put into the cupboard under the stairs. Since then we decided to get rid of the cupboard but we still have the lightswitch.




We may want to recreate the cupboard at some stage ... What should I do to get rid of this?

I could remove the cabling from the switch to the light fitting but the switch is still an obvious safety hazard for tripping.

Would it be totally unsafe to [with the power cut] remove cables from the switch, tape them up with electrical tape and just shove them through teh hole in the floor?

Is there some sort of cap that I should use instead?

Jimmy_M

Better bet would be to trace the wire back to where it came from, i.e. the source of the electricity and remove from there. Make sure its dead with a multimetre. Tape up the end as you mention, shove it back in (maybe with a piece of string left out) and tape a note so you remember or incase some other unfortunate person finds it and wonders what the deal is.

hooplah

I'm not sure how to go about tracing it back - how would you do that?

Jimmy_M

Well actually - looking at it again - it looks like it might be feeding something else along the line (there's a wire going in and it comes back out).

So if you take out the source you might be disabling something else along the circuit.

Im not sure whats the standard way of doing what you want.
You should probably at least put the wire in some type of terminal box... e.g. a back box with a blank front - but they'd still be hanging i suppose.

hooplah

Jimmy_M wrote: »

Well actually - looking at it again - it looks like it might be feeding something else along the line (there's a wire going in and it comes back out).

So if you take out the source you might be disabling something else along the circuit.

Im not sure whats the standard way of doing what you want.
You should probably at least put the wire in some type of terminal box... e.g. a back box with a blank front - but they'd still be hanging i suppose.

yeah - it might be feeding either the door bell, the sensor light at the front of the house, or both, or neither.

I guess I could raise the floorboard and put the cables in a terminal box underneath. ... it would be a bit of a pity though since we've had the floors sanded.

aido79

hooplah wrote: »

yeah - it might be feeding either the door bell, the sensor light at the front of the house, or both, or neither.

I guess I could raise the floorboard and put the cables in a terminal box underneath. ... it would be a bit of a pity though since we've had the floors sanded.

This would be the safest option. I'm guessing the cables if you were to open the switch are a single blue and a single brown with earth going to the supply side of the switch. The single blue is probably connected to the blue(neutral) of the wire going to the light with the brown wire of this cable going to the outgoing side of the switch. The safest option is to turn off the power, disconnect all cables from the switch and put them in a junction box with connectors on the end of live, neutral and earth. Hiding it will be the hard part. It is not feeding anything else by the way.

hooplah

aido79 wrote: »

This would be the safest option. ... Hiding it will be the hard part. It is not feeding anything else by the way.

Thanks for that. I'll hopefully get to this on the weekend. I'll knock the power off, open the switch and check things out.

brightspark

aido79 wrote: »

This would be the safest option. I'm guessing the cables if you were to open the switch are a single blue and a single brown with earth going to the supply side of the switch. The single blue is probably connected to the blue(neutral) of the wire going to the light with the brown wire of this cable going to the outgoing side of the switch. The safest option is to turn off the power, disconnect all cables from the switch and put them in a junction box with connectors on the end of live, neutral and earth. Hiding it will be the hard part. It is not feeding anything else by the way.

I hope you aren't suggesting putting the junction box under the floorboards? Connections must be accessible.

gctest50

aido79 wrote: »

I realise you are trying to help and I don't want to offend you but it's obvious you are not an electrician and this is not the first time I have seen you give someone incorrect information/advice in relation to electrical work so maybe you should leave it to someone who knows what they are talking about.

How do you know this bit ? :

aido79 wrote: »

......... It is not feeding anything else by the way.

Two cables coming out of that floorboard, how do you know where the "other" one heads off to on it's merry little way

Risteard81

hooplah wrote: »

Would it be totally unsafe to [with the power cut] remove cables from the switch, tape them up with electrical tape and just shove them through teh hole in the floor?

Yes it would, and would not comply with the National Wiring Rules.

Engage a Registered Electrical Contractor if you are not sure what to do with it.

hooplah

Risteard81 wrote: »

Engage a Registered Electrical Contractor if you are not sure what to do with it.

Yeah, that's possibly what I will do, but it's no harm having some idea what the best thing to do is / what the options are / what a reci sparks is likely to advise.

aido79

brightspark wrote: »

I hope you aren't suggesting putting the junction box under the floorboards? Connections must be accessible.

I did say hiding it would be the hard part and would not like the idea of a junction box under floorboards but are they still classed as connections when it is just connectors on the end of a cable and no other cable involved.
The cable is most likely tapped off the nearest light and so should be traced back to there and disconnected there as well.

aido79

gctest50 wrote: »

How do you know this bit ? :





Two cables coming out of that floorboard, how do you know where the "other" one heads off to on it's merry little way

Judging by the size of the cable(by zooming in on it)there is only one live and one neutral coming out of the floorboard so I don't see how it can be feeding anything else.

gctest50

aido79 wrote: »

Judging by the size of the cable(by zooming in on it)there is only one live and one neutral coming out of the floorboard so I don't see how it can be feeding anything else.

aido79 wrote: »

........there is only one live and one neutral coming out of the floorboard so I don't see how it can be feeding anything else.

two bits of this maybe :






but maybe and zooming in just ain't good enough

OP needs an electrician

aido79

gctest50 wrote: »

two bits of this maybe :






but maybe and zooming in just ain't good enough

OP needs an electrician

Yes I agree the op needs an electrician ...but you clearly are not an electrician if you think the 2 cables coming out of the floorboard are both t+e.
Maybe the op can confirm what the cables are by simply opening up the switch and having a look and putting up a picture.

hooplah

gctest50 wrote: »

From being around when the wiring was done I think, though I am not 100%, that this is the cable. If anyone really cares I'll photograph it at the weekend and post the photo.

That aside I would be interested in what people think my options are.

What is an electrician likely to advise?

What can be done without creating a trip hazard or damaging the floorboards?

[that would be better than just using one of these?

]