External wall, wiring inside?

bking

Hi folks

Complete amateur here, so apologies if I use wrong terminology.

I'm looking to put up a curtain pole above a window in a bedroom. As a precaution, I ran a multi detector (bought in Lidl) over the area, and it's showing ac wiring.

Theres some old alarm cabling running along the underside of the top of the window, but it's a good 6" away from where I'm scanning. Is this likely to be causing the reading?

I would have thought that it'd be unusual to run cabling through an external wall. Theres no sockets or switches on this wall.

Is there any way to be 100% sure it's safe to drill into?

Thanks!
Brian

meercat

Is it a solid wall or plasterboard
It’s unusual but not unknown for wires to be run up a wall even though there’s no obvious electrical outlet close. This can’t be done under existing regulations

bking

Solid as far as I can tell. I might remove the alarm cabling and see if the detector still pings.

Any other tips? Really appreciate the help.

BK

meercat

bking wrote: »

Solid as far as I can tell. I might remove the alarm cabling and see if the detector still pings.

Any other tips? Really appreciate the help.

BK

Small hole and use a screwdriver to wriggle about for plastic conduit or wires.
I’d be surprised if an electrician ran cables close to windows knowing curtains would be hung close by.
Sometimes taking a chance has to be done and consequences dealt with. Mostly everything works out

Steve

Is there an outside light?

It's possible you are misinterpreting the detectors response. There is probably a steel lintel inside the wall that it's picking up on.

Also, for a detector like this to work there needs to be a load on the circuit. So a feed to a socket or light that are not being used are unlikely to be detected. I'd never 100% rely on one of these.

Alarm cables are unlikely to trigger it.

bking

No outside light at all. Could be a steel lintel alright.

Would you guys recommend knocking the electrics off for the house then drill and turn back on? That approach safe enough?

Any other recommendations/tips?

Steve

Use the detector again, put a pencil mark on the wall where it triggers for AC. Turn off the power and run it again. This will rule out a false reading.

After that use a small drill bit, it will go through the plaster like butter, if you hit solid and see steel swarf coming out (as opposed to copper, if you see that , run ) then you'll know what's underneath.

2011

+1

By the way alarms work on DC, not AC. I say this because the OP said the detector was picking up AC.

Victor

Where does your mains power come in? Telephone? TV / broadband?