Capping off a wall light position

[davek0974]

Are there any neat/attractive methods of capping off a position that has currently got a wall light on it?

We are redecorating and want to do away with two wall lights but keep the wire in place for possible future use. The light removal will leave a hole in the wall about 30 x 50 mm

Sparks said a blanking plate but they are big and pretty ugly in the middle of a wall.

Any suggestions?

[arco_iris]

Well I may get shot down in flames but....

1. Disconnect the feed at the light switch, if you're doing away with the wall lights presumably you're replacing the switch with one that has one less gang.

2. Terminate the three wires at the wall light point into a small chocbloc, bury it in the wall & fill over it.

3. Measure, and record a note of the position of this point - distance from left wall, right wall, down from ceiling, up from floor, so you or a future houseowner (fat chance) can find it again.

[ericmark]

I have left wiring many times for future use, rarely end up using it. But if left the problem is how do you know it is safe to reconnect? If you for example hit a live cable with a drill likely it will stop some thing working or/and trip some device, but if unused or dead, you could be unaware you have drilled through it, so when you try to recommission it, a shelving unit may become live.

I had a cable supplying my central heating boiler which is in an annex under main house, it left house as red, yellow, blue and earth, and arrived in annex as brown, black, grey and earth, and nothing to show why or where it changed colour, so I used it for the 12 volt supply to Nest as not happy with 230 volt with some unknown junction in the cable.

So it is unlikely any future owner will use the cable once made dead, and even you will be questioning where it runs.

In last house a water leak resulted in new ceiling, when old one came down I found cables, which I must have fitted, as had the house from new, but did not have a clue what they were for, over the 30 years I had forgotten things.

[davek0974]

Good points there, thanks.

We had today already decided to pull it all out and fill the holes, make a decent job ready for the plasterer. It's doubtful we will ever return to them, never really liked them much anyway.

Found some downright deadly electrics to the first one of the wall lights, it was spurred off a socket with 2.5T&E then to a buried junction box with the lid missing, then branched up to wall light and along/up to switch. Just to cap off the quality work they switched the neutral instead of the live.

If your'e going to spur off a socket for lights at least put an FCU in there and 3 or 5A fuse.