Plastic backboxes

[hiddenmnetter]

Just been told by a friend that apparently new regs require all kitchen backboxes to be plastic although I thought that was just for surface mounted boxes? Does anyone know?

New regs only apply to work carried out after the regs come in so that doesn't mean you need to change everything you have.

Works are going on now- is that the current regs?

No idea - your electrician should be up to date. If he isn't, be wary. If it's the kitchen fitters doing the electrics and they aren't qualified electricians, be extra wary.

Builder is doing the wiring with an electrician coming to sign it off. I only had it mentioned to me by a friend at work today, and hadn’t heard of any such condition before. The point is i’d like the backboxes changed before the plasterers go home!

"told by a friend that apparently new regs require"

you can't rely on the nonsense that unqualified friends spread around.

She'll be telling you next that coffee cures cancer.

Unfortunately BS 7671 (one of the most popular ways of achieving the requirements of Part P of the Building regulations) is copyright, and unless your friend is able to give a paragraph number it's difficult to know what they have in mind. I have not heard of this as a proposed revision or amendment, either.

BTW, Part P (Paragraph P1) runs to only 28 words, and is much, much less prescriptive than people would have you think.

p.s.

The only case I can think of where backboxes (and other fittings) in houses have to be plastic, is on a lighting circuit which has no earth. Often found in houses that were wired, or last rewired, prior to about 1970.

Perhaps your friend has such a house.

That’s the reassurance I was looking for, cheers! I did think it was a strange requirement but he was living in a house that hadn’t had the wiring done in some time.