A Truro homeowner needed additional socket outlets across several rooms alongside a number of existing ones repositioned to better suit how each space was being used. The work spanned the bedroom, entrance hallway, and living room - sockets were recessed into masonry walls, cables routed under floorboards, and one outlet fitted using surface trunking where chasing into the wall wasn't the approach.
When a property hasn’t had its electrics attended to in some time, it’s common to find sockets in positions that worked for a previous layout but don’t hold up when rooms are in regular use – sat low behind furniture, tucked round a corner, or simply not enough of them where they’re actually needed. This job in Truro covered exactly that kind of work, with a combination of new socket installations and existing ones moved to more practical positions across the bedroom, hallway, and living room.
The bedroom required a new double socket on the doorway wall, on the window side of the room. Supply was taken from an existing socket, with cabling routed beneath the floorboards to keep everything out of sight. The socket itself was recessed into the masonry rather than sitting surface-mounted – a cleaner result once the room’s finished. A second bedroom socket was relocated at the same time, moved further into the corner and raised above skirting board level. The back box was recessed into the masonry once the cable had been extended through the floor void, bringing both outlets into a consistent and tidy position.
Over in the entrance hallway, a new double socket was needed in the corner near the door to the living room. Rather than run an entirely new circuit, supply was taken from the socket on the other side of the wall. That outlet – in the living room – was a single at the time, so it was upgraded to a double as part of the same work and raised from skirting board height. A small change, but a useful one, particularly in a hallway where you want a plug socket without stretching a cable halfway across the floor.
The living room had the most going on. A single socket that sat between the two front windows was removed, and in its place two double sockets were fitted – one either side of where the window recess falls on the wall. Both were raised from their previous low-level position and recessed into the masonry, with the cables extended to reach the new outlet positions. This kind of arrangement works well in living rooms where a TV and associated equipment is spread across a wall, or where trailing cables from a single central socket have become a recurring problem.
A separate socket that had been sitting under the radiator was also relocated as part of the same visit. It was moved further along the wall and raised above the skirting, again recessed flush into the masonry. Having a socket directly below a radiator is less than ideal day-to-day – it restricts what can be plugged in and where, so moving it to a more open run of wall makes the whole room easier to use.
The last piece of the job was an additional socket fitted at low level near the patio doors, tucked in adjacent to the bookcase. Supply for this one was drawn from the boiler power supply on the kitchen side of the wall, having checked it was suitable for the purpose. Chasing into the wall wasn’t the method here, so the cable was contained within surface-mounted white PVC trunking – kept as discreet as possible given the location, blending with the bookcase as far as reasonably practical.
Throughout the job, the preference was to recess sockets into the masonry wherever the work allowed, and to run cables under the floorboards rather than surface-route them. In a property of this age in Truro, taking a bit more time over the finish makes a difference – surface-mounted boxes and visible cable runs can look out of place once everything else in a room is decorated. Done properly, most of the electrical work effectively disappears once the plasterer and decorator have followed through.
