How to conduct open wiring in the apartment so that it is beautiful

What are the advantages of the method

Open cable routing on the walls is most often used not in houses and apartments, but in garden buildings in the country house - a garage, a utility unit, a bathhouse. Although if you try and choose the right materials, then even in private homes and modern apartments, this option for installing electrical wiring will benefit.

The advantages of open wiring are as follows:

• simpler and faster installation, which even a novice electrician can easily cope with;
• less tool and materials needed than when creating hidden wiring;
• from the shield or junction box, you can at any time bring a new group of wires (for example, if you want to install another outlet);
• in some cases, this option positively affects the interior of the room (for example, if you use the mount on porcelain rollers and insulators in the bath);
• repair and maintenance of the line can be carried out without disturbing the decorative decoration of the walls.

At the same time, the drawbacks of installing open wiring with your own hands are the increased risk of fire, limited conditions of use and a shorter service life of the power supply. Keep in mind that the route is more susceptible to mechanical damage than if it is held in the walls.

Do not lay open wiring in the kitchen so that water and heat from the stove get into the cable lines and sockets, also follow the recommendations described in the article on installing sockets in the kitchen https://our.electricianexp.com/en/rozetki-na-kuxne.html.

In addition, read the rules for laying external wiring on combustible bases in the article: electrical wiring in a wooden house. In the general case, it is necessary to ensure a minimum probability of fire, for this you need to use the VVGNG-LS cable, modern wiring products and installation tools that do not support combustion.

Wiring instructions

To date, there are several options for how to do open wiring with your own hands. The most popular are the use of special skirting boards, cable channels and corrugations. To make retro wiring in the house you can use fastening on porcelain insulators, but this is a completely different topic, for which we have highlighted an entire article.

First you need to create a wiring diagram for the rooms, determine the installation location of the junction boxes, sockets and switches. Further, the building level and a simple pencil on the walls draw straight lines along which further wiring will be conducted in the apartment.

At the preparatory stage, according to the scheme, the number of all elements and the cross section of the conductor cores are calculated. Recommended by yourself cable section calculationso that in the future there is no wiring failure during network congestion. So, we will consider installation options for open wiring.

Cable channels

The most attractive way to open wiring is using cable channels, which are narrow plastic boxes shown in the photo. Surely you could see such products in offices, retail premises, and even some private homes. The fact is that there is an assortment of goods in different colors, which can even fit into the interior of the rooms.

Cable channel mount It is quite simple to perform using glue or self-tapping screws. The first installation method is used if the surface of the walls is perfectly smooth and even. Glue is applied to the adjacent wall of the box, which is then pressed in the right place on the wall.

Our advice is to press the product against the wall and remove immediately. On the surface there will be glue that was on the rear wall of the cable channel. Wait a few minutes for the glue to freeze slightly, then press the product again. This time with little effort to ensure reliable bonding.

In addition, you can drill holes every 30-40 cm, drive dowels into them and screw the screws. On drywall, it is necessary to carry out the installation of open electrical wiring using a dowel-butterfly. At bends and junctions, additional accessories are used - plugs, corners, connectors, which are quite simply connected to each other. When the entire "skeleton" of the channels is assembled, proceed to laying the cable. At the junction of the cores with the junction box, sockets and switches, the insulation is stripped 10-15 mm.

In the end, all the "points" are connected, carried out ringing open wiring with a multimeter and connecting electricians to the distribution panel of the room.

Electrical baseboard

The second option is no less popular and simple. To date, special skirting boards are produced, inside of which there are channels for open wiring. This option allows you to "kill two birds with one stone" - to make the wiring inconspicuous and at the same time functional.

All you need is to buy such a plinth, fix it to the floor and put the wiring in it. In places where the cable exits upward (for example, to divert to an outlet), it is necessary to drill a hole and pull out the necessary conductor. Very often, an electrical skirting board is used in combination with cable channels for wiring in an open way in the house and apartment. If you need to draw a line through the doorway, you will already have to drill a hole in the wall, and it is necessary to install open wiring through the partition in a protective polymer pipe, which is required by the rules PUE 2.1.58. We talk more about this in the article:https://our.electricianexp.com/en/kak-provesti-kabel-cherez-stenu.html.

Corrugated pipe

This method of open wire laying is practically not used in residential premises. It can be used in farm buildings, as well as during installation street lighting, due to unattractive appearance.

With corrugation, things are a little more complicated, this is due to the fact that it will be required first pull the cable through the corrugationand then fix the track on a brick wall, wood paneling or plaster.

Buy corrugation with an internal cross section twice as large as the diameter of the conductor, so that you can easily drag the cable through the entire material. Another important nuance - with a negative temperature, the corrugation immediately breaks, so we do not recommend installing open wiring in such weather.

For cable mounts it is best to use special clips (they can be seen in the photo above), which are fixed with a single screw. You can also use metal staples, but their installation is more problematic, in addition, there is a possibility of damage to the insulation of the cores. Do not forget, in the case of the plinth and in the case of the corrugated pipe, after the electrical work, ring the finished line with a multimeter to make sure it is working.

Retro and loft style

Another interesting idea how to make a beautifully open wiring in an apartment or a private house is to lay the cable in the pipes. This option is suitable if the interior of the rooms is in the loft style or antique (retro). We talked about how to conduct wiring in pipes in a separate article: https://our.electricianexp.com/en/rekomendacii-po-prokladke-elektroprovodki-v-trubax.html. You can study photo examples of such an installation option below:

As you can see, the design is quite unusual and more suitable for establishments like a cafe than for housing. However, the modern interior in the kitchen or in the hall can be so original, and the wiring will only complement the overall picture.

The video below clearly shows the open wiring in the pipes:

That's all the DIY installation options for open wiring. We recommend that you review the video instructions provided to visually see all the nuances of electrical work!

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