# Forum Home Renovation Electrical  How an electrician installs a Power Point

## MrPotatohead

Hi Guys, 
I am renovating my Kitchen at the moment, and will need an electrician to move some light switches, power points etc. 
My question is, to install the metal backing plate for a switch, does an electrician need to tear plaster off, install the plate then replaster? Or can he just cut a small hole in the wall for the wires then somehow install the plate through that? Ive just replastered the kitchen, and this problem unfortunately became apparent afterwards... 
Also, if anyone knows of a good electrician in Newcastle, let me know. 
Cheers,
Peter

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## gpkennedy

Peter, sparky will have a clip which is not nailed to the stud but rather fits into the cut plaster. As long as sparky takes a bit of care cutting the hole, it will fit well.
George

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## chrisp

There are two different types of clips.  One that is used if the studs are exposed.  These are nailed to the stud.  Another type is used that simply hang on the plaster board.  These just provide something for the screws through the outlet to grip on to.  If you can uses then, the former will give a more sturdy result,

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## chalkyt

They are commonly called "C Clips". Go to your local friendly TLE, John R Turk or any Electrical Wholesaler in Newcastle to have a look. You just need a rectangular hole lightly smaller than the distance between the fixing screws and they just hook over the bottom of the cutout as Chrisp says. No need to damage the wall so your plaster job will be intact. Don't worry, your electrician should have them.

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## MrPotatohead

Thanks a bunch guys. Appreciate the help. 
Pete

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## chalkyt

Hi Pete,
While mindlessly assembling the minister for gardens' greenhouse today, It occured to me that you might not have made provision for running the cables. If this is the case, before your electrician arrives have a think about where switches etc will go in terms of easily getting wires in there otherwise your labour bill will skyrocket. It is easy for an electrician to waste several hours trying to get cable in somewhere just because the customer wants the switch etc just there. 
Easiest way to get cable into a plasterboard wall is directly from above or below (i.e. through the top or bottom plate of the wall). Drill nice big holes e.g. 18mm+ in the centre of the plate so that more than one cable goes in easily, then position your switch/GPO just above or below the nogging according to whether the cable is coming from the top or bottom. Your sparky will LOVE to see a draw wire/cord already in place. To do this you will need a "snake" (a length of yellow tongue from particle board flooring is ideal). Tape some brightly coloured cord to the end of this and poke it through the hole in the plate. You should be able to manoeuvre the snake until you see the cord through your switch hole, then just fish it out with a bit of bent wire.  
Do yourself a favour and dont try to drill through the nogging so that you can get into the next wall compartment (above or below). Invariably this is too much trouble and too hard to trick the cable into going through the hole, and in any case cables going through studs and noggings have to be 50mm from the wall surface in order to minimise the chance of someone drilling or nailing into live wires. 
If you have all of this covered then, sorry... but I had to think about something while mindlessly fitting four squillion nuts and bolts into aluminium extrusions.

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