Replace sockets

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chilscout

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Staffordshire
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Attached image shows a socket layout I have inherited (and my blood underneath!).

All three sockets are mounted in a single recess on two double and one single back boxes adjacent to each other - no gaps between them.

To compound matters, the back boxes are not deep enough for the recesses that have been cut, hence the plaster collapsing around them.

The electrical sockets are wired as a ring - feed into one, connection between the two and return from the other.

The arrangement is unsightly and I don't need two double sockets, just one. I'd also like to stop the plaster collapsing by, maybe, installing a deeper back box or packing out behind the existing back boxes, or is there a back box extension I can get?

Ideally, I'd have a double socket set away from the single aerial socket so that we have a gap of plastered wall between them, probably where the left hand socket is. Is there a way I can extend the feed across within the regs? I'm not sure there is and I don't want a blanking plate.

As an alternative, my thought is to install a triple socket to replace the two doubles then pack behind the back box to move it out to the plaster line.

Does anyone have a solution?
 

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  • Sockets.jpg
    Sockets.jpg
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You can never have too many sockets. I assume there was a TV there plus a DVD player, set top box, sound bar etc which already uses up four sockets. I would take everything off and space them out a bit more. 25mm back boxes can be replaced with 35mm ones. Cables can be extended, my preferred method is soldering and self amalgamating tape. But you may be able to pull more cable through. Once you have decided where you want everything to be it is hammer and chisel time to set the boxes and then plastering the gaps. Good luck.
 
Chop out a hole for 35mm back box, is it worth keeping two doubles, they might come in handy.

Separate them and rewire/add new cable, or get an electrician to do this for you.

Blup
 
Bernard, if he splits the difference and puts the double where the 2 “middle” outlets are out of the 4 ( with a new deep back box with extension rings if needed ) then the cables should be in the safe zone ( albeit coming in at different corners of the back box).
Also if it’s in as deep as he says and looks it may be more than 50mm from the surface anyway?
The left hand one seems for be in a void?
 
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