How to properly grind walls for wiring

Instead of the introduction: in the grammar dictionaries of the Russian language there are no definitions of the words “stroba” or “strobe”. The online service “” does not know them either.

But the Wikipedia joint folk art encyclopedia combines these two terms into one name and sends it to the technical literature:

• PUE;

• GOST 21.201-2011.

In these documents, the term "furrow" is used, which is created in the walls to hide electrical wiring or pipelines. This technique not only improves the design of the premises, but also creates additional mechanical protection for the laid communications from damage.

However, in colloquial speech among electricians, the word "strobe" is more familiar. A professional tool for cutting them is called a chisel cutter even by manufacturers. Therefore, the article will adhere to the prevailing folk traditions.

What risks are hidden in the gates

Building structures and walls of buildings in particular are extremely heavy and are subject to significant mechanical stress. When designing them, a strength calculation is always carried out and a power reserve is created to work under extreme conditions during hurricanes, earthquakes, or other unforeseen situations.

However, this reserve cannot be large because its increase leads to a sharp rise in the cost of construction and the building as a whole.

The strength of the wall is determined by the quality of the material and dimensions, and the furrows cut through it reduce the overall thickness of the structure, reduce its resistance to current loads.

It is especially dangerous to make strobes in panel buildings. Building concrete slabs have a thickness of about 20 cm, recesses in them up to 5 cm occupy ¼ of the space and significantly weaken the strength. Therefore, construction documentation completely prohibits the implementation of furrows:

• in supporting structures;

• on the walls of panel houses;

• on concrete floor slabs.

Housing and communal services supervisory bodies always prohibit such work; permission can only be obtained from them for gating walls at monolithic buildings.

Therefore, the independently made decision to cut through the furrows in panel houses is considered a violation of existing rules. Particularly at risk of wall damage are the slabs installed on the lower floors. They are affected not only by the weight of the roof, but also of all the apartments above.

On the Internet, there are tips of "experts" who recommend gating the load-bearing structures up to 1/3 of the wall thickness. It should be understood that this is a direct prerequisite for the collapse of the building, especially in case of violation of the reinforcement, which not only cannot be cut under any circumstances, but also go deeper into concrete beyond.

During overhauls of rooms made of concrete slabs, they often level the walls with plaster or plasterboard sheets, install suspended or suspended ceilings. Behind these structures, you can hide the wiring and do without strobing the walls or use special boxes to place and hide cables.

Preparatory work

At the initial stage, it is necessary to clarify the plan for the passage of electrical wiring, cables, pipe and gas pipelines, the routes of all low-current circuits, so as not to damage them.

The cutting of the furrows inside the walls is associated with the release of a large amount of dust, which is carried by streams of air through the neighboring rooms, not only polluting all objects, but also penetrating the furniture.

Therefore, the room in which the gating will be performed must be isolated from other rooms by tightly closing the doors, windows, and sealing the slots with wet tissues.If the furniture has nowhere to be taken out, then it must be covered with plastic films specially produced for this purpose.

Practice has shown that the closure of objects with such a film, even in neighboring rooms, significantly saves the strength of the owners after the end of dusty work.

To reduce flying dust during the processing of the walls, they are sprayed with water from sprayers and household vacuum cleaners are used. However, only their powerful models designed for construction work effectively remove dust.

At the preparatory stage, it is worth taking care of the protective tools and appliances of the electrician: dustproof glasses, a respirator, work gloves, clothing and shoes.

Surface marking

To minimize labor costs, you should prepare for work, draw up a cable routing diagram and draw clear lines for future strobe on the walls, indicating the locations of sockets, switches, junction boxes. During their drawing, you should use the level, construction tape measure, plumb line, ruler.

In this case, it is necessary to fulfill the basic requirements of SNiP:

• Do not position the strobes at oblique angles, but only strictly horizontally or vertically. This will save you from possible violations of electrical wiring in the future when installing wall furniture, sconces, hanging paintings;

• create furrows of minimum width and depth to accommodate wiring cables;

• Avoid complex branches and intersections of tracks;

• to retreat from the top of the ceiling to the strobes 15 ÷ 40 cm;

• provide indentation from doors, joints of building structures, windows, angles of at least 10 cm, and gas pipelines - 40;

• to consider a safe wiring transition near the supporting structures, choosing a method that does not violate their mechanical strength;

• Avoid long continuous channels of more than three meters.

Well-marked tracks are the first requirement to ensure the quality of the work ahead. And if all of them are still photographed and saved, then this will make it possible in the future to easily determine the places of laid wiring from photographs.

Work time planning

The material of any wall is not only durable, but also conveys sounds well. If the repair is done in one apartment, then all the residents of this multi-storey building suffer from the noise of a working tool. The longer this work is done, the more patience your neighbors will need to show.

Therefore, gating walls for wiring is carried out only in the daytime, when the maximum number of residents is absent - is at work. In the evening and on weekends, holidays, it is not worth disturbing people with annoying sounds.

All such work must be done quickly with a professional tool, and tightening deadlines is a direct way to cause discontent among the surrounding neighbors.

Wall chipping process

To create furrows inside the wall, you can use various tools and methods. They depend on the properties of the material of which the building is made. All work must be carried out safety regulations.

Walls can be gated:

• hammer blows on a chisel;

• puncher or hammer drill;

• using a grinder;

• shtroborezom.

Hammer and chisel work

The easiest way to process brick walls covered with a layer of plaster with this method. The top layer in them can be brought down even with a chisel or a chisel. They try to choose the places of passage of the vertical chambers at the joints of the seams of alternating rows so as to make fewer clippings in the remaining bricks.

When the coating layer of the plaster has a significant thickness, this method can be used to make furrows without damaging the brickwork.

In other materials, especially concrete, these tools are very difficult to use.

The knockout process is based on installing the chisel with the edge of the sharp end along the line and striking a hammer to knock out a piece of putty or brick. First, the surface layer is removed in a small segment.Then the blade of the chisel is placed across the line and at an acute angle to the wall - deepen the strobes.

Work with a puncher or hammer drill

First, you will need to drill holes to the depth of the future wiring. To do this, use special drills and a bit for processing concrete.

A drill in the strike mode works much worse than a hammer drill of the same power. The holes are placed at a distance of 1 ÷ 1.5 cm from each other along the entire line, and then part of the partitions between them is removed by the direction of the punch at an acute angle to the wall. Then the drill bit is replaced with a chisel. They expand the gate, while removing the remaining partitions.

When struck by a puncher, they fly off into small pieces from the wall, the edges of the furrows are torn and uneven, resulting in a lot of dust and a lot of noise. Using earplugs will save a little the ear of the worker.

Creating a strob with a puncher resembles working with a hammer and chisel, but here the process is completely mechanized.

Work grinder and puncher

To make the edges of the furrows even, they are cut round with a diamond coating installed in an angular disk machine. This work would not work without him.

First, cut one groove, and then parallel to it a second groove in advance prepared marking at the same distance. At this time, a very large amount of dust is released, which is a serious drawback of the method.

The space between the grooves is knocked out with a drill bit. In plaster, this work can be done with a hammer and a chisel.

Stroborez work

The professional tool for creating a strob in dense concrete and stones has an electric motor, from which two diamond disks rotate at once, cutting parallel grooves.

With this tool, you can adjust the depth of the cuts and set the distance between them. The hose of an industrial vacuum cleaner is connected to the working element, through which all the dust generated during cutting is discharged. The internal sealing system significantly reduces its penetration into the room.

Stroborez does not make a selection of a stone between the cut grooves. This operation will have to be performed with a chisel punch.

Furrows created by this method have the most accurate appearance and are completed in the shortest time. However, a professional wall chaser complete with an industrial vacuum cleaner is an expensive tool and is purchased for continuous, long-term operation. Only in this case it pays off. But for the behavior of individual repairs, it is easy to take it at the rental points.

See also: How to choose a hammer drill, which model is better