Lighting Extension

[rootyboots]

Hi All... I have a Mountfield and it's almost all built and decorated, so I'm going to be getting into lighting in the next few weeks. The thing is, I've altered my building so that it has four 'working' walls rather than three walls and a blank back - which I know is where the lighting would ordinarily feed through to, so now I need to work out where my lights are going to go. People have suggested putting the socket strip in the attic, or hiding it externally under a bench or in a shed. I definitely do want a garden, but as that won't be happening for ages, I'm thinking that I'll put it all up in the attic, concealed by 'junk'!

I've watched the lighting masterclass, and it all looks pretty easy, actually - part of me wishes I had lit the house before decorating as now I will need to drill some more holes in the walls and ceilings and I'm a bit worried about making a mess! - but as I'm no longer going to be able to use the back for my lighting I'm going to have to be a bit creative. I think I should be able to manage making new grooves in the floors as I've read about that, but how would you suggest I run the wires upwards to the attic, without them showing too much on the walls?

One idea I had was to run all the downstairs lights to the kitchen and the upstairs pipes to the bathroom and then try to somehow conceal them as water pipes. Has anybody done this, and if so, how did you do it? Can you buy 'water pipes' for this kind of thing?

My other concern is that, as my lighting will be taking some rather lengthy detours, I am going to need to extend the wires by quite a bit. How would I do this? I have vague school memories of extending wires by stripping the plastic casing, meshing the tiny copper wires together and then covering the join with special tape - is this what I'd need to do? And does anybody have any idea where to buy extensions for the wires (or what type of tape I need)?

Sorry for all the questions - and thank you in advance for your no-doubt very helpful responses! xx

[kath]

Hi Rootyboots your ideas for your lighting routes along water pipes sounds really good and you should be able to buy some brass piping from model shops to run it through. You can buy extra wire from DHE and to join wires together you can buy 'heat shrink' tube from 'Cirkit Concepts'. Slip some of the heat shrink tube onto one of your wires you're going to join, as you say,strip the plastic casing off, join your wires then slide the heat shrink tube along over the join and hold over a candle the tube then shrinks down over the join. I have also done it with good old plastic tape, it's abit more bulky doing it that way but it still works...good luck with it all

[Dolly donut]

i planned to run my wiring up drainpipes and into the roof which i will then power off of a 12v square battery (its about 6 inches by 3 inches) haven't worked out how i will attatch the wires to the battery but hobbies sell a lot of stuff like that so i will work that out when i get to it

[rootyboots]

Originally Posted by kath

Hi Rootyboots your ideas for your lighting routes along water pipes sounds really good and you should be able to buy some brass piping from model shops to run it through. You can buy extra wire from DHE and to join wires together you can buy 'heat shrink' tube from 'Cirkit Concepts'. Slip some of the heat shrink tube onto one of your wires you're going to join, as you say,strip the plastic casing off, join your wires then slide the heat shrink tube along over the join and hold over a candle the tube then shrinks down over the join. I have also done it with good old plastic tape, it's abit more bulky doing it that way but it still works...good luck with it all

Super helpful, thank you! I will definitely look into getting some extra wire from DHE and some heat shrink tube - that sounds perfect!

I think I just need to go and fork out for some tools, as well... it's always more exciting to buy stuff for your dolls house than it is to buy pliers and wire strippers and stuff like that, but I think it's very worth it!!

Thanks to both of you for the help

[St.Vale]

Another idea for taking cables up to the attic, one we had thought about with my Fairbanks, is to hide them like pipes are hidden in a real house behind a corner box going straight up through the house, then decorate as the rooms as in real life!

[rootyboots]

Originally Posted by St.Vale

Another idea for taking cables up to the attic, one we had thought about with my Fairbanks, is to hide them like pipes are hidden in a real house behind a corner box going straight up through the house, then decorate as the rooms as in real life!

That is a genius idea!!!! I'm so going to try that! Thanks

[Bluebird]

In our 1930s Queenslander home there are no cavity walls internally, just one layer of vertical boards so all wiring is in pipe visible on the walls. You don't really notice it when you are used to it. I seem to think double brick homes built before electricity are often the same. England may be different though.