Have nasty plastic wall mounted boxes at moment; the ones which stick out about 2 inches. As part of completely re-doing a room (including, miraculously enough, the floor! 😀 ), I want to move the sockets slightly higher up the wall and have flush mounted sockets. All floorboards are coming up so I’ll have access to wiring underneath.

So whats the best way to chase the boxes out without making an unholy mess of it?

I have SDS drill, various drill bits and chisel bits. Walls are victorian terrace so skim on top of render on top of stone.

Watching a sparky last week, do this to his own house.. any way possible as render is extremely hard (or was in his case)… it’s all gunna be re-plastered shirely? Then don’t worry about the mess & just get on with it!

throw the SDS chisel at it and make a proper mess. It’s not going to be surgical whatever you do.

If you have a 4″ grinder, plunge cut edges with a diamond blade.

And just be grateful that you dont have to do it into malvern stone. Ive seen builders prefer to knock a wall down and build it back around a flue vent than try and cut a hole in Malvern Stone.

I used a proper wall chaser – you can hire or buy them in most tool places unless you have a mate that owns one.

…it’s all gunna be re-plastered shirely?

Well, yes, you’d imagine it would…
…if things were happening in the correct sequence…
…which they’re not. 🙂

surely saw cut first then to stop any of the edges chipping.

4″ grinder with a thin stone cutting disc gives nice clean cut, chisel out whats left. If done carefully means no patching required, except for the chase of course if your raising them. But it does create an unholy amount of dust. Or if you have sds then get a socket box cutter, not tried these myself so don’t know how effective they are in different materials.

There might be a much better way – I wait to be enlightened – but I have marked out the position of the metal box & drilled a series of holes with a hammer drill & masonry bit to the right depth ( use a depth stop / tape on drill etc); & then knocked out the ‘honeycomb’ bit left with a bolster. I have tried to vacuum up the mess as it falls down . It does however fill the room with dust!

I’ve use a masonry cutting disc on an angle grinder to cut a channel in the wall for wiring too & this is very, very dusty – mask & goggles stuff!!

Or if you have sds then get a socket box cutter, not tried these myself so don’t know how effective they are in different materials.

OK for low density breeze blocks but can’t do stone, hard bricks etc.

I use an SDS with a flat blade, you can get a reasonably neat finish depending on how well the brick splits (some just fracture into chunks the minute you strike them).

When i did mine I drilled out the corners then chiselled between the holes. Can’t say it wasn’t messy though.

edited after reading above posts

There might be a much better way – I wait to be enlightened – but I have marked out the position of the metal box & drilled a series of holes with a hammer drill & masonry bit to the right depth ( use a depth stop / tape on drill etc)

My plan too. Just checked box cutters on screwfix – bit pricey for what I want to do – I’m sure they’re great for sparkies doing it all the time, but I’m not even a chippie. 🙂

I used a proper twin bladed chaser when I did my house. I used it in a criss/cross to cut out for the back boxes too. Worked well, and much much cleaner than an angle grinder as it has a dust extraction hood. Still very dusty work mind.

Going to put it up for sale soon if you are interested?

Johnhighfield’s technique ^ for me. I was shown this by my sparkies.

I did have a chisel action drill to finish, rather than bolster.

There is no clean way. SDS / channel cutter is a lot quicker, but you’ll need to build a dust trap around your work site, it goes everywhere.

Just done 2 sockets and it got to zero fun very quickly indeed.

Just done 2 sockets and it got to zero fun very quickly indeed.

I have four to do today. 🙁

*puts kettle on*

Hot water won’t help.

Only 4! I did 12 in my kitchen by hand with a brick bolster and club hammer back in the day!

One of them plastic blocks with holes in. Screw the box to the wall, drill through the guide holes, then chisel out between…

B & Q’s search facility doesn’t want to help. I may be some time.

Oh, and get one of those chisels of the right width for socket boxes.

Yes, the best way is to drill holes, then hammer.
I’ve got a chaser, great for chasing, but not much good for back boxes, mainly as you want the back boxes in at around 25-30mm, whereas the chaser only goes to 25mm deep.
Either way, you still have to get the hammer and chisel out to get the finished depth.
A scutch chisel helps, rather than a cold chisel:

Wall chaser plus SDS plus bolster chisel here when I did my kitchen

As above, pepper holes with drill then scutch chisel.

I’ve always done this, after removing a wall using the SDS + chisel at the weekend, I’d not go near cutting a box in with it, its not a particularly elegant tool!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pattress-Jig-PATTRESS-BOXES-EASILY/dp/B00BIH3UXS

If you are living in the house the only way really is by hand with bolster and maybe a drill. Any other method will generate too much dust. It will get everywhere even if you try and seal the room. Never use a disc cutter in a furnished house.

I use an SDS in the house, doesn’t make an excessive amount of dust.

Lots of mess…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-y8T-I7X1A[/video]

a lot less mess…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zMGbqJ7M64[/video]

As papamountain’s pic

Take your neighbours a bottle of wine round when you’re done.