Adding sockets - before or after plastering..

Hi there, I'm just wondering what the general consensus is regarding this...

We have a brick built lean to built onto our house, and we will be adding a ring main in there. We're also going to be putting plaster board up and plastering before painting. So my question is do we do the electrical work before or after?

My thinking is if we use the aluminium back boxes we should do this after the plasterboard has gone up so the faceplates will fit nice on the plaster, or do we wait whilst it has been plastered and use the plastic back boxes which will obviously stick out more...

I would prefer them to not stick out at all... but wondered if there was a 'proper' way to do it...

By the way, I am not doing the electrical work, but wondered whether to start the plaster work...

Cheers

Use plastic plasterboard back boxes rather than aluminium boxes and bob will be your uncle. Do all your cables and fit the back boxes. The boxes have a small 1-2mm lip that the plasterer will plaster up to which means the box will be completely flush. Then do all your painting. Fit your sockets and they'll be as close to the wall as you can get (and won't be covered in plaster/paint either)

a back box

ideally, the wire should be put into place before plaster boards go on as this makes it easier than fishing for the wires when they are behind the plaster boards. the ali back boxes can be fitted too and the wires pulled into them. ideally, the boxes should finish up just inside the front of the boards.then as you put up the boards, you gouge a hole where the middle of each back box is and pull the wire ends through - make sure you get this bit right. then, usually the sparky, will cut out the (usually inside) shape of the back box, preferably prior to plastering as this will reduce the chance of plaster breaking away around the hole if it were cut out after plastering. the clearance between brickwork and plasterboard is paramount as you dont want the back box protruding more than a couple of millimetres when the plastering is done, as you mention. this depends on whether the boards are to be screwed to wooden battens or just stuck to the brickwork with dobs of plaster. this latter method is the most likely to present back box clearance problems, you may need to cut out the (outside) shape of the boxes in order to get the board on. if the boxes are likely to stick out more than a couple of millimetres after the plaster is on this will necessitate the need for the brickwork to be 'chased' out before the boards go on. if the batten method is used, the boxes could be well behind the boards, in which cases it would be prudent to use plastic back boxes specially for fitting into plasterboards, these have adjustable lugs to fit them flush to the board, after the board is fitted.

better still, liase with the sparky and agree with him which way round to go.

good luck.