Extend sockets in the kitchen and relocate the lamp into the concrete ceiling

Hello everyone,

I am currently working on some electrical installations. I want to increase the number of sockets in the kitchen or replace some single sockets with double ones or doubles with triple sockets. We would also like to split the lamp in the living room (center of the room) into 2 lamps, which should be routed away from this connection point and each offset by about 2 meters (I have attached a sketch here with arrows showing where the new lamp connections should go). The painter advised us to take the opportunity to do this flush-mounted before wallpapering. I have now asked an electrician, and he said he could do it. However, this somewhat exceeds my budget, and I am trying to save some costs through my own efforts. A colleague of mine has experience installing sockets and said we could at least do the preparatory work (drilling holes for sockets, chasing channels). The colleague connected all the sockets himself in his house and thus has the corresponding experience. Is it sufficient to have this then inspected by an electrician or to have an electrical safety check done? Otherwise, I could have the sockets connected by a friendly electrician (is that then sufficient from an insurance perspective?). The electrical company also suggested protecting the circuits by several RCDs, which is important to me; currently, only the bathroom and partially the upper floor are protected. But that can surely be done independently of the above installation work, right?

What also worries me a bit is chasing into the concrete ceiling. Could this possibly be critical? I originally wanted to do it myself with the angle grinder, but I have read a bit that you have to be extremely careful because of the reinforcement. I assume that the electrician who offered me the work knows what he is doing, right? Are there any alternatives to chasing? A cable duct probably doesn’t look quite as nice but can be done yourself and would probably be significantly cheaper. Otherwise, I only know the monkey swing... but over such a distance?? That's about 2 meters each.

Looking forward to your input. Thanks a lot in advance.

Making a correspondingly large hole next to the existing switch boxes is not a problem. However, often the installed switch box is damaged and should then be replaced.

Before grabbing the hammer and chisel, it should first be determined from which side the cable is coming.

Does the electrician accept such self-performed work?

The lamps can also be connected with a flat cable.

If the costs for the electrician are too high for you and you want to save money, then I wonder why you don't do the wallpapering yourself. That really is not rocket science. And you can save a lot of money.

Instead of chasing the concrete ceiling, you can suspend the ceiling. But that is more effort again. You are not having the screed above renewed, right? Otherwise, you could have drilled straight upwards.

I probably would have done it like this: narrow strip to the dining area and that's it. Ceiling lights in the living room directly above the couch are not used that often. You can easily compensate with floor lamps etc.

See absolutely no problems with your plan. I did exactly the same thing about 3 months ago in our house. Only with us, it wasn't lamps in the ceiling but a new extractor hood.

Splitting circuits over several RCDs is a good idea.

Yes, you just have to find an electrician who approves other people's work. They exist, there's even apparently a whole business model around it, but I think there are more who don't do it. The electrician of my [GÜ] simply did not respond to my question in this regard.

I see absolutely no problems with your plan.

I have now spoken with the electrician. He could do the chasing in the living room and set up the circuit so that the lamps could be switched independently of each other (although I wonder if in the end there won't be radio-controlled LED lights anyway). He says I should come to about 400 euros. For that, I would do the preparations in the kitchen myself, like setting the boxes, etc., and he would then only connect and divide the circuits onto the RCD. It won't necessarily be cheap, but I should be able to manage with a total of 1500 to 2000 euros. Is it actually a regulation that if you add an extra socket to the circuit, an RCD (if it was not protected before) must be added to this circuit? That's what the electrician said. Personally, this is the first time I've heard that. Thanks to you all!