I don't know about you but I've always enjoyed installing dado trunking so much of our workers
electricians gets buried away out of sight and that's as it should be but dado trunking
mounted proudly on the surface of a classroom or an office or my lounge is an opportunity to
show the world just what we can do with its neat lines smooth curves and tight joints in fact I
enjoy installing it so much that for this video I decided to share the pleasure with Rick by letting
him do the installation work instead you feeling the cold air Rick yeah it's a little bit nippy
at the moment isn't it but there is one area of installing dado trunking that always used to drive
me up the wall and with one particular fitting in the Sterling curve range Marshall Tufflex
have made it so much easier to do properly so have a guess in the comments which bit I used to hate
and we'll see if you're right at the end of the video along with the solution but first let's
have an overview of the trunking it's a three compartment trunking with the base unit molded
from one single piece of plastic which I've always preferred over the cones where you have to clip
the top and the bottom sections to the middle they can get a little bit messy you can get it either
as separate components of base and Lids to suit or as whole sections complete with lid it's also
got the option of replacing the curved lid on the bottom with square shaped Lids Instead This
option allows you to install the trunking at floor level if it's being used as skirting trunking and
the square lid sits flush with the floor making cleaning a lot easier there's an additional type
of lid available as well but we'll come to that in a minute when we discuss how this trunking can
help you to comply with part M of the building regs you may be wondering if you can replace the
top section of lid with the square section as well now theoretically you could but I wouldn't
recommend it for two reasons one it's not really designed for that purpose because believe it or
not if you've got a square profile at the top of the trunking people are sometimes inclined to use
it as some kind of shelf I know I'm as shocked as you are so having the curved profile at the top
helps prevent that from happening and also to stop dust from Gathering people will just have to find
another place to precariously and inappropriately balance their coffee cups the second reason it's
not recommended is that the fittings that join pieces of trunking together come in two forms P1
and P2 this is just shorthand for profile one and profile two profile one fits around the Sterling
curve when it's got a curved lid top and bottom and profile two fits when you've got curved lid
at the top and square at the bottom you've got all the fittings you'd expect for joining together
good quality trunking including couplers end caps and internal and external bends for going around
corners there's also flat 90s and T's but these also come in a couple of different formats you
get them complete with bases that simply butt up to the trunking and then the lid on the trunking
goes on and then the lid on the fitting slightly overlaps that to cover up the join and maintain
the IP rating of the trunk in these are great because it provides continuity for the three
different compartments of trunking and even allow you to maintain the required bending radii for
data and Mains cables if however that segregation of different types of cable isn't required then
you can get a variation of these fitting things that simply act as Lids that snap directly onto
the trunking saving a bit of installation time I'm particularly a big fan of this tea fitting because
it allows every single compartment of every single piece of trunking that it joins together to access
every other compartment while still maintaining that segregation so you can see you can get from
the center compartment here through there and get up into this compartment if you needed to
or you can go over that one if there's data cables coming down there into the bottom segment here but
you can also come along over that little bump there that maintains that segregation and then
go up inside there into that Center compartment I think that's really smart another really nice
feature on this range of products are these very subtle grooves manufactured into the lids of the
connectors these provide sight lines which helps to contribute to the great Aesthetics
and fresh clean lines of this product a couple of other key features include a bio trunking option
which provides added antibacterial protection this protection isn't a surface treatment
that will wear off from repeated touching but is actually built into the product and can be used in
conjunction with wiring accessories with similar features this is really important for hospitals
obviously but is increasingly being specified in schools and colleges in our much change modern
world in fact it's so important that the bio finishes held in stock for the profile one version
so you don't have huge lead times when you're trying to get hold of the product indeed it's so
effective that this type of trunking from Marshall Tufflex was used in the Nightingale hospitals
back in the crisis days and once all those places were shut down the trunking didn't get chucked
into landfill but rather went back to Marshall Tufflex for recycling and remanufacturing back
into new product speaking of recycling one of the Fantastic things about Marshall Toughflex
trunking is it's made from 66 recycled PVC much of this coming from old window frames and the
like the base sections are 100 made from recycled products and the lids are a mix of recycled and
new materials to maintain color and gloss level consistency on this premium range now let's talk
about some of the stuff you can install into the trunking there's the usual one and two gang
boxes to go in here but again some really cool variants including ones that have a darker color
surrounding them this means that when a white socket is installed on here it creates a high
contrast between the socket and its surroundings as required by part M of the building regulations
that deals with access to and the use of buildings this high contrast makes it easier for partially
sighted people to locate and make use of socket outlets and other accessories the Sterling range
offers charcoal and blue box surrounds and spaces and you can also get a charcoal colored lid for
the central section of the trunking if you want to maintain that run of colour throughout one of the
other cool variants of the back box that I certainly haven't seen before are these ones that allow you
to adjust the depth of the back box really handy if your mounted accessories don't need a lot of
room in the Box behind them but you've got lots of cables to run behind the boxes in the trunking
I think they are a really great idea another really great little device that works well with
this range is What's called the main crossover bridge this sits in the middle compartment of
the trunking and allows band One cables to be rooted from one of the outer compartments to
the other while maintaining segregation from the mains cables running through the center section
speaking of segregation in places where you want a higher level of Integrity in data transfers you
can add the steel screening dividers into the top and middle compartments so that not only do
you not have to worry about the correct insulation on the conductors but also when these are earthed
via these little bonding straps there is a big reduction in the electromagnetic contamination
of the signals in the data cable all of this ensures that the dado trunking is cat7a compliant
as well as finally to help prevent the premature the collapse of the wiring system in the event of a
fire there's the option to install these Firefly Clips they're formed in different shapes to fit
into the different compartments so for example this larger rectangular one is designed to sit
in the central compartment and then you've got a smaller one with a rectangular front for if you
decide to use the square lid on the bottom section if however you decide to go with the curved lid
there's a dedicated clip to fit in there as well whichever one you're making use of you simply fix
into the wall through the trunking and the screw goes through this little hole in the back of the
clip the front of the clip can then be opened up the cables inserted and then close up the
clip again and the cable is retained behind a fire resistant support and there's an extra bonus they
also serve to hold the cables in place when you're installing them or if you come back at a later
date to do some maintenance or install some extra cables they'll stop the cables from falling onto
the floor when the lids are removed so all in all an absolute pleasure to work with this trunking
or at least a watch Rick working with it but I mentioned at the outset the part of installing
this stuff that I absolutely used to hate did you guess what it was well it's when you're bringing
dado trunking around a corner either an internal angle or an external angle and the walls aren't
quite Square the fittings that join the two pieces together never sit correctly and it's
just so frustrating because you get gaps opening up and you're always compromising the connection
to one or other of the the trunking sections well these devices here aim to solve that problem this
one is an adjustable external Bend and this one is an adjustable internal Bend and they'll both allow
the trunking to be away from a right angle by five degrees in both directions giving a range of
85 to 95 degrees so if the walls are not perfectly Square it's not the end of the world and you won't
get all those unsightly gaps popping up where you don't want them it makes achieving a really
good finish really easy and you can completely work with pride just something to note these are
prototype models that have been 3D printed hence the different color the product you'll receive
will be the same clean pure white as the rest of the trunking and Marshall Tufflex like
to stay just as flexible as their adjustable bends and are the only manufacturer to offer
the choice of both fixed and adjustable bends so for installations where the walls are square or
if it's a bit price sensitive the fixed bends can still be used if you're wondering why we've got
so many sockets on this section of trinking check out our free training package on dado trunking and
the regulations that relate to it by clicking this link right here thank you very much for watching