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I'm in the UK and in my garage I have a couple of sockets on the wall. I want to hang some things on the wall and I don't want to accidentally drill into the cables. How is this installation likely done? How do the cables reach the sockets? The house was built in 1992 and it's an end terrace house. This particular wall is an interior wall, between the garage and the living room.

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And this is the inside of that box:

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  • Take the box off the wall and see what's behind it, especially since the plastic almost completely covers whatever opening there is in the wall itself. You shouldn't need to disconnect any wiring, just remove the 2 silver screws and pull the box away, just like you did with the outlets.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 19, 2021 at 17:12

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Those masonry units (UK: Breeze blocks, US: Cinder blocks) are hollow and the cable is inside the hollow space.

to avoid the cable drill into the solid parts of the masonry units (the middle and the ends)

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If that's an exterior wall it may be a double skin wall done in half-thickness masonry units, but the same advice applies.

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  • Knowing that the wiring is most likely going to run vertically from the outlets (either up to the attic or down to the basement), simply moving your mounting points for whatever you'll be hanging away from that vertical line will also go a long way toward avoiding hitting wiring. It's possible that there is also cable running horizontally (if there is another pair of sockets at the same horizontal level as those pictured), however, it would be extremely difficult to get the wiring through three vertical webs per block between the two outlets, so that's highly unlikely to happen.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 17:19
  • Note: it's possible that there may be plumbing running through the wall as well, but the same philosophy applies - vertical to/from whatever source/destination may be involved - is the easiest method of installing.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 17:21
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Much of the block construction I've been involved with have the electric running down the interior walls between the studs and then through a drilled hole to the other side of the block. If the block walls have a concrete beam or lintel poured on top before the electric is installed, then running electric inside the blocks is difficult. If you remove the cover plate for your outlet, you should get an idea about how the cable is run: straight through the back and between your living room studs, down from the top or up from the bottom.

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Those are hollow blocks and the cables can be dropped from the ceiling through the hollows.

May come from below but less likely.

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