Outside Socketsin Worcester

Weatherproof means the enclosure, not the lid

An outdoor socket is an enclosure with an IP rating, not an ordinary socket inside a plastic box with a flap. IP66 is the sensible specification for a wall outside: dust tight, and proof against water thrown at it from any direction, which is what a British winter does to a north-facing wall. The rating only holds if the enclosure is closed the way it was designed to be, which means a proper gland where the cable enters and the unused entries blanked. The commonest failure we see is a correctly rated enclosure with the cable pushed through a drilled hole, which makes the rating decorative.

Then protection. Anything outdoors needs 30mA RCD protection, without exception, because outdoors you are standing on wet ground holding a metal tool. It is worth having the outside circuits on their own protective device rather than shared with the kitchen, so a hedge trimmer nicking its own lead does not take out the fridge. On a board with individual RCBOs that is automatic. On an older split-load board it is a reason to think about the arrangement.

Where the cable runs is the rest of the job. A socket on the other side of an inside wall is a short drill through and an hour's work. A socket on a detached garage or at the end of a garden means armoured cable, buried at a sensible depth with marker tape above it so the next person with a spade gets a warning, and deeper still under a drive. Along a fence is not a route: fences move, rot and get replaced, and the cable goes with them.

On paperwork, the rules changed and a lot of advice online has not caught up. Outdoors is no longer a special location in its own right in England, so adding an outside socket as a spur from a suitable existing circuit is not automatically notifiable. Running a new circuit for it is notifiable, wherever it goes, and a supply to a detached garage or outbuilding is a new circuit. You get certification either way.

What an outside socket includes

Rated enclosure, glanded properly, protected correctly.

• IP66 enclosure suited to the wall it is going on
• Correct gland at the cable entry, unused entries blanked
• 30mA RCD protection, ideally on its own device
• Armoured cable buried to depth with marker tape for longer runs
• Supply to sheds, garages and workshops as a proper circuit
• Position agreed for the way you will actually use it
• Tested, certificate issued, and notified where a new circuit is run

How it runs

Agree the position

Where the mower, the pressure washer and the car actually are, not where the cable is easiest.

Route and price

Through the wall, clipped, or buried. Priced in writing with any digging named.

Fit

Enclosure mounted and glanded, cable run, protection arranged at the board.

Test

Tested, RCD proven, certificate issued, and notified where required.

Outside sockets across Worcester and Worcestershire

Worcester, Droitwich Spa, Malvern, Pershore, Evesham and Stratford-upon-Avon. The hillside plots around Malvern and the longer rural gardens towards Pershore are where the buried runs come from. Garden and wall lighting on the same trench is outdoor lighting, and it is far cheaper done together; charging a car outside is an EV charge point rather than a socket, and for good reasons.

Get an outside socket quote

A photo of the wall inside and out, and roughly how far it is from the consumer unit.

An extra socket outside, and where the cable actually goes

An extra socket outdoors is a small job with one real decision in it: how the cable gets there. Straight through the wall behind an existing indoor socket is the neat answer where the geometry allows it. Anything further means a run, and a run outdoors means armoured cable buried at a proper depth or clipped in conduit where it cannot be damaged. Every outdoor socket needs RCD protection and an enclosure rated for the weather, and a lid that closes on the plug rather than around it.