How to Move a Light Switch Without Wiring

We're building a bathroom and the light switch in the wall for the living room is currently in the new bathroom so needs to be moved.
Is it acceptable to use terminal blocks within the wall where the switch currently is to extend the cables to a new partition wall and wire into a new switch outside the bathroom?

We'd be tiling over the wall where the switch currently is.
I am just a DIY'er but I think it would make the electricians wince.
It increase the risk of someone drilling into it in the future because the cable takes a non obvious route between the switch and the light fitting.
Answer is no. All joints either have to be accessible, or maintainance free. The other issue is if there is no wiring fixture there, no one will know there is wiring buried in the wall. Do a diagram or photo. We'll work out best answer
MGW Screwfix Select

The cable needs to run in safe routes, so straight lines from a point where you can see there is something electric, so when I removed my central heating time clock, an electricial blank had to replace it.
We also talk about maintenance free, this does not always mean no screw terminals as when potted with epoxy resin they are unlikely to work lose, but for most it does mean spring terminals.

A terminal block may be the maintenance free type, but we would normally put it in something, be it a heat shrink tube with epoxy resin lining or a box.

However since the cable needs something to show it is there, it will likely be assessable, so special maintenance free would not then be an issue.

Bathroom is a special location so either scheme member or LABC, and when I converted a pantry and toilet to a wet room I was told in no uncertain terms it needs planning permission, which was news to me, and I had thought if required the builder would have sorted all that out for me.

I live in Wales slightly different rules to England.
Do you have access to the ceiling in the room(s)?
It puzzles me that people don't want to put as much care and attention in to wiring as they do for building. If you need to relocate the switch take the cable completely out of the wall, lift the carpets and floor boards up and route it to exactly where it needs to go vertically above the new switch. Putting connector blocks on it to extend it is not a solution. Would you use cardboard for the walls? Do it properly! Don't cut corners and bodge. You may need a complete new switch wire if it needs lengthening, or if it's shortening it will easily be long enough to drop down the wall to its new position.
Thanks, everyone, obviously what I thought of is not a solution. Attached are images of the area. In one, you can see the partition wall for the bathroom and the switch box and cabling behind it. In the second image, you can see the light the switch controls.
We'd like the switch to be moved outside the bathroom and to the left of the bathroom doorway.
We do not have access to the ceiling, unfortunately.
The work you are carrying out requires Building Regulation permission as you are creating a bathroom, in addition the electrics falls under Part P and will need to be inspected by building control or carried out by an electrician under a self certification scheme(NAPIT, NEIEEIC etc).
Yes, we have planning permission and are being regularly inspected by building control. The work is being carried out by a qualified electrician.
He'd rather I take all the ceilings down (proposed bathroom and the adjacent room) but that is just for the sake of one light so I am looking for alternative suggestions as to how to safely move a switch without an inordinate amount of work. I do anticipate that we might need to remove the ceiling in the proposed bathroom to wire the lighting and shower in.

I recall a suggestion on another thread for a wireless switch. Would that work here? There is cabling to the existing (disconnected) switch which could be routed across to the right to place a receiver outside the partition wall and the switch placed to the left of the bathroom doorway as we'd like.
This is a classic case of one trade ignoring what is in front of them. Why didn't the builder cut a big hole above where the new stud wall was positioned and ask the electrician to pull the switch wire out before building the new frame? It is obvious how simple it would have been to do that. As an electrician I get this situation a lot. Somebody does what they need to do and expects the electrician to work round them and sort out the problem rather than help. All this fuss being created to sort out one wire is ridiculous. Take the coving off between the wire and the new stud. Cut a hole in the ceiling along the edge of the wall. Drill a hole through the top of the frame. Feed the wire over to the top of the frame and poke the wire through the hole. As the builder has blocked the electrician from doing what he needed to do get the builder to make the hole and repair it. Don't just everyone leave him to struggle finding a way to do it while everyone else just watches. That's how it tends to be so help him out!

Last edited: Sep 26, 2020

Bazza and J888 like this.
How are going to provision new lights in the bathroom? You are going to need access to the ceiling space to do that!
For the dining room light. What is the light there? You could disconnect the switch connections at the light and install a wireless switch module there, with a wireless switch on the wall anywhere. The Quinetic range is worth a look.
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/QUR303.html
maybe have your on site spark sort this for you. He's going to have to sign it off, anyway!
We'll need to take the ceiling down in the bathroom, I expect, but hopefully not the dining room. We can access the bathroom ceiling from upstairs too without too much trouble and I guess the cable for the lights and the shower will drop down the stud wall to a switch outside the bathroom The dining room is rather more difficult if we want to access the ceiling from above.
The dining room light is a simple ceiling pendant in a rose in the centre of the room (the space under the stairs in the dining room being converted into a bathroom) and the light switch is now within the bathroom.

We wouldn't be able to install a wireless switch module in the same position as the current switch would we? It would be tiled over and within the shower.

Thank you everyone for the comments, it is really helpful.
This does indeed sound like a good idea! If the cable is too short, a receiver for a wireless switch can go wherever the cabling allows.
Thanks everyone.
In an "accessible" location.
I have seen too many power supplies and other gizmos -including inline fans- hidden in ceiling voids and plastered over. Come failure time (and they do fail) then the electrician will turn that lovely plastered ceiling into a moonscape of holes trying to discover where the culprit is hiding.
Don'y forget you need an extract fan as well.
Thanks, all, accessible (probably indicate the presence of a cable and receiver too because I do want to remember where it is!) and yes, we will definitely need an extractor fan.
Skip to 2:20 - I think he is doing something very similar.
This is great, I am really enjoying it AND learning!
I asked the electrician for a wireless switch and over the weekend he's had a revelation that he can actually just pass the cable over and route it through the partition wall without taking the whole ceiling down.