RTA-03Find pipes and cables before you startCables and pipes can run almost anywhere behind tiled walls, especially in kitchens and bathrooms where pipework is often chased in under the tiles. Run a cable and pipe detector over the area, but treat the wall as live anyway — detectors miss cables that are deep, in metal conduit, behind metal-backed board, or outside the usual safe zones, and metal stud frames confuse cheap detectors further. Before you chisel or scrape near a socket, switch, or pipe run, find your stopcock (usually under the kitchen sink) and check it turns. If there's any doubt, isolate the relevant circuit at the consumer unit and turn the water off at the stopcock before you start.