Ahh the little "why would someone do this" questions when owning your own home.
The bathroom extractor fan started playing up recently. Bought a replacement and started taking the old one out only to find that, despite having mounting points for screws it, they have not been used. Instead it was GLUED INTO THE WALL. Why???
Now it's pulled part of the plaster away. It feels such a weird thing to do rather than just drilling the mounting holes and screwing it in place.
@renbymon Hopefully it didn't pull too much away... I had to deal with similar recently, but neither the glue nor plaster wanted to give. I ended up using a Stanley knife and a jabsaw to remove some of the glue, then levered it away and repaired the plasterboard.
The other sin which drives me up the wall - cheap woodscrews and even worse, cheap Rawlplugs!
@philpem Yeah thankfully it hasn't pulled too much away but I am going to have to go at the glue with a knife because the twin and earth used to wire in the goes through the glue. Push comes to shove I can probably cut it short and splice in some more with choc block but I'd rather just use the existing flex.
@renbymon What sort of glue is it, silicone? White spirit might loosen it, but I don't know what it'll do to PVC, and it can be quite slippy. I'd cut into the glue with a bare Stanley 99 blade (put some gaffer tape on the end) held flat against the cable. If there's some play in it, a tug and a wiggle should break the glue.
@philpem It's rock solid, like a resin, and white. Doesn't seem to have any play in jt at all
@renbymon That sounds like cheap Araldite. My method would be a small wood chisel and a smallish hammer (engineer's hammer). Tap gently and check often, and go around the cable or away from it (up or down the wall). If the glue's brittle, it should crack and a tug on the cable should loosen it.
@renbymon Looks like it's been squirted in with a cartridge gun... If it's definitely not silicone (which can set pretty hard) then I would guess something like CT1, Gripfill or "Sticks Like Sh*t" (not even joking, that's what Evostik call it, and it absolutely does - gloves and wipes are mandatory).