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I have a new build house (18 months old). I need to move the TV and as it is wall mounted I thought this might be the time to hide the cables through the wall. When I have drilled holes previously it would appear to be plaster on top of plasterboard with a void behind it of about 1 inch before breeze block. I assume the insulation is between the breeze block and exterior wall.
If so in order to run the cables inside the wall I assume all I need to do is drill a big hole behind the TV, another one directly below at the skirting and then thread some string through to thread the cables through.
is this correct? or is something likely ot get in the way of this plan
Hehehe.
I tried this. I have plasterboard, then a gap, then the thermalite blocks are faced with some kind of render, which I believe is pretty typical of new builds.
Cut hole in the top, yeah plenty of room for my cables. Hole in bottom - yeah looks like there's room too. However the cables would not go down behind the wall, because the render has been slapped on roughly with varying thickness so it bulges out in between the two holes and there's not enough space between it and the plasterboard.
I spent an agonising day trying to figure out how to ram cables down the gap because I didn't want to cut the plasterboard. When I eventually gave up and did cut the plasterboard, it was all done in about 20 minutes.
Trick is to cut a piece out of the plasterboard with angled cuts to produce a sort of wedge. Then you put Polyfilla on the edges and press it back in, it can't go too far and you just squidge it til it's flush. Really easy.
For the power cable, I fitted a socket at TV level with flex attached to it. The flex then goes behind the wall and comes out of a blanking plate at the bottom along with all the other cables then I can plug it into a normal socket - it's basically an extension cord in the wall with a wall mounted socket at the top end.
Helped in my case by the fact I have a long low TV cabinet underneath the TV even though the TV is not sitting on it. I'd rather like to try having nothing at all under the telly, to give more floor space for playing etc, but that would be tricky in our case I think.
Power cable can be fed back to front (from bottom to top) as it has a small 2 prong connector that goes into the back of the TV.
There isn't any render that I can see but I can check that when I drill the holes for the wall mounts.
I only need to hide about 10cm of cable as the other bits are hidden by furniture so for that amount of work I may just carry on using the D trunking I have at the moment as it doesn't look too bad.
I only have to move the TV 10" across to make it more central in the room. May not seem a lot but will align it with the opposite wall and the sofa etc whereas at the moment it is offset.
Plaster board is probably dabbed on so lots of dabs of thick adhesive. It might be in a rough grid so easy to find a vertical gap. Might also be a bit random. You can find the adhesive blobs by tapping the wall
"[i]You can find the adhesive blobs by tapping the wall[/i]"
This. I've done this a few times with network cables.
Or just cut out the route of the cable with a knife, place some conduit to make it easy to change/add to the cable stack in the future and then repair the gaps quickly and easily with some fresh board, mesh, and skim. Though I like the idea of persevering with drilling and tapping first. Do you have a [url= http://www.screwfix.com/p/klein-tools-steel-fish-tape-7-6m-25ft/6275k ]wire fish[/url]? Invaluable when siting cable.
Will drill a hole top and bottom first as it is a pretty short distance I might get lucky. If I don't then I will live with the D conduit on the wall for the 10cm that it will be exposed and any holes I have drilled will be covered by the tv/furniture.
I don't think it is worth going to the effort of replacing plasterboard/skimming etc for a 10cm cable run.
Will update you tonight when I get a chance to do it!
If you haven't got a wire fish, you can use a steel tape measure.
(assuming there aren't too many [s]in[/s]obstructions)
Hi the best thing for trying to feed cables behind gaps is a lid from plastic trunking.Fish wire or Draw wires are sometimes to flexible.
go to Screwfix /toolstation or any decent electrical wholesaler and buy a length of mini trunking with lid as the lid is flexible to go behind any cavity.this can be used for many other uses and is cheaper than the Fishwire/Draw wire.push through and tape the cable or wire and pull back gently, it should be thin enough to do the job.
Do not use steel as you do not know what i behing the cavity.
Well drilled two holes top and bottom and managed to get a cable between them as there was nothing in the way. No problem with the HDMI or optical cable but the power cable was just a bit too big to get through the void. I could cut the plug off in which case it would go through but it is a sealed on plug. It looks fine with the D trunking so might just leave it at that.