wall chasing for flat screen

986s

Hi folks!

Building a new house and its getting near the time about thinking about the most important things like flat screen tvs, sound sytems etc. I wolud like to place a flat screen on a wall in my sitting room, I also have a sound system with amp, dvd, cd plaver and speakers etc. My question is what is the best way to organise sockets etc also how do you bring all the wires up to the tv without them being visible on the wall. The wall is just a regular dividing wall between my sitting room and dining room.

Any help much appreciated !

ifah

i have just done this in my new extension - first things first - decide what size/type flat screen you're going to get - i bought mine before we finished building - i didn't want to make any mistakes in relation to placement of studs to support the tv etc.

I built out a false chimney breast about 4' wide by 16" deep and build two parts in it - a deep 6" recess for the 42" tv (left a 3" gap all round) and another recess the full 4' wide (less the side supports ~ 4" each side) and 5" high - this is for the sky box, amp, dvd player. I have all sockets, satellite cables, speaker cables, phone cable terminating at the back of here and there is a duct from behind tv down to here too for scart and power to tv.
plastered it all round and painted white - looks the biz - it'll be about another two weeks for floors etc to go in and get sky+ installed to here but it's all prepared. the sub woofer will be in another recess below this (on floor) and all other speakers are wall mounted.

lots of fun planning it - especially the cabling (had forgotten the phone cable initially but got it in before we plastered).

986s

Cheers Ifah for the reply!

So if I read your reply correctly you built a "mini-chimney breast" that had space within it for the ducting of all cables etc? My wall would be a solid blocked wall so the issue of studs wouldnt be an issue- do you think that your approach would work in my circumstance? The wall in question is a flat wall at one end of a square sitting room with the chimney breast wall to the left.

With thanks

ifah

you got it - built out a false chimney breast and all cabling is within it but also there is an alcove in it a bit bigger than the plasma and a full depth shelf contained within it for the dvd/sky/amp etc.

If you were to do this you would need to know about placement of studs etc to support the tv as you would be building out off the solid wall - best bet is to try visualize what you're hoping for from your tv setup - i build a mockup using sheets of insulation and we set sizes/heights etc using this.