Hiding Cables up Wall

lphchild

Hi,

I'm trying to work out the best way to hide cables to a wall mounted plasma (yet to be purchased). Unfortunately the wall is a double height solid support wall, and is very obvious 'a feature' - so chasing the cables would be very messy, I'm guessing.

Does anyone have any suggestions/practical experience in concealing the wires for this type of set up? If trunking is the option, is there 'low' profile stuff I can use? (used to the ugly network stuff).

Cheers,

lph

Lump

Get a kango (kangu) Hammer are cut a channel in the wall, only a couple of mm deep, then chisel out the excess. Put the cables in the wall, fill the gap and paint. As you say, it'll be messy. You can get really small condiute will do the job, abviously you'll still see something running up the wall but nothing major and a hell of a lot easier then gouging out the wall.

John

Mungaman

Any good electrician will have whats called cabel chase. Its like a grinder with two abrasive wheels on it, you just stick a straight edge on the wall and run it up the straight edge then adjust the whells to suit the width of the cables. You won't need to get a Kango hammer in. Kango hammers are hard to keep in a straight line and will make plaster cracks in your walls through pressure. A Kangol Hammer I'm guessing is like a Kangol Hat but with a hammer in it.
Your other alternative is to run them up the otherside of the wall and drill through to the point you want on the other wall. This will work if the opposite wall is somewhere like the laundry or somewhere unimportant like your wifes sewing room.
Good Luck!

Lump

Actually ater posting I realises it'd be stupid to use the hammer, you can get a grinder... Same as the thing you're talking about but only one wheel.

John

fiacha

i would recommend that you install some form of conduit in the wall. that way, you can replace / add cables as required without having to attack the wall again.

lphchild

Cheers for the suggestions I think I may have to go the conduit route, and the grief I'd get for even mentioning that a grinder would be needed would result in me wearin' the plasma!

robbie1876

Make sure if you use one of those chasing machines that you attach a vacumn to it to suck in the dust, otherwise you will seriously have about an inch thick layer of dust on every surface in your room. Even with the hoover they are very messy. If you're going to use one of these machines, I'd recommend you hire a professional to do the work if you haven't done it yourself before.

Another possible option might be some discreet curved conduit surface mounted on the wall. The conduit can be painted the same colour as the wall to minimise the visual impact of it. If done right it can look very slick. MK have a good range of nice looking conduit, you'll be able to pick up MK products in any electrical distributors/wholesalers.

Robbie

Richersounds.ie: John

B&Q do a fairly stylish silver trunking that normally matches the Plasma - but a ussual it's square section, but its the best I have found to date - Philips did do a really nice Conduit which was a curved profile with divided sections inside - if you speak to Ashley in The Philips Shop in Dublin (01) 474 0788 - I am pretty sure he would find one lying around for you especially if he thought you were thinking of buying a Plasma! (John Mc - Richer Sounds- Declared interest!)

Capt'n Midnight

If the wall is hollow (Plaster or Breeze Block) then you could drill two holes, one behind the display and another vertically below and drop a weight on a string in to the top one and then fish for it with a coat hanger on the bottom one.

Pay lots of attention 'cos there could be other cables in the wall if the are light switches or sockets already.

danmcl

the best way i have seen this done is using tumble dryer conduit.

Not the flexible hose, but the rectangular, hard, white plastic version and 2 90 bends, very tidy, very clean and plenty of room for your cables, like scart and all of those, oh and it fits the standard mains plugs very well!

My €0.02, (working in a Plasma and LCD retailers)

Capt'n Midnight

if you get a pipe spring as well, you can use boiling water (careful now) from a kettle to soften it so you can bent round corners etc. - B&Q do 10 packs that work quite cheap if you've a lot to do,

Stoner

Just to add my two cent,

You have a numer of options,

The chasing machine will be the best looking job in the end, you can rent one for about €15 a dat from places like swan hire or cabra tool hire (Dublin), you will also need a 110V traffo to power it, however the dust will destroy the place even with the hover they should give you to connect to the chaser. Once chased you pop out the line with a 22 mm flat breakout bit. Stick in your conduit (oval conduit will not let you rewire later on if you want that then you'll need round wavin with the bends, glue,manufactured couplers and bends bending spring etc as detailed by everyone else)

Another option is a fancy type of skirting trunking, you can get some in wood effect etc in various sizes, Thorsman Ireland have a large range.
I think surface sticky back mini trunking/conduit would be the fastest way but I think it looks rough,
Why not remove a skiting board and knock out the wall behind it, replace the board etc? I've done this alot too, once again watch for existing services when removing and replacing the skirting.

I know you originally asked if there was nicer wall trunking, so check out the Thorsman stuff they have a web site cw PDFs etc it think this might suit you best as the chasers in an occupied house will destroy it, it would nearly be a bad as a small fire for getting dust everywhere, they are really only for industrial ventilated area, you'll need ear plugs, goggels and a good quality dust mask, or you'll end up with miners lung like me lol.

gamer

u can get electrical white,trunking with removable front cover with stick surface on rear sticks to wall can be wall mounted or put in wall groove ,sizes 2inch up various sizes avaidable in electrical wholesalers suppliers theres 1 beside santry garda station or on quays look in golden pages ,think its about 60 cent per foot,theseplaces r open to public ,do electrical parts cables etc sockets,my advice leave rope inside conduit incase u want to put in more cables in future ,leave 3 inchs of rope sticking out both ends of conduit , say cable 1inch get 2inch conduit, that way u can put cable in without opening wall in future or just mount it in wall and paint it to match wall colour.