Complete novice plastering question...

[cusimar9]

We're redecorating the living room and I'm finally having a HD TV mounted on the wall

The previous owners already had one, and plastered all the wires into the wall (for a wall mounted TV), and made a right mess of it, so basically I'll have to redo it.

The wall is a breezeblock wall, with plaster board and rendering through which there are holes for the wires.

In the corner where all the wires come out of the wall its a right mess. There's an aerial, satellite cable, and all the TV wires just randomly sticking out the wall. My initial thought is I'd have to just open up a big hole there, say 1 square foot, get a piece of plasterboard cut to the right size, make all the holes I need, and then somehow slot that back onto the wall and smooth it in. Is that straightforward to do or not? How would I open up the wall, given that there are loads of wires in there? A chisel?

Also, what can I use for the holes? Obviously the aerial etc can have a little socket, but what about for all the TV wires? I need like a hole 'surround' or something.

Where the TV is I may have redo that bit of wall as well, because the mounts will no doubt be different compared to the mounts on the new TV. Might be alright though.

How much would it cost to have it done professionally, as my diy skills aren't the best The whole section of wall is probably 6 feet wide.

Any advice would be great, thanks

Hole at TV end, with old TV support hole thingies:

Other end, with myriad of wires sticking out, and botch plastering job:

 

[Micilin]

Get a square of MDF, use router to put a nice half round or similar on it, and just drill holes in it for your wires, in a nice even pattern, (say like the five on a die). sand everything down, paint it black (black is the new black) and place it over the wall.

If you need to run wires behind the MDF, just fix a beading or 2x1 around th eback of it to give you room for the cables.

That's what I'd do, anyway

 

[rogerdellerba]

My strong suggestion is to get a pro come in and look at it. Since the last job was a mess, there might be a lot more there than what meets the eye.

And For God sake keep that chisel away from those wires. If you want to track the wires in the wall then hire, buy a cable detector and trace the route the wires take through the wall, this will give you a rough path the wires are following. There could be other services behind that wall that you may not know about.

In short get a pro, spend the money, sleep well at night!

Roger

 

[cusimar9]

OK thanks guys.

I'm now thinking to chip away at some of the plaster around the cables to expand the hole, and thread a wire between it and where the TV will be. If I can do that I might be able to pull a HDMI cable through (the only one that's missing, I think).

If not, I might just use the SCART leads that are already there, and just try and tidy up that area as best I can.

Because we'll be painting it rather than wallpapering, its going to look a right bloody mess. Covering the whole thing with a piece of wood, maybe even painted the same colour as the wall, might not be as crazy an idea as it sounds...