help needed hiding cables under laminate flooring please...

[Rossatron]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to lay a new floor this weekend, either laminate or hard wood and I want to hide some cabling underneath it. I have speaker cables front and rear, a sub cable, phone cables and the input to my sky hd box I'd like to hide. I figured loads of companies made some sort of underlay with conduit built in for this prupose except I cant find any so I'm thinking of making my own...does anyone have any experience of this??

What I'm considering is cutting out a channel of the foam underlay and embedding the cables in it, if I think I have enough cable to route it around the edges, say 15-20cm from the expansion gap as it won't get walked on or have as much use on those parts on the floor in that area this is what I'm looking at

Can you guys think of anything I should take into consideration when doing this? A particular type of underlay? Should I leave a gap between the squares and run the cable there or cut out just enough for the cable?? Also any idea how I should leave the edges where the cables come out? Just leave a gap in the beading??

Thanks guys

Ross

 

[mattysupra]

1- the gap around the edge is for expansion. If you use this for wires you may cause the floor to fail or damage wires.

2- if you cut channels in underlay then the floor will hit them and transfer sound. Also coax is to thick.

Can you drill through wall and take outside and back in? or can you remove skirt and put behind maybe? Be carefull when putting beading on tho ! You could run under floorboards or cut a channel in concrete floor? Mine run through ceiling and down the inside of the wall. Is this possible?

 

[WoodYouLike]

If you have many cables, thick and for various equipment, perhaps you should read this first. Might be the best solution your looking for.

 

[Rossatron]

if you cut channels in underlay then the floor will hit them and transfer sound. Also coax is to thick.

You could run under floorboards or cut a channel in concrete floor? Mine run through ceiling and down the inside of the wall. Is this possible?

thanks for the reply...in the walls isn't an option, i could possibly run something under the floor boards if this is a better option. can i just pry up the boards and nail them back down??

what do you mean it will transfer sound if i channel out the underlay??

thanks
ross

 

[JohnD]

if they are just speaker cables and aerial co-ax (no mains electricity) you can put them behind the skirting.

To make a neat floor you will want to take the skirtings off anyway.

My preferred method is to rule the wall at the level of the top of the new skirting, and cut away the plaster below this line.

Fix a batten to the wall at this level, and another near the floor. You can use NoMoreNails, or screws.

Run your cables in the gap between the battens

repair and redecorate the plaster where it meets the top batten. this is easier if your batten is the same thickness as the plaster.

fix your skirting to the battens.

It is not safe to run electricity cables in this way as they are prone to nails and drills.

 

[Rossatron]

Thanks...that seems a bit beyond what I had in mind, assuming I did go that route, how would I get the cables past doorways?

 

[JohnD]

floor or architrave

or consider mini-trunking

 

[Rossatron]

Thanks for all your input guys, I think I'm gonna consider conduit round the skirting boards and over the door frames. I'll post back with whatever I decide