Hide Sky Cable under flooring

[diystartup]

Hi
We currently have carpets but are planning to move to Amtico and have realized there is a cable running in door way under the carpet in 2 places.. first is a thin BT cable and the other is SKY cable - pictures attached..

Is there a tidy way of hiding them ..are there door bars which hide cables or should I drill a channel in the concrete floor ? If I create a channel in the concrete floor, can I just make the channel enough to hide just the cable or do i need to place the cable in a trunking and then have a channel in the floor big enough for the trunking ?

I would ideally like them to be accessible so best will be if its possible to hide them using a door bar or a threshold .. look forward to your advice

Thanks

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I do not believe there is a door threshold strip that is purposely designed to hide cables. But normally they do with no issue.
I would change the door strip to one that you fix over the carpet, rather than on with the grippers on. You can then run the data cable beneath this safely.
Similar to this http://www.screwfix.com/p/extra-wid...qExf_67ubRbjpkksszuWskvLepVA_PPQEzEaAqMn8P8HA

 

[Tigercubrider]

Not your situation but I have parquet floors which have a large expansion gap and a reasonable skirting gap that I have covered with scottia. I stuffed in virgin cable plus cat6.

If you are using the fibre underlay you could leave a small gap for cables?
If the cable is small then maybe a little of the screed could be eased. Or the door woodwork cut at the base
Combined skirting/trunking is available

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I think the main issue is the cable routed across the door threshold, so tucking it into an expansion gap at skirting or using skirting board trunking is not really solving the problem.

 

[Tigercubrider]

If going across the door line then just cutting a slot in the underlay would do.
If needs be, removing a sliver of the door lining at the base would allow the cable to cross the door line(and back) if there is only room on one side.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Isn't the point of the question safety? - I may be wrong.

The cables in question are not electric or a hazard so it doesn't really matter what you do with them -
but obviously they should not be damaged or the systems will not work.

 

[Echo the husky]

I replaced a telephone cable last year that was chucked under a carpet in a hallway, the outer sheath had worn totally away leaving the inner wires for a section about a meter long. The inner wires insulation had then been damaged and the shorting wires stopped the phones working. So some sort of care is needed to prevent damage.

 

[Doggit]

I hid the cable under the door bar, and everything was fine for a few years, then we started to get broadband problems, and finally splashed out on an engineers visit, only to find the insulation had worn away over the years. Next time, I'll either route it around the door frame, or cut a channel in the concrete floor.

 

[chivers67]

I'd chase a small amount of the screed out and get the smallest piece of trunking available and insert it though that just to protect it as it will get damaged with time even if a sliver of underlay is cut. People will walk on top/over it over as period of time and eventually it will need to be replaced. Another alternative is to run a new length in that's longer and doesn't need to run across a floor.

 

[diystartup]

Thanks All for your replies.. so I think will go with running the sky cable within a trunking and run it through a channel in the concrete floor.. what is the best way to cut a channel in concrete ?-- channel will be about 800 mm and how long is it likely to take so can warn the neighbors..

 

[Steve]

Depends how hard the concrete is and what you're using. I'd use an SDS drill with a point chisel in it. If you dont have one, you probably know someone who does. Going at concrete with a hammer and chisel will take a long time.

 

[chivers67]

I'd use a small angle grinder to make two fine cuts about an inch apart and 3/4 inch deep then an SDS with a chisel bit to channel it out.

 

[Doggit]

If the room was empty, so would I; sometimes, the long winded difficult method keeps the missus happy.

 

[Iggifer]

TBH with the BT, one cut with a grinder would probably be enough to get the cable in, assuming a reasonably thick stone blade, and probably two side by side with the coax, that one might be a bit trickier but do-able

 

[ericmark]

I looked at your pictures and it does not look like a Sky cable.

the "Shotgun" coax cable used by sky is two coax cables stuck together, one for live watching and one for recording. There are devices which change the frequency so you can have two signals down one cable but I would not expect anyone would go to that expense when laid under the carpet.

It does depend on the coax, some use air or gas insulation within the cable and can be damaged by crushing. There are cable protectors

but don't think really suitable for what you are doing, they are more for temporary cables.

I would run Sky cable around the door frame, and telephone cable I would do away with and use cordless phones.