Routing Cat6 network cable in stud wall...

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the correct place but I'm sure mods will move if necessary...

House built this year (2014). I currently have a coax aerial cable coming from the loft to an upstairs bedroom, running through a stud wall with metal studs (no noggins I presume!). As we have Sky in the room, I intended to remove the coax and use the conduit for CAT-6 network cable.

However, when I took the coax faceplate off and removed the recess box, there is no conduit! The coax looks like it's simply stuck onto the inside of the pasterboard with self-adhesive clips, then the fibreglass insulation put in on top of it.

So now I can't use the existing coax to pull the network cable through, what's the best way to do it?

Thanks!

Gareth

PS: Depending on how this goes, my next job is to do the same to the aerial point in the lounge downstairs!

 

Depends but if the void is insulated, it's going to be tricky to persuade a cable to find its way to the right place. If you can get access from above, you could try sending a cable rod down between the plasterboard and the insulation. That will take some good measuring and a jolly generous dose of good luck. Failing that, you might have to chase and make good. Retrofitting is a pita!

 

If it's studded off, and you can see where the cable drops down from above, shove a rod down the hole (or a new one).

If you have removed the back box, you have able room to find the rod.

Downstairs will not be so easy and will likely mean lifting the floor.

 

thanks guys...

Why can't they just put in a nice continuous conduit!

Chasing? Lifting the floor? Hmmm, I hear WiFi is getting pretty speedy nowadays...

 

Are you sure?

If you're right about the noggins it would be easy enough to drop it down from above if you could get to the top of the wall from the loft, were it not for the fact that the wall is stuffed with insulation.

You might be able to push something rigid down against the inside surface of the plasterboard - the lid of some mini trunking might be worth a try, but resign yourself to probably having to remove a section of board.

You should kidnap all the people responsible for specifying, designing and building a house using metal stud walling and slowly torture them to death.

 

If I'm ever stupid enough to renovate a house again, I have a whole catalog of cable management plans.

Wifi comes with its own joyous set of problems.

 

Particularly in houses where the walls are full of metal

 

Well, nipped to screwfix and got myself a set of 10m cable rods and got it down first time, no problems, took about 10 mins. Call it beginner's luck... Even got the double coax for Sky+ down there too, now just need a suitable faceplate...

Wonder what the realistic chances of it working to the downstairs aerial point are?

Maybe they've been nice and put in a conduit?

Maybe if I pulled really hard it would pull off the cable grips stuck onto the plasterboard, then I could tape the Cat6 to the other end of it and pull it through that way...

 

Or another thought...

This is the current cabling setup of the Sky+ cables:

One cable goes up from the dish into the loft (and now down the wall into the bedroom) whilst the other cables goes down and along into the lounge behind the TV (just where I want the Cat6 to go).

Could I get some black outdoor Cat6, run it out of the loft through the same hole the top sky cable, run it along the same path as the other sky cable and into the lounge behind the TV?

I'm sure I could make it look neat enough on the outside...

 

you can do this, ive not had any problems with cat5 outdoors, i cant see a problem with ca6, i dont even think you need an outdoor type but someone may correct me

 

You can get black external Cat6, but far superior is duct grade. It is black with a tough sheath. It's perfect for clipping externally.

What wall is your ground floor one on? Solid or stud? Either way, you are likely to find the cable jump from one wall to the other via the floor space.

 

ground floor is on a solid external wall, but dry lined.

I'm thinking it's very unlikely to work, and the effort of crawling right out into the eve of the loft to try it already nudging me towards the outdoor cat6

 

The cable may even come down an internal stud wall from the loft, through the floor and then down the solid wall.

In the solid wall, it is likely clipped tight to the block work and the plasterboard stuck over the top. Rare to find them conduited these days.

 

ah well, plan B it is then...

Cheers lads

 

Please tell us that Pan B is kidnapping all the people responsible for specifying, designing and building a house using metal stud walling and slowly torturing them to death....




Yes, I'm joking.
But it would be nice if something could be done to the b*****ds responsible.