Running ethernet and CCTV cabling in house

[FrodoOne]

Power line technology. Putting data at many MHz along power (mains) cable that is designed for 50Hz.

Thank you.
My apologies for taking so long to reply.

(Of course, one should never use any abbreviation without explaining it the first time that one uses it, unless it has been used and explained earlier in a "thread".)

 

[joe384]

There's definitely a knack to using them.
The style used by BT and others have a variable sensitivity probe - so you can use it on high sensitivity for finding stuff, and then turn it down as you narrow in on the individual cable/pair, and right down as you get to the contact stage. But because you do get crosstalk, for a positive ID you need to short out the pair to show that the signal goes away.
If you put the generator across a pair, or across core and screen of a coax, then it's not good for tracing a cable - by design these cables are low leakage. It's better to put the generator between one wire of a pair/the screen of a coax and an earth so that the cable then acts like an aerial. When you think you've found the other end, move the generator to be across the pair/core & screen of the coax to double check. Downside of this method is that you have a lot more crosstalk, so will find the signal coupled to other cables, especially if they are bundled together for part of their run.

Using the screen and coax did give an even stronger signal although there wasn't an awful lot of difference but as said there is something for sure up in the roof space. So I will hook up a TV (on the off chance there is an aerial up there) and if not I will have to try and find the end of cable and decide what I want to do.

Back to my main question:

I guess what I'm really asking is - Is there any other things out there that would help me run / trace cables without causing too much destruction?

I have recently found during my searching that some houses have dot and dab plaster and in some cases you can run cabling behind the plasterboard. I think I may have this downstairs as when BT installed my line I noticed there was about 12mm of plasterboard then a bit of cavity and then some leafs of masonary.