How do I hide these cables?

wait4me

Looking for good ideas here lads. These aerial and satellite TV cables are coming down from upstairs to the dining room wall and then go through the wall to the sitting room lower down the wall. The interior wall is plasterboard which seems to have been blobbed onto a solid wall. Before this the cables were visible over the coving and then hidden (!) in the conduit.

Ideas: Remove coving (is this doable?) and hide behind; try to fish it down behind the plasterboard....

All ideas welcome and considered. Thanks

Spocker

Is there any length on the cable? Could you run them along the edge of the coving, and then down the corner/join of the wall? You could use caulk to hold them in place, and then paint over them afterward

Note: I'm assuming you don't want to cut the plasterboard or coving for this

wait4me

Hey Spocker - its been a while since our Adverts days!

Not much length in the cables. I am prepared to cut/remove the coving if this is doable. I presume that removing it is an option - I just don't know if it is and how to go about it.

The Mulk

Can you lift the floor upstairs, pull back the cables, drill up the back of the coving and then try fish down the plaster board. I've used trunking lid to fish . It's very tricky with a blobbed wall though.

wait4me

I cannot do anything upstairs unfortunately. This has to be all done with what you see...

The Mulk

a hole in the ceiling and a hole in the wall below coving and try fish down the back of the coving.

should be easier to patch ceiling and wall rather than coving, i reckon.

Spocker

Would extending the cables be an option, using some f connectors and barrels (I have many to spare and could send you some)

wait4me

Thanks Spocker: I'll have a good think about this over the weekend. I have a bunch of f plugs and connectors somewhere hidden in my shed (everything seems to be hidden nowadays - when I put it away its always in a safe place and I never know where that safe place is when I go to retrieve it!). I really am trying to get rid of conduit on the wall - hence my question to the collective wisdom of my fellow boardsies

Right2Write

A valid alternative might be to keep your 'conduit' but make something of a feature out of it. A bit of decorative wood boxing it in etc. or whatever suits.

wait4me

Would I be able to cut out a three or four inch piece of the coving; remove and re-stick it to the wall; making the necessary fillings etc with fillers/caulk?

Alun

wait4me wrote: »

Would I be able to cut out a three or four inch piece of the coving; remove and re-stick it to the wall; making the necessary fillings etc with fillers/caulk?

Should be doable, I reckon.

Also, consider painting the conduit. I have a similar setup, although in my case it's in the corner between a wall and the chimney breast which hides it somewhat, and painting it the same colour as the wall helps to disguise it a bit.

wait4me

Yeah the reason I want to hide the cables is that the room is due a repaint and I said that I'll tackle it all together.

Steve

Wouldn't be a huge job to remove a section of coving and re-fit it. You could chase down the wall easy enough as well.

Stick the coving back & fill the chase with gyproc joint filler and finish with pro-fin. You'll never know it was there.

Don't use caulk, it'll shrink - despite the claims on the tube.

Stoner

Yes I'd go for this you might not have to chase the whole wall.

If it's blobbed there will be some some space and you'd patch the rest.

If it's a partition wall just cut the plaster board out around the timber, try to keep the bits intact. They can be screwed back afterwards sbd you'd patch around the cuts

tedimc

Not trying to be smart, but could you cut the cables and upgrade to Sky Q? Put the master box somewhere convienient to the cable entry point and then use a slave box for the TV. I believe they work over wifi.

Alternatively, use a hdmi over network type solution, potentially using a powerline adopter?

dodzy

Oscillating tool. Notch coving. Bury cables & fill. Put the cables back in the conduit and paint same colour as wall. Easiest option.

Otherwise you are going to have to chase the board, bury everything, fill, sand & paint. Obviously the neater job though.

wait4me

tedimc wrote: »

Not trying to be smart, but could you cut the cables and upgrade to Sky Q?

I'm sticking with Freesat!

CathalDublin

Cut the wall with a pad saw using the pvc trunking as a guide, run the PVC trunking inside the wall and then use scrim tape and jointing compound to fill the hole, should be simple enough, 2 or 3 coats of finishing/jointing compound over the scrim mesh tape, I've done it a couple of times.

REM76

This is one of those occasions when the solution is more complicated than the problem.

Just get rid of all those big cables. It's farcical to be digging trenches in walls to house cables that will be null and void in 2 years time.

I did the same myself with HD cables and speakers and woofers.....all pointless. Bought a wireless cable connection and a soundbar, job done.

dodzy

REM76 wrote: »

This is one of those occasions when the solution is more complicated than the problem.

Just get rid of all those big cables. It's farcical to be digging trenches in walls to house cables that will be null and void in 2 years time.

I did the same myself with HD cables and speakers and woofers.....all pointless. Bought a wireless cable connection and a soundbar, job done.

TV coax, dude. And it ain't going to be extinct anytime soon.

wait4me

Thanks All - I haven't gotten around to doing this yet but I will be cutting and filling to hide the coax cables and an ethernet cable. I decided to add the ethernet as I was doing the job even though wireless is available in the house. A wired connection straight to the router is ALWAYS better than a wireless connection.

REM76

dodzy wrote: »

TV coax, dude. And it ain't going to be extinct anytime soon.

That's what they said about the dvd

wait4me

REM76 wrote: »

That's what they said about the dvd

Yeah I'm waiting for wireless power so I can get rid of electricity cables altogether. But I'm cabling until it comes along as I find I have to hang bulbs somewhere ;)