Hiding the wires

[GAMMO]

Hi everyone, Gammo here, and yes im a virgin poster.

Question. If i mount a 32" lcd above a fireplace how do you hide the wires ?
Its one of those flat wall fireplaces that doesn,t need flue, chimney etc. The walls are plasterboard. If the fireplace wasn't there theni would just drill a hole behind the screen and then another at the bottom, directly below the first, then thread them through the gap between the plasterboard and the main wall. Is it possible to drill a hole diagonally to the first, so to avoid the fireplace, and still thread the wire through somehow. Probably a stupid question. Someone humour me please.

[GAMMO]

Help anybody.............................please

[johndon]

Depending on the diagonal and the angles in and out, you might be able to feed a fairly stiff wire between the two diagonal holes and, once you've got it at the other end, attach a 'draw string' to it and drag it through. You can then attach cables to the string and pull the through.

If this isn't possible, the only solution would be to chase the walls but you'd then have to fill, replaster and redecorate.

John

[Duncans]

Gammo,

Just a quick check: no fireplace I know of has neither a flue nor chimney (except a pile of leaves in the garden!). Without one you either breach your gas regs or the room fills with smoke

Not sure about your holes, but here's some experience from my Philips 32 lCD fit.

1. Get your SCARTS sorted out; particularly as not all SCART in's are the same i.e RTFM carefully and look out for things like SCART not being fully wired. I found the DVD playback was much poorer on on TV2 as opposed to TV1.

2. Check your viewing angles; with a flush mount it points straight out! The contrast really starts to fade off past a particular angle. Check your seating.

3. You can't fit to the wall and then connect cables; you have to do it the other way round. This is a real pain in the if you are trying to do this through a keyhole surgery technique.

4. Watch out for the power adapter! The philips has a big chunky power adapter fitted about 200 cm from the TV! Try feeding that through your 30mm hols in the plasterboard

5. Centre speakers (dialogue). When you wire up your 5.1 surround system, you realise that your centre speaker has to be in front and just below the TV otherwise all the actors in your movies appear to be next door! Make sure you have somewhere for this speaker (in your fire?!)

6. watch out for the offer to fit you TV from the store that sold it. The small print effectively says they don't give a **** how good it look (cables all over the place)

Rock and a hard place.

Hope this helps.

Duncan

[rowlandhills]

Duncans, he probably does have a "flueless" gas fire. These do not have a separate flue or chimney, but they do need to be used in a room with good ventilation (eg airbrick, window with vent above it etc.). I thought about getting one of these earlier this year, when I was looking into buying a house with no chimney/flue allowed due to strange planning restrictions, but as it happens I didn't wind up buying that house.

Not sure whether there are any particular issues with the flueless fire type, but as with all heat sources, it would probably be good to have a shelf or something above the fire and below the LCD, to deflect some of the heat away.

Good luck with it.

[ATarn]

The problem you'll find with a flueless gas (catalyst) fireplace is that it gets V hot above it, therefore placing a plasma TV there is probably not wise! We have a poor quality mirror above ours and the frame has become discoloured. So can a TV hack it?

[GAMMO]

Hi guys.

There seems to be a bit of confusion here. The fire is electric and is rarely used, decoration purposes only.

Is there an easy way to hide all the wires ?

[Morris Schæffer]

Originally Posted by Duncans

5. Centre speakers (dialogue). When you wire up your 5.1 surround system, you realise that your centre speaker has to be in front and just below the TV otherwise all the actors in your movies appear to be next door! Make sure you have somewhere for this speaker (in your fire?!)

What do you mean "just below the TV?"

How about just above it?

[Supersonic]

Gammo,

If you're talking about a stud wall (hollow wall made of wooden beams and plasterboard), you could use the following technique which involves initially taking the cable across then down. You will need to plaster and decorate over a small hole though.

First, find out where the studs are, either using a stud detector or carefully tapping the wall to find out where it sounds like it's not hollow. Things are a lot simpler if you don't have to go across a stud. Using a stud detector should also let you check for any existing cabling already in the wall.

Next, drill a hole behind the screen where you want your cables to enter & exit. You then drill a small hole at the same height but across (i.e. to the left or right depending which side of the fire you want to go) from the first one.

Get a suitable length of string (3 or 4 metres perhaps) and I'd recommend also getting a second person to help you.

You use the second hole to insert a length of stiff wire (unfolded wire coat hanger would work) and thread it through the second hole back to the first. Once you can see the wire at the first hole, tie the string to the wire and pull it back and out through the second hole.

Now you drill the 3rd (last) hole directly below the 2nd one (am guessing you want this near the floor?) and then tie a small weight to the string. Making sure you don't let the string go back through the second hole entirely - it needs to go in a straight line down to the 3rd hole - lower the weighted string down to the 3rd hole and pull the end through.

You should now have an L-shaped string length going up and across to behind your screen with a loop protruding from the 2nd hole. Once you've established that you can pull the string back and forward between the three holes, you can tie cables to the string at the 3rd hole and pull them back up to the 1st, either directly or 'stopping' at the second hole.

I found when wiring my projector that it pays to use extra string so that when you attach a cable and pull it back through, there is still string showing at each end - that way if the cable becomes detached from the string you don't have to re-thread the string.

Once all the cables are through, you make good the second hole and do whatever you want with the other two.

It might take a bit of patience but it will be neater in the long run if like me you're not a good plasterer.

Hope that helps.

[richard plumb]

whats the best way to make good? eg would it make sense to use a little hole cutter to cut a reasonable sized hole in the plasterboard and remove as a plug. Then glue it back in with filler/no more nails or something, before filling/sanding as necessary?

If its a big hole to get lots of cabling through, doesn't it make it difficult to patch up?

Originally Posted by Morris Schæffer

What do you mean "just below the TV?"

How about just above it?

Because actors mouths tend to be located on the lower half of their face