Whats the best way to chase out walls?

[Not A Clue]

Hi Guys,

About to wall mount my plasma in a couple of weeks (my disaster will be posted in stages here for all to see!) and basically I want to channel all speaker wires, component etc. into the wall dotted around the room.

I'm going to have to dig into my concrete floor (as skirts are interuppted by internal french door, and external patio door) and chase up the walls.

What I don't know is whats the best way to create a channel in concrete floors and brick walls (not those hollow walls so can't just drop cables through)...

so questions are >>>

1) Can I do this with a hammer and chisel (the room dimension is 4m by 3.5m in the room) or can i get something other tool to help?
2) I've never plastered before - do you think i should call a builder in to plaster the wall after i embed the cables or is it easy enough to do myself (its a new house so i'm leaving the walls bare and unpapered) ?

Any advice for a DIY newb would be appreciated greatly...

[BigB@dJ@y]

Nip to your local tool hire shop and get one of these :- WALL CHASER

Easy to use and they make a nice clean cut (usually )

If your gonna leave the walls bare then a plasterer would do a much better job. You could always have a go and patch plaster it then put paper over to hide it (Much cheaper and not too difficult)

[Starkiller]

I did mine with a hammer & Chisel, but a electrian friend of mine uses a 4" angle grinder for speed

remember to cover the cables with coving, before plastering over

Good luck with your project

[Johnny Thunder]

A few words of caution.
Grinders create MASSIVE amounts of dust, but make
very neat chases.
Wall Chasers are also very handy, but, if you are chasing
single skin Breezeblock walls, go careful. You cannot get a
feel for how hard you are hitting the wall, and stand a fair
chance of pushing complete blocks out the other side.
To be fair though, this can happen with a mash hammer
and bolster chisel.
Old habits die hard, I prefer hammer and chisel.
Make sure you scan the walls for cables/pipes before
you start.

Johnny.

[Not A Clue]

Thanks Guys - i had a look around at a wall chaser but found hire costs very expensive (£100 per day with the vac) - I'm now thinking of using a SDS drill with a chisel on the end

I'll let you know how it goes :S

[IronGiant]

Aren't there two sorts of wall chasers? One which is just a double bladed diamond saw that then allows you to tap/hammer out the material between the cuts? less mess than an angle grinder, less agro than a hammer and chisel (SDS or otherwise)

eg. this to buy for ~£100

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...67037&ts=66957

Then there is the SDS semi-demolisher channel cutter, which i think Johhny was referring to:

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...67589&id=16606

On the completely useless DIY front I've bought one of these for £19.99, but not used it yet, probably because I think it will make huge amounts of mess and achieve nothing.
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...11900&ts=66957
offers on a postcard to :-)

Dave

[KW1816]

I've just been using one of the double bladed wall chasers and it does a great job - super neat channels that just need a quick chase out with an SDS chisel.

As Johnny said - it creates a MASSIVE amount of dust, so much in fact that I can't describe just how MASSIVE amounts of dust it creates - Did I say it creates a MASSIVE amount of dust

So much in fact, that after cutting about a foot long channel I could no longer see the wall. Googles/Dust mask/heavy duty gloves are a must.

My words of advice:

Keep all doors (except to the outside) shut and tape round the edges.
Open the windows.
Remove everything, and I mean everything, from the room.
Cover the carpet etc with good dust sheets and tape them round the edges.
Hire an industrial vac with the chaser and use it. It won't get all the dust but it will help.
Make sure the wife/girlfriend is out all day .

Hope this helps !

Kevin

[skull-eater]

hi all i used this one one my walls http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=060222007

[IronGiant]

I will second/third the dust problem
When cutting a doorway into our garage from our enclosed porch my (then) 6 year old son opened the front door to see what Daddy was doing, the dust and noise frightened him so he fled; leaving the door wide open...

Oblivious to this with one foot visibility I blithely carried on, unaware the hall, kitchen and living room were all turning a nice shade of terracotta.


Dave

[IronGiant]

That would be this one then

"On the completely useless DIY front I've bought one of these for £19.99, but not used it yet, probably because I think it will make huge amounts of mess and achieve nothing.
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat...=11900&ts=66957"


Was I wrong and in fact it works OK, skull-eater?

Dave

[Johnny Thunder]

They work fine Reg, but again, it is dust city with them.
The other problem, the chases are very thin, you have to
chase a few times to make a channel wide enough to take
a length of capping.
Quicker to use old fashioned methods.............
Helps get rid of stress and fury.......

Johnny.

[Supersonic]

Just to re-iterate the dust problem - we had a party wall cut through recently and it gets into EVERYTHING. What's worse is it shorts electricals; we lost a DECT phone to the dust. So Golden Rule is REMOVE EVERYTHING from the room you're cutting in. Seems like a fag but you'll regret it if you don't!

[jasper_mccrea]

the chaser I hired to do my wall had a hose to attach a vacuum cleaner to, and I just stuck my regular vacuum cleaner on it. Hardly any dust got past that. And it was < £70 to hire for the weekend. Came with a freaking heavy 110v converter. I nearly took my fingers off carrying that from the shop to the car!

[baldrick]

If you ever see heavy duty kit being used they often include a water spray and this all but eliminates the dust, obviously it makes a mess where you're working but we can't have everything!!!

[Not A Clue]

Thanks for all the responses guys - i think i'll give the wall chaser a miss and stick to an sds drill chisel - its a new house with an exposed arch to a hallway so i need to minimise the dust

If i don't minimise the dust, my wife will minimise my life