[gk141054]

Hi guys,

Bit of a DIY novice but always happy to have a go...

Put my 26" up on the bedroom wall last night (stud wall) and it looks great but now i've got to a) hide the power cable and b) get the aerial cable to it....

My questions:

1. Is it safe to run cables through the wall - the stud wall is filled with insulation material and so I don't want to cause a fire or anything...

2. In relation to 1, should I put something in the wall that I can run the cables down, like a small pipe or something? Thought it would make adding more cables down it later easy and should protect from risk of 1. happening?

3. My cable is about 5" short from reaching the power socket. At first I was going to cut the cable and extend it but it sounded a bit dangerous to me. So what I am now thinking of doing is running one of these from the power socket, up through the wall and then stashing it behind the screen. That way I can plug the TV in without having to extend the cable (to save problems if I needed to take it back if it broke) but also gives me options later on if I want to add a DVD / sky box up on the wall..... Anyone got any thoughts on if thats a good / bad idea?

4. Last one.... when i've made holes in the wall and put the cables through the holes, are there caps / covers I can fill the holes with or do people just use filler with the cable just hanging out there?

Cheers guys.

Oh BTW, the mount I got was this one:

Amazon.co.uk: Allcam PLB103S 23"-37" LCD TV Wall Mount Bracket Black Tilt VESA 400x200 200x200: Electronics & Photo

Great price @ £25ish and seems solid.

[Dream Weaver]

I've just bought that mount for our 32" Sony in the kitchen, and fitted it earlier this week. Really nice mount for the money, and the tilt action is really good.

My wall is thermalite block, so I can't advise you on the stud wall issue as I just chased all my cables into the wall under capping (conduit for the speaker cables) and am about to start plastering the wall back in.

[Magslad]

Originally Posted by gk141054

1. Is it safe to run cables through the wall - the stud wall is filled with insulation material and so I don't want to cause a fire or anything...

2. In relation to 1, should I put something in the wall that I can run the cables down, like a small pipe or something? Thought it would make adding more cables down it later easy and should protect from risk of 1. happening?

3. My cable is about 5" short from reaching the power socket. At first I was going to cut the cable and extend it but it sounded a bit dangerous to me. So what I am now thinking of doing is running one of these from the power socket, up through the wall and then stashing it behind the screen. That way I can plug the TV in without having to extend the cable (to save problems if I needed to take it back if it broke) but also gives me options later on if I want to add a DVD / sky box up on the wall..... Anyone got any thoughts on if thats a good / bad idea?

4. Last one.... when i've made holes in the wall and put the cables through the holes, are there caps / covers I can fill the holes with or do people just use filler with the cable just hanging out there?

Cheers guys.

1. Yes - perfectly safe to run cables through the stud wall. A standard power cable and coax cable will only generate very minimal heat, certainly nowhere near enough to be a danger. Just be sure that you what whether there is anything else (pipes/cables etc) in the wall before you start drilling holes - best way is to use a cable/stud detector.

2. You don't need to do this from a fire protection point of view, but might be a good idea anyway - like you say, if you think you might want to run other cables there in the future, it avoids you having to drill more holes. You might want to leave a piece of string/cord in the pipe once you've done it, that way you have something to act as a pull cord if you feed any cables in the future

3. That would work fine. If it was me I would put an extension socket on the wall behind the TV, then it won't be hanging loose, but you could just use an extension lead and screw it to the wall, does the same job

4. I'm using brush faceplates to hide the exit points for my cables - you can get them in chrome etc but you can also get standard white ones from places like Wickes now - here. They do neaten up the exit points nicely, and number of people on the forums have used them. If you have just single cables coming out then you can alternatively use the cable grommets that Sky installers use - just go onto ebay and search for something like "sky cable grommet" and you should find some options.

Hope that helps

[nacmacfeegle]

#4 I used some 'desk cable grommets' (pinched from some desks that were being skipped during an office refurb) on an install recently. You can also get these from the usual online auction sites or search for them using giggle. They are probably a bit more capacious than the sky grommets, and are easier to put additional cables in/out etc as you can actually pass a full sized 13 amp plug, scart end etc through them. They take a coat of paint as well.