Advice needed for concealing speaker wires/cable in plastered wall

[bigbug]

Hi, just about ready to start this modest project but was wondering how best to get the speaker wires into the plaster?? My plan (any better ideas welcomed) was to cut into the plaster with a stanley knife, make a channel big enough to take the cable then either plaster over it or put some some of trunking over it then plaster on top??
Then, for my wall mounted lcd power cable, hdmi and component cables I was going to cut a deeper channel with an electric saw, sink a wider piece of trunking leaving a gap at the top and bottom then plaster over that. That is if I can cut deep enough to be able to sink trunking big enough to accomodate all the cabling.

Any better tips would be very much appreciated as my wife fears the worse

[kfalls]

I've used a couple of methods to hide speaker wires. It depends, of course, on the type of wire used.

I installed a pair of in-walls in my bedroom. I ran the wires inside the wall until I got to the baseboard. I removed the baseboard, cut a groove wide enough for the wire then just covered over with baseboard. The speakers were on an inside wall so insulation wasn't a factor.

In my family room I needed to install wires for the surround channels. I was able to hide the wires by hiding them behind pieces of trim I installed along the ceiling/wall line. This may not be ideal for larger ga or large dia. manufacturer cables.

Of course there's always the option of using a "fish tape" to run the wires inside the walls. You don't say how you are terminating the wires. If you plan to terminate to a speaker wall plate, you can used the hole cut into the wall to work with.

[scodav]

i used a cutter that you use to cut ou the holes for down lighters and put to holes one behind my tv and one where my av unit was and just ran the cables threw the wall and it seemed to make a neat job this was in plasterboard tho so dont no if it is any use to you

[nealjane]

for rear speaker wire i just bought this stuff - FLT® Series Wire: 12 AWG, 14e AWG, 18e AWG

no cutting required - just paint over it - i cant even see it on the wall above the dado - its not that cheap though....

[EVH]

This is how I did it when running a set of HDMI cables to a wallmount plasma..

I cut a channel (carefully!) with a plasterboard saw. Then, removed the plaster and placed the cables in the empty channel.

Finally, I "padded" the channel with some bits of cardboard and mixed some fresh plaster in. You could use filler, but IMO it gives a nicer finish if you re-fill with plaster and you aren't faffing around sanding and reapplying as you would with filler.

Wait about 12-24hrs for it to fully dry (depending on the depth), give it a quick rub down with wet and dry and re-paint it. Violá!

If you want to check out my wallmount thread, it will reveal all

Good luck