speaker cable under wooden floor ?

[Bbnm]

Hi,

Im going to be running some speaker cable under a solid wooden floor, the wood is 18mm thick and 150 mm wide planks.

Anyway below the floor will be the dpm sheet and then a solid concrete floor with those cheapo tiles on top, the sort you get before you would lay carpet on top.

To get to my question, is it ok to lay standard speaker cable under the wooden floor (2mm thick) or will i need to get the flat type of cable ?

Thanks to anyone who can confirm what i should do.

Brenda

[Bbnm]

Hello,

Anyone care to clarify please.

Brenda

[27neth]

Hows the floor fixed down? If its a floating floor there should be underlay under the flooring.

John..

[albriscoe]

Brenda

If your laying a new floor have you got the skirtings on yet, if not can`t you place the spk cables behind the skirting.

If the skirting is already on and the new floor butts up against it, you should leave a 10mm expansion gap which will be covered with a bead so leaving room for the cable their as well.

HTH`s Al

[Bbnm]

Hi,

I did not from my research believe i needed a floating floor, just a glued down one ?

I'm intending on getting new skirting boards down as it looks better and negates the need for expensive beading, or tough sanding of existing skirting.

I was going to run the cable flat or otherwise to the preferred floorstanding location and then have the wire pop up through some grommets that will be inserted in the wood ?

The stereo speaker locations are giving me trouble at the moment, as per speaker thread on corner placement and rear or front ported !

So is flat cable the way to go ?

Thanks for your help.

Brenda

[27neth]

If the flooring is getting glued down to the concrete floor i would not run any speaker cable under it. You need the concrete floor as flat as possible.
If you are fitting new skirting, you have to leave a expansion gap all the way around the flooring usually about 10mm, you can lay the speaker wire in the expansion gap before the skirting is fitted.
If you need the speaker wire running across the floor, i would get a angle grinder out

John...

[Bbnm]

Thanks John,

So to the original question, will flat speaker cable taped to the membrane allow me not to chop ones fingers of with angle cutter ! lol

Brenda

[27neth]

Hi Brenda,
If it was me i would either get a angle grinder or ask who ever is supplying or fitting the flooring if you can lay the speaker cable down.
I would not risk just putting it down, if something goes wrong the suppliers or fitters will probably blame you for it..

john

[Per156GTA]

When I put my wooden floor down - it is 15mm engineered oak, I layed 2mm breather membrane down, and then cut out sections of the membrane for the speaker wire to run between the wood flooring and the concrete floor underneath.

I am using QED Silver Anniversary wire and there is no problem with this - I think it is about 2 to 3 mm thick and there is no noticeable rise in the floor where the cable is. When I had carpet down, there was a very clear line where the cable was!

Hope this helps.

Per

[Bbnm]

Hi,

Right i think i can cut the membrane and tape it up leaving a gap, but allowing the membrane to be together as it were.

I might just run some flat type cable on top of the membrane.

My old friend is going to visit and do the floor along with many other jobs that i cant manage.

It will be ok, i think/hope ! lol

thanks

Brenda

[27neth]

What is the membrane you are using? Is it solid timber flooring you are using or engineered? If its solid timber this is usually glued direct to the concrete floor, if its engineered you can just cut out strips of the underlay for the speaker cable to lie in.

John..

[Bbnm]

Hi,

Solid floor and im sure you stil use a dpm even with glueing ?

Brenda

[27neth]

With solid flooring it glues directly to the concrete with a horrible resin type glue

John...

[Bbnm]

hello,

Yes, DPM is a must with any concrete floor.

thats from one of the proposed suppliers ?

Brenda

[27neth]

The dpm will only be a liquid, so there will be no room for speaker wire http://www.russwood.co.uk/flooring/d...odSikabond.pdf

John...