Chasing out wall

[Urban Splash]

Hello all,

Here is the scenario....

I'm moving in to a new build house in a few weeks. I plan to wall mount my 37 Sharp 1080 LCD. I need to get all the required cables from the cabinet to the TV. I work in the construction industry so have been taking advice from people in my office. The genearal feeling is that the best method will be chasing out the wall.

This will involve -

Cutting the plasterboard/drylining, cutting into masonry if required (it's a standard cavity gable wall), fitting trunking, plaster over the top, wallpaper. At both ends of the trunking I was thinking about fitting a standard double backbox as an outlet for the cables.

Or

Simply cutting a hole in the dryling at skirting level, a hole at tv level and pulling the cables through the drylining.

The cables required to go through are-

2 x HDMI
1 x Scart
1 x TV power cable
1 x component
1 x wii motion cable

Any advice would be appreciated. Perhaps someone has done this before and has some tips. I also intend to photograph this as I do it and post it as a guide for people that may be in a similar situation.

Many thanks for your time, Ross

[mr-gobby]

If it's drylined then there will be dots of plasterboard adhesive holding the boards to the wall, they may be randomly positioned. In addition to these dots, the proper way is to place a fairly continious run of adhesive down where 2 boards butt together (it stops joint movement/flexing from cracking the plaster or taped skim) so basically that ISNT where you want to be! By tapping the wall with your knuckles, the sound will be duller where this run of adhesive is. You will have to just work around the dots as best you can but again tap the wall to find them.

Personally I would use a drill mounted circular hole cutter (4-5") and make a hole in the wall where the TV is and one behind the cabinet, neither of which you will see as the cabinet and the tv will hide them. Make sure it isn't where there's a dot of plaster though. Poke some wire down between the two holes (say some 1-1,5mm lighting cable wire) to use as a pull string. Then pull each cable through, I said 4-5" hole so that the connector heads come through ok (scart for example). Attach a piece of string to each cable so that you have your next pull string for the next cable. Also keep the circular cutouts as you can stick them back in the holes and fill the edges if A: you move to another house or B:it doesnt work. Done carefully you'd never see the repair.

To cut, chase and replaster would be very noticable on a drylined wall even if you paper it. Unless you have the wall professionally skimmed all over. A bit OTT if you dont need to do it. So try this hole technique first. I've done it when running cables through walls. from floor to ceiling.

Also when mounting the screen to the wall be aware that you will need the fixings to be long enough and man enough to go into the masonary behind the plasterboard as fixing to the plasterboard alone may not be strong enough to support the TV.

[Urban Splash]

Now that is exactly the advice I was looking for!

so in your opinion, there is room behind the drylining boards to get cables through? the only problem may be the scart?

with regards to the wall fixings for the bracket. Any ideas on length? Like you say it needs to fix into the mansonary, and be pretty meaty to take the weight. I forgot to mention that the tv is going to be fixed to a wall cabinet that will be fixed to the wall! It's an extra hassle but will look good when its finished.

Your advice is appreciated

[Jon Boy]

For getting the scart through it all depends on how deep the cavity is behind the boards, if you really cant get it through using the method that mr-gobby suggested then you may end up chasing it out like you first described.
If you do have to go that route then once you've chased into the blocks and fitted your trunking you can stick the plasterboard that you cut out back o and put a light skim of easy-fill over the top, sand down and re-paper

As for fixings for the screen, the tried and tested way on here is to cut out a square of board behind the screen and replace it with a bit of ply and then fix into that.

If you didnt want to do that then pop down to b&q or the like and get some beefy cavity bolt fixings.
I did this pic for someone ages ago to show how i fitted another members 50" pioneer screen and as far as i know it hasnt fallen down yet...

Fitted like this...

The fixing works like this...

The finished job looked like this...

When all the cables were all in the guy replaced the cut outs with plasterbaord and had it lightly skimmed over and rubbed down for painting!

Hope this helps

Jon

[Urban Splash]

Cheers,

nice drawings! I could of used your help when I was at Uni!

I think that the wall is drylined so there is a gap between the plasterboard and the masonary due to the adhesive dots.

Dont know if this will create extra complications if chasing out is required

Also, if i use mr gobby method of cutting a circular hole in the wall, is there any way of covering the hole to preserve eco value?

[mr-gobby]

I reckon there would be enough room, usually is in most cases. I'd pull the scart through first as it's the most likely one to cause difficulty. It's the easiest method to try first anyway before cutting and chasing.

Length of fixings - 100mm fixings? Depends on fixing being used and depth of dots and dabs behind the board. Jon Boys fixing diagram and notes explain it well, your first cut out hole will help you determine size. Fischer is one well known make of fixing manufacturer, they'll have a website to help you decide. The cabinet will need securing to the wall just as securely as if it were the TV bracket.

Regards, Mark.

[Urban Splash]

Thanks Mark,

Will give it a try when I get the house within the next couple of weeks. Will post pics to show others what i'm doing

[krisstewart67]

I have actually bought a brand new house and fitted my 32" lcd using the method Mr Gobby was talking about.

Firstly cut a square at skirting level and one at point where i wanted cables to come out behing TV. (Carefull you lave room behind TV for cables coming out as they might interere with the angles you can have TV at if tilt bracket).

I then used a piece of plastic tubing to slide down the cavity and act like a fish line to pull the appropriate cables up the wall. I put a sinlge electric socket back box in the cut out squares so it would look neat.

I was a complete newbie to all this but it was fairly simple.
Couple of tips:
Use the right length of cables as they need a bit of length to go up wall and into tv, better too long than too short!
Make sure you run all the required cables and even extra for future proofing as its a pain to take tv down and run more at later date.
When fixing TV to wall mak sure you catch a few wooden joices if possible, if not add a thin piece of ply behin to and put plenty of long screws into wood and then use plasterboard raw plugs, which are metal and very very solid.

Hope this helps.

[Urban Splash]

Originally Posted by krisstewart10

I have actually bought a brand new house and fitted my 32" lcd using the method Mr Gobby was talking about.

Firstly cut a square at skirting level and one at point where i wanted cables to come out behing TV. (Carefull you lave room behind TV for cables coming out as they might interere with the angles you can have TV at if tilt bracket).

I then used a piece of plastic tubing to slide down the cavity and act like a fish line to pull the appropriate cables up the wall. I put a sinlge electric socket back box in the cut out squares so it would look neat.

I was a complete newbie to all this but it was fairly simple.
Couple of tips:
Use the right length of cables as they need a bit of length to go up wall and into tv, better too long than too short!
Make sure you run all the required cables and even extra for future proofing as its a pain to take tv down and run more at later date.
When fixing TV to wall mak sure you catch a few wooden joices if possible, if not add a thin piece of ply behin to and put plenty of long screws into wood and then use plasterboard raw plugs, which are metal and very very solid.

Hope this helps.

Don't suppose you have any pics? I think I will run extra cables through, especially an extra HDMI as it seems the new xbox360 will have HDMI soon.

Thanks for the advice!