cat5 down drylined wall

[ColdKilla]

What are the chances of being able to feed a cat5 cable from the loft down to the lounge in my house through a dry lined wall - is it possible and if so are there any tools out there which will make it easier for me to do?

Thanks,

Mark

[GavT]

This should be relatively straight-forward. I'll tell you how I did mine and you decide what is best - I'm no pro so others may have better suggestions...

In the dry-lined wall you'll need to find the stud work - obviously the vertical posts (studs I think) are no problem but the horizontal ones (noggins I think) will be an issue. I used a scanner (an electronic handheld device which detects wood, cables and metal in walls) to find the noggins but you can do quite well just tapping the wall and listening to the change in sound. The noggins should be evenly spaced (14 inches is standard?) so when you have 1 you can guess the others.

Once the noggins were marked on the wall I used a 4" pipe cutter (a big 'cup' with teeth) in my drill and simply drilled into the noggin about 1". The plasterboard 'disc' will fall away (keep this) and then use a chisel to tap out the similar noggin 'disc'. You can now feed the cable "through" the noggin.

And when you're done, take your plasterboard 'disc', screw it back to the noggin (careful it doesn't crack) and fill the gap around the edge and paint. Job done

Let me know how it goes, and if anyone else has a better way, let us have it.

[Osakan]

In my last couple of houses the plasterboard has been attached to the blockwork by dabs of plaster.

For vertical cable runs the easiest way I have found to thread a cable through that has been to tie a piece of string onto a heavy nail and then feed the nail, with string attached in at the top of the cable run. With a little jiggling, you can relatively easily feed the nail and string down through the 10mm gap between the blockwork and plasterboard down to the lower exit point. For long runs you will almost invariably encounter a dab in your preferred path, at that point "bouncing" the nail will sooner or later get it round the edge of the dab and further down. You can generally hear where in the wall the nail has reached (or if very organised you can mark the string so that you can see how much you have fed in).

Once the string is all the way through, just attach your cable and draw it through, protecting connectors with tape.

This method is fresh in my mind because I ran a couple of wires tonight in preparation for lounge decoration!

[bisto321]

I used the same method as above (with dob and dab plasterboard) and pulled through a few cables this way. Remember to pull through another draw string on the last cable so that when you realise you have not got enough you can pull in the other's

regards,

Chris.

[ColdKilla]

and there is nothing funny between floor levels? so i can run from the loft thru the first floor and down to the ground floor as long as I dont hit a floor joist I assume?

Mark

[ColdKilla]

it is the dab method by the way - also when i look in the loft in the corner the ceiling plasterboard runs right up o the wall - I assume I just cut a little bit back and that will reveal the gap down the wall?

[suniil]

Also it's worth to check for any service / pipe ducts across the floors, that makes your life easy to run cables across the floors

[s2holdings]

Originally Posted by bisto321

I used the same method as above (with dob and dab plasterboard) and pulled through a few cables this way. Remember to pull through another draw string on the last cable so that when you realise you have not got enough you can pull in the other's

regards,

Chris.

I have tried that in my living room, but gave up as the builders have left morter sticking out and there is not much space between the plasterboard and brickwork...

I damageed some cable doing this so i am now going to start channeling the walls out to get all the cables in...

But going from the loft to the living room, could be a pain as some builders extend the floor boards of the 1st floor to the wall not leaving a gap to pass cables through.

[gazzared_typer]

I have to say I went outside down the wall and back in to my living room from my office. No problems at all

Gazza

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by gazzared_typer

I have to say I went outside down the wall and back in to my living room from my office. No problems at all

Gazza

If you can do that then it is far the easier option imo.

[bisto321]

I have used the outside - down the wall - and back in again for a few cables (data and RF only - no AV). You can get cables down most dob and dab walls (i pulled in three the other day) with the heavy nail and string method, but - as mentioned in the previous posts - if your builders used a lot of jollop!(muck) it may prove to be a bit of a pain. Can you can pull in unterminated cat5 and then put the ends on yourself? It will be much easier.

Chris

[peevo]

Originally Posted by suniil

Also it's worth to check for any service / pipe ducts across the floors, that makes your life easy to run cables across the floors

I agree with this, look for a service duct that goes from attic to underfloor on ground level. A bit more info or pics as there are 101 ways to do this.

[ColdKilla]

I can see where my rf cables go down from the original build so might be worth trying to tag along side them I assume - From memory they are tacked on tho so wont be able to be used as a pully for the new cables!

Hopefully there will be a decent gap along side them then - just panicking if i cut away the plastboard in the corner of the roof (ceiling) that it is the right side of the wall and I dont end up with a hole in my bedroom ceiling!

Mark

[ColdKilla]

the boards seem to have a full line of dabbing all the way across the top and the board is very close to the wall so I think this option might be a no-goer - I have found another route down a cavity wall which may work if I get multiroom installed to the proposed cinema room!! Suits me but the good lady might not be so impressed!

Mark