Mounting on same wall as fusebox...

rowlandhills

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I've got almost no choice but to put all of my AV equipment on the same wall as our mains fuse box. Unfortunately, this means that there are loads of cables running up inside the dry-lined wall. :mad:

Obviously, I'm going to have to be very careful when mounting my new speaker and plasma screen, but I have two key questions:

1 - My cable detector just goes mad anywhere within about 100mm of the wall, so is there a better way to tell where the cables are than to just cut a narrow strip of plasterboard out with a stanley knife (carefully!) and have a look?

2 - Is there any way to avoid interference from the mains cable on my video cables? e.g. can I shield them somehow?

Thanks,

Rowland
 
cable and stud locaters are usually crap you could be the middle of a field and some of them would go off. You could try to lift the floorboards upstairs and have a look down the cables should be bunched together, but if someone lived in the house b4you you never know whos fiddled about.
If you cant see anything i would cut a section out big enough to make sure and then replace the section of board later, wires could be going in all directions.
 
That's pretty much what I was thinking. The only problem is that my wife wants me to do as little damage to the wall as possible, because she's worried that we won't be able to match the paint, so we'll have to repaint the whole room if I make a mess!

I think that I'll try cutting out a strip which will be completely covered by the mounting bracket for my speaker, initially. After that, we'll see what we can see...
 
As a rule the cables should run up or down the wall to the fuse box and any light switchs/sockets etc.
How are you intending to fix the plasma and speakers? are you going to fix straight into the drywall uprights or use drywall fixings?
The reason I ask is if you are going to use drywall fixings with some brands you would have great difficulty damaging a cable with.
The video cables will already be screened but avoid running them parallel with any mains cables if they do need to cross try and do it at right angles.
There are no guarantees unless you trace every cable but in all honesty it would probably take longer trace them all than do a repair if you did manage to damage a cable.
 
The plan is to fix direct into the uprights, but if the fittings don't line up then I'll have to come up with an alternative. One option is probably to replace plasterboard with MDF for the section behind the mounting brackets, with the MDF attached to the uprights, and the bracket attached to the MDF.

I think that drywall fixings will be pretty much last resort. I'll probably use the "redidriver" fixings from Screwfix if I have to, although those are quite "pointy" which could cause a problem, I guess...

Unfortunately, I can't really avoid running the video cables parallel to the mains, as the kit rack will be next to the fuse box, and the display mounted on the wall above it, so all the cables will be running vertically :(

I'll see what happens when I take a look this weekend. Thanks for the tips though.
 
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=100067&ts=47162&id=12635

Where refering to these fixings?

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=100067&ts=47162&id=15328

Consider these in instead and they do much larger ones too.

Do not under estimate these these either

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=100067&ts=47162&id=11923

I fit a lot of heavy electrical equipment and use a loads of these fixing daily as long as they are used correctly they will carry some serious weight a plasma should be no problem as they use thse to fit kitchens.

How may fixings do you need and do you have a preference and I will see how many I have in my tool box.
 
Actually, I found that I have "Metal Easi-Drivers" which I can't see on the site anymore, but they're very similar to the first you list.

I actually took off a strip today, located the joists, and found that the cables are all run at one end, so I'm in a better position that I thought. I've just mounted my YSP-1000 speaker system using two 4" screws into the joist, along with 6 of the easi-driver mountings, which is definately pretty solid!

I think that I'll invest in some more of one of the redi-driver types before I put up a plasma screen, but thanks for the offer of help though.
 

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