TV wall mounted, how best to run cables?

uchuff

uchuff

uchuff

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30 Jul 2003
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Hi all,
At the weekend we got the TV mounted up on the chimney breast quite nicely after wrestling a bit with a slightly bent wall mount.

Apologies for the bigfoot-sighting quality photo, I took a quick snap on my phone during dinner so I could post this:

telly_small_zpsc7bef358.jpg


To the left of the chimney breast is an alcove that will likely have shelving in, it's here I'm hoping to have the xbox, apple tv and blu ray towards the bottom so they are pretty hidden and out of the way.

What I'm just trying to decide now is how best to run the cables. Originally I was thinking I'd need to do some chasing, however the semi-retired chippy that was helping me mount the tv suggested just drilling through into the chimney behind the tv and then drilling through the chimney to the side and running the cable through that, likely in some conduit.

Would that be a sensible approach?

Will initially just be the power, ethernet and three (likely four actually leaving one spare and ready to plug in) HDMI cables. The chimney is brick with plasterboard on the outside, in some places right on top of the brick, in others there is a bit of a void between the two.
 
That's how I'd do it. Chased many a cable and anything you can do to avoid it is preferable in my opinion.

Also would be better for future if tv changes or inputs you won't have to cut the cables out the walls.
 
Thanks both, possibly a dumb question but why the angle?

I'll be hiring a decent drill as I've got a few jobs my cordless Makita isn't quite up to.
 
Because you could just drill through in one shot, will be easier to thread the cables through.
 
Drill at an angle is the best shout just make sure you get your angle right and don't end up next door! if you have the bit send a small pilot through.
 
Appreciate this is an old thread but your picture looks exactly like my setup and you have asked exactly what I would! How did you get on out of interest? I have an SDS drill but the bit is about 30cm long - i wouldnt be able to get through in one fell swoop if i drilled at an angle!
 
ergonomics said:
Appreciate this is an old thread but your picture looks exactly like my setup and you have asked exactly what I would! How did you get on out of interest? I have an SDS drill but the bit is about 30cm long - i wouldnt be able to get through in one fell swoop if i drilled at an angle!
Click to expand...

I'm imagining you would drill up and angled at the bottom and down and angled at the top, I would be surprised if your bit wasn't long enough for that.
 
There was already a nice paneled hatch in the side of the chimney mine is set up in. A nice long drill and it was job done.

We custom made a unit to go in there, also have ethernet run in as well as coax for sky and virgin. All of these are interchangeable under our stairs with couplers. The cabled are then run up the chimney breast to have multiroom and to the broadband router in my boiler cupboard in one of the bedrooms.

See images here of what we accomplished

https://imgur.com/a/oqPcd
 
ergonomics said:
But the chance of getting those angles right from both sides.. :eek:
Click to expand...

Actually measuring it now.. I have a 40cm bit and the length from the side of where the TV would hang, to the bottom of the side breast (just above the skirting) is roughly 120cm. Looks like i'll just have to drill straight in and try and fish some cables through with magnets on the end!
 
Core bit through behind TV. Core bit through alcove. Waste pipe as conduit. Simples.

Or

Core bit behind TV and in Fireplace alcove and mount AV in fireplace
 
If that was me I'd be running an electrical power line under the skirting into the fire place, putting all my electronics on shelves in there and then running cables up and through meaning only one hole is needed and it'd be very simple to do.
 
Thanks for the bump, I had meant to post back at the time.

ZG002 said:
I'd drill through on a angle with a long bit. Not like the chimney is in use.
Click to expand...

Essentially did that.

Rather than shelving we found a solid oak bookcase that was a perfect fit for the alcove and helps hide any cables.

wide.jpg


close.jpg


Not got round to making good the holes yet, they aren't visible unless you go looking behind the TV.

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I figured I could get everything I wanted in a 25mm bit of pipe so bought some to try it out, managed to get:

  • 4x Thin HDMI
  • 1x Cat5e ethernet
  • 1x Power
  • 1x Coax

The HDMI leads I bought (a couple of years ago now) aren't 4K ones, but will worry about that when the Plasma dies. (If it's still important then - the only device that gets much use at the moment is a FireTV stick contained entirely behind the TV)

The coax is just looped up behind the bookcase, it's not actually hooked up to anything but figured I'd run some as I had there was room in the pipe, I had some high grade coax to hand, and there's a working aerial in the loft if we decide to run a cable down in future the PSU for a booster can sit behind the bookcase.

The power is a 2-way extension that sits behind the TV. While it's only the TV plugged in there at the moment, I figured the extra socket might be handy, also makes taking down or swapping the TV out easier.

----

Started off with a pilot hole that went most of the way through, then with the SDS worked up from 10mm to 25mm (+ a bit of wiggling to get a bit more space) and then the pipe slotted in snuggly. To get the cables through I masking taped them together, staggering the connectors so the fattest went through first.
 
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