Cabling behind plaster wall woes.... :(

Schizophonic · 5 Dec 2020 at 19:39

I was in the process of sticking a tv back up on the wall after doing some painting and thought I wanted to try some channeling behind the plaster wall. I got the sockets, back boxes, started measuring and began cutting into the plaster wall.

I got to the point of trying to drop the cable but came across my first hurdle, realized my plaster wall was blob and dab and had to get some cable rods to help channel some cables around instead of just down.
My next hurdle was the gap between the breeze block behind the plaster wall wasn't wide enough for any of the cable heads (HDMI, power lead and etc)

What do you diyers do at this point?

Brutal biff · 5 Dec 2020 at 19:43

at this point you've got 2 choices chase it out and replaster or trunking

Hyburnate · 5 Dec 2020 at 20:06

You're sure its not going to suit the HDMI? Power lead you can get re-wireable, bit of a pain to do the same/similar with HDMI

Jim_76 · 5 Dec 2020 at 20:07

Chase it out, fit a trunk, back boxes and plaster over.

Snaggle · 6 Dec 2020 at 12:51

yup chase it best way

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 6 Dec 2020 at 12:58

Ive got the same, dot n ~~bad~~ dab

What i do is multi tool or stanley knife cut the board out. Put in cables, slightly trim the removed board and use grip fill to put the same pieces back in the same holes. Just a very minor filler skim needed back over the top then.

Yes its a ball aches but doing that you can get a fixed up position very quickly

Schizophonic · 6 Dec 2020 at 14:55

I was upset how my house wall was put together with the distance with the dob and dab and the plaster wall but I assume its the standards in most houses now.
At the time of discovering the issue, I cut my losses and patched up the holes but you learn if you don't try - eh oh.

DXP55 · 8 Dec 2020 at 11:48

I have ash blocks with concrete plaster. Dirty filthy job drilling and chasing.

You can tie a nut onto a piece of string then use a magnet to work the nut around the dab. too late now but something to remember.

Semple · 8 Dec 2020 at 12:15

Schizophonic said:
My next hurdle was the gap between the breeze block behind the plaster wall wasn't wide enough for any of the cable heads (HDMI, power lead and etc)

What do you diyers do at this point?

Oooof i wouldn't run a power lead behind the wall, what happens if it becomes damaged and needs replacing? Unless it's stuck in some very large conduit - which could still be a pain to pull through.

I did a socket spur to just behind the TV - would be very unlikely that the spur needs replacing. You could do the same for HDMI, but i opted for HDMI over ethernet as i was already running ethernet cables to the TV.

NickK · 8 Dec 2020 at 18:26

Chase with a conduit and then run the power through that.

Out kitchen has chased power with a protective strip over the top.