This probly sounds a really stupid question but

what do most of you do about your cables at home ?

i moved the telly last night and spent ages trying to get all my cables that go around the room hidden

but i cant get them under the carpet or under te skirting board so i have cables all around the floor zip tied together and nailed with them little u shaped cable clips in but i cant help think it looks messy

i mean cables like

Souround sound speaker cable

telephone exstension cable

satalite cable

TV arial cable

phone cable from PC to suround system

anybody got any ideas

just battered em round the outside willy nilly and turned the stereo up. seemed to work a treat

Can't remember what it's called, but you can get plastic tubing from your local friendly DIY store to run cables through which looks tidier than u-clips, imho.

Chris

Think the words your looking for is a "cable tidy"

Or get some small trunking from the local DIY merchant.

conduit christopher, and you call yourself a qualified electrician TSK!! thats the last time you build a motor home for me!!

can get hold of cable tidy/trunking etc from work

pain is when i get to a door cant have cable tidy/trunking then

its the only part i can get under the carpet

you sure you mean conduit

i get told off by the works electrition for asking for conduit (round flexable stuff)

when i mean trunkng (the square plastic stuff)

Pop down to your local Electrical Wholesaler and ask him for PVC Mini Trunking. Comes in a number of sizes: 16x10, 16x16 (popular), 16x25 (also popular), 16x40, 25x40 and so on. They are mainly in 3m lengths, but very easy to cut. You've also got a choice of self-sticky (good for Telephone, TV, Alarm, Networking, Speaker cables), or ones with pre-drilled holes on the bottom that you can use screws or capping nails with (better for Power cables). Plus you can get External, Internal and Flat elbows for them for a easy perfect finish.

When you're done it'll look great.

used trunking around the bottom of my room just above the skirting board and painted it the same colour as the wall. Works a treat.

We in the UK are living in the dark ages. In Germany they put bevelled skirting trunking around all their rooms instead of a skirting board. Then there's no problem making changes. They also use something similar at the back of their kitchen worktops (incased in timber) so they can move or add sockets and supplies as required. The systems they use in kitchens carry water and gas too in separate compartments with the isolator switches and valves handy so you can switch off the water/gas/electricity supplies to the kitchen at night.

My mate was having his lounge replastered, so he ran speaker and aerial cables in trunking, (and cat5!), which was plastered over. It's a bit extreme, but it looks great afterwards.

He's a bit of a techno-nutter, though -even his fish tank is on his home network.....!

Phil

the trunking of which you talk are known as YT1, YT2, YT3 etc and the sticky back stuff is SPF1, SPF2, SPF3 etc

I was going to suggest trunking, but I have also heard of skirting boards with built in tunnels that you can put cable in. This is the way I will eventually go I think. you think its bad now. Wait till everyones got their tv's half way up the wall.

We in the UK are living in the dark ages. In Germany they put bevelled skirting trunking around all their rooms instead of a skirting board. Then there's no problem making changes. They also use something similar at the back of their kitchen worktops (incased in timber) so they can move or add sockets and supplies as required. The systems they use in kitchens carry water and gas too in separate compartments with the isolator switches and valves handy so you can switch off the water/gas/electricity supplies to the kitchen at night.

As an ex-electrical wholesaler I can confirm that you can indeed purchase such wonders here in the uk, but due to expense most house builders dont bother!! it's not really all that more expensive than wood skirting or architraves (for round the door) either!!

Obviously if you need or dont mind your lounge being re-plastered that is by far the neatest way to run cables, chase out the walls then run the cables in conduit.

Or depending on the type of walls and insulation you have, you can run cables in the wall cavity, tricky if you dont know how though, I did this cos I used to fit satelite dishes/aerials/cctv/alarms etc too, you need some heavy chain to drop down the walls, someone to jiggle it, a good ear and something to fish it out with!!

Incidentaly we didn't call it 'yt1' etc, ours was called 'mt1' etc but a decent wholesaler will i'm sure, be able to overcome such difficulties

the only real trouble with skirting trunking is it tends to be a lot bigger and less pleasing to the eye then some skirting/achitrave

the trunking of which you talk are known as YT1, YT2, YT3 etc and the sticky back stuff is SPF1, SPF2, SPF3 etc

We use MT1, MT2, MT3 and for s/a CMT1, CMT2, CMT3 - marshall tuffex, good stuff :P

I used trunking in my room, far neater than 'cable tidy' or anything like that

when i was at home i had pretty much a wall of stuff, TV, dvd etc and also the computer. i put some proper 3compartment trunking on the wall with laods of sockets etc

couldn't see it and it worked a treat

the only real trouble with skirting trunking is it tends to be a lot bigger and less pleasing to the eye then some skirting/achitrave

Not if it's semi-recessed into the wall like in Germany.

I personally went to great lengths to create hiddens risers etc at home to avoid exposed cabling but then I was ripping the house apart at the time anyway. I hope to do a bit of home automation stuff in the future and will be going the X10 route to avoid cable routing issues.

ooohh, its different trunking you use i take it? as normal skirting trunking stuff is plastic and the lid goes pretty much all the way round.

tbh if i ever bought a house i would probably do all that before moving, makes so much more sense

The German stuff has a removeable front cover with clips to retain the cabling in each compartment. No top access necessary. Not as nice as skirting board but a good compromise.

Trouble is it's designed for their plug sockets so no use to us in the UK

Trouble is it's designed for their plug sockets so no use to us in the UK

It should be modular, in that you just fit whatever socket is necessary, wether german/uk or otherwise, as indeed you would need to fit more that just power sockets or it would defeat the object. i.e. coaxial sockets for tv/satellite, speaker sockets for surround sound, light switches etc.

I know it is available as I used to sell it! its not all bulky horribly designed stuff either, there are some nicely designed compact systems available for home use that do look just like normal skirting boards, they have one other major advantage over wooden skirting too - you never have to paint them!!!

I would guess that most of the sparks on here that have used it, have only ever fitted it in office/industrial environments where asthetics are second to function, if you ask your electrical wholesaler for the right catalogues you might be suprised at what is available, and indeed has been for many many years, just a shame none of it's promoted over here, as others have said - very popular on the continent!

the closest i can find is the Thorsman stuff but i saw some great stuff when i was over there

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