Access holes in chipboard floors

[Bill]

Hi all.

Today I had to pull 8 runs of CAT5 under my lounge floor. The flooring is T&G chipboard that has had all the joints glued, therefore not possible to lift. I have in the past used large access holes made with a router and some inserts from Trend, but they are expensive, and more to the point I don't have any!

So, after a bit of thought, 20, maybe 30mSec. I used a small hole cutter, one of those with spring steel concentric blades that lock onto a round, grooved, back plate. This produce about a 2" dia hole with a

1.9" round disc of chipboard left over. Great I could now fish my pull cord from one end of the room to the other and through all the brick support walls and other obstructions. I had tried rodding it earlier but there were too many obstructions in the way. Cables attached to pull cord and away I went, yes I did pull a spare length of cord through for future use.

OK, how to fill the holes? In the past I would have screwed a short batten across, under the floor, and screwed the cut out disc back onto it. As I am exceedingly unlikely to want these holes again I came up with another idea.

This is what I am proud of and am thinking of patenting it!! (Not really)

There is a rather good glue, part of the Gorilla range that is basically a very low expansion foam, moisten one surface, apply a small amount of glue to the other surface and clamp. So, using the centre hole of my disc I screwed a small plate to the top of the disc, so that it didn't fall through the hole. Then applied glue all around the edge, moistened the hole and dropped the disc in, due to the plate it is flush to the floor. An hour later the glue had expanded, was shaved off with a sharp blade after removing the temporary plate, and all was done. It appears to be very strong and above all flush with the floor.

OK, someone else has probably already done this and I am the last to know, but I felt quite chuffed about it, certainly a cheap method anyway! :-) So, over to you, what have I done wrong and why is it doomed to failure and destroy the planet?

[John Rumm]

See the board access hole saw here:

the saw cuts a recess around the periphery of the hole ready for the galvanised plate to drop in.

Sounds like a decent solution, and unlike my way you don't end up with lots of spare chipboard cookies ;-)

[John]

I've used a socket template to mark a square on the floor and then cut the hole at a 45° ish angle using a multi tool. Being a natural pessimist, I also supported it with a piece of timber screwed to the underside.

[newshound]

+1

[Andy Burns]

Wait until someone wearing high heels comes to 'test' it ...

[Bill]

They have had 14.5 stone via a small block of wood on them as a test and are still in place. Admittedly I wasn't wearing my high heels at the time though. I'll try again on Saturday night :-)

On the more practical side, I did place them in areas that were protected by furniture and where they were unlikely to get a lot of pressure on them.

[F Murtz]

You can also glue a bit of wood that is the same width (so you can get it through the hole)but longer than the dia of the hole across the back of the hole with a screw in the centre to hold it up and after it dries, glue the round bit back in the hole on top

[Adam Funk]

Sounds good -- which Gorilla product?

[Adam Funk]

Don't put the photos on the wiki. ;-)

[JimK]

/ Sounds good -- which Gorilla product?/q

Istr there's only 3 'glues' & 1 is PVA based, 1 is a superglue so I reckon the Brown polyurethane 'gorilla glue'... (my choice of method too, tho I would probly have screwed a batten under the hole (with screws from above) before gluing the 'plug' in....)

Jim K

[Bill]

In message , JimK writes

Yes, it was the brown one,

I've fitted battens below floors before, but this time I was just after something quick and simple, it actually worked out better than I'd expected.

[JimK]

/I've fitted battens below floors before, but this time I was just after something quick and simple, it actually worked out better than I'd expected. /q

Sounds like it :-)

Another thought would be to cut with jigsaw? at an angle so the plug can't fall thru, then reglue with a plastic sheet & (to stop it sticking to) some thing heavy above the plug (& wider than the hole), then the expansive forc es of the foaming glue might make the plug 'automagically' flush with the o riginal floor in one hit? :-)

Jim K