feeding wires from/to behind skirting

All, I am planning on running speaker cables behind the skirting when I rip up the carpet and lay laminate throughout our flat. However, I started thinking last night about how to get it in and out from behing the skirting ! I dont really want any big gaps between pieces, so what is the best way to do this ?? The cable will be going vertically up the wall from the point at which it comes out from behind the skirting. Would it be possible / look OK to cut a little square out of the top of the skirting for this ?? If I do, will the integrity of the skirting be effected, and will it effect the fitting to the wall ?

Also, along the same lines, if I run the cable behind the skirting it may well fall and lie in the expansion gap between laminate and wall. What are the chances that the laminate will expand the full 10mm and 'squash' the cable ??

All advice / help much appreciated - as always !

Neil.

Reply to
NC
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It is easier and neater to chase out a channel into the plaster.

It didn't when I did it!

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Hi Neil,

Are you taking the skirting off the wall first, lay the floor and then replace the skirting?

If that is the case then the job is easy - lay the floor lay the cable on top of the floor and then refit the skirting making any exit holes in it before you do.

If you are leaving the skirting intact then you will have a problem as you will have to try and feed the cable into any gap between the floor and skirting or try and notch the skirting but it will be almost impossible to bring the cable out from behind it.

See comments above

See comments above

Hope this helps

Brian

Reply to
Brian

Yes - although I will be ditching the current stuff and replacing with new.

This is my question - do I just drill a hole in the skirting, or make little 'notches' in the top face / bottom section where it joins the floor ?? Is skirting generally flush to the fall throughout its length / height, or can you buy skirting that has grooves in it already on the rear face that can be used for this purpose ??

See above - no probs.

Yep - getting there - just a quick question above ....

Reply to
NC

The former would be best. The latter better than chopping the skirting.

You can normally do this to a leasehold flat. Or did you mean you are renting?

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

This seems like a good reason to buy a router :-)

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Reply to
Andy Hall

Not snipped to make it easier to follow

NC wrote:

There is no need to buy "special" skirting although you can buy it with a bevel on the back to aid fitting in some conditions which will also help here to make things a bit easier. Or if you wish, you could but the bevel there yourself with just a hand plane.

It is very seldom that the render/plaster goes down to the floor (there is usually something like a 12mm gap with something like a 12 -15mm thickness of render & plaster) so you can fit your cable in into this gap and refit the skirting with no problem. If there is no gap at this level, just chase one out and it doesn't matter what it looks like as the skirting board wil hide any mess.

This also generally applies to Paramount and stud partitions where the board are kept up off the floor.

Now, to take the cable in and bring it out again, just cut small, vertical grooves in the back of the skirting wherever you want them (if you are burying the cable into the wall there is no need for this - just cut the groove in the wall), or if you prefer - drill the holes.

Or you could even do this in the wall and let the cables enter and exit at the top of the skirting filling in any excess gaps in the plaster with a bit of polyfilla and then decorate as normal.

As you can see there are several ways to do this job and I would suggest that you pick the way that "is right" for your situation and any mistakes are easily sorted out with a touch of polyfilla. ;-)

Hope this helps

Brian

Reply to
Brian

Yep - very much so. Thanks. I'll know more once I take the old skirting off and see if there is gap between the wall and floor.

Reply to
NC

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