How to install Cat5 cabling into existing stud walls?

[abuse]

Hi all,

I am in the process of buying a bungalow, and want to install two or more Cat5 ports into each room (and no, wireless ethernet alone won't do because I want to run A/V over it - see avnex.co.uk - as well as POTS and ethernet).

What's the best way of getting the Cat5 into the walls? I can get into the ceiling easily enough. Any ideas? Best to just run the cable down the wall and ignore it? Dig a narrow channel (not all the way through the board) into the plasterboard and plaster over it? Suggestions?

Thanks, Zane.

[brugnospamsia]

This came up on here last month. Always worth googling first :-)

[Rob Morley]

Run as much as you can under floorboards or through the roof space, then up or down inside the wall to the sockets - you'll probably have to hack out a bit of plasterboard top and bottom so you can get behind it, and over any noggins that get in the way (you can groove the noggin to run the cable past it) then make good afterwards. Remember not to run the Cat5 close and parallel to any power cables, and avoid fluorescent fittings too. While you're doing it you might as well fit more runs of Cat5 than you think you'll need, and always leave some extra length in the cavity in case you need to replace sockets at some point.

[The Natural Philosopher]

In general with stids you can go a long way beteen plasterboard holes with a coat hangfer, and drag wires around that way. The odd hole drilled through a noggin may be necessasary as well,.

But lasterboard is easy to repair - glue a new bit in a little below the surface and skim and sand level, then paint...