Running cables across a room- no longer

[OG]

We're planning on replacing the carpet in our main living room with some of that engineered wood flooring. At present we have the Hi-Fi unit on the opposite side of the room to the speakers,so we have 'flat profile' speaker cable running across the room close to one of the end walls. I'm happy to do this because we could leave a slight gap in the foam underlay to allow for the depth of the cables, but it seems we won't be able to do the same when we replace carpet + underlay with the wood flooring. What's the usual approach?

Take cables etc up the walls and over at ceiling level? Chase into the floor, and sink cables into trunking there? Move the speakers onto the other side of the room?

[Lobster]

Either (a) or (b); or if you can't be arsed, then (c)! (I take it from the word "chase" that you have a solid floor, so you can't run cables under floorboards?

David

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Forget the speakers and get some cordless headphones. Seriously. Wood floors will make the system sound horrid after carpet.

[meow2222]

The slight gap round the edge under the skirting is a good place to fit thin cable.

Another option is to use enamelled copper wire. This is almost no bigger than the bare copper. And you can fit it in almost anywhere, even in wood joints! The insulation is less than brilliant, so you'd need to route the 2 cores separately for total reliability. Putting this on the floor and putting the wood on top is an option.

But I'd go with flex under the skirting if poss, as its more reliable than enam cu in the floor itself.

If you put more cable in you can use it for phone etc later.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

I'd chase into the floor, although most laminates have a foam underlay too..its just somewhat thinner.

[Steve Walker]

I've tended to use the light fibrous 6mm insulation sheet under laminate, rather than the 2mm foam. The sheets allow more flexibilty for uneveness, and a space can be made for small cables (cat5 in our house).