Skirting boards and cable management

[jimmytheone]

Hi all,

We're 90% of the way through a house rebuild and i want to manage cables in a TV room - The HDMI's and power are already chased but i'm talking here about the speaker cables for a 5.1 PLUS hifi speaker cable.

Ideally some combined skirting / conduit so i can access it again - a lot of the ones i've found have a rebate behind the board for permanently burying your cables but i want to be able to access them again so was thinking of some with a pop off cover - any ideas?

I've found a few at D-line but its an add-on to skirting boards, i was hoping to find some like this 65mm high but bigger - 120mm to match the other skirtings in the house.



I've found a few on amazon but are either wrong size or look a bit commercial
eg



Can anyone suggest some other suppliers or solutions?
120mm high
Accessible for future speaker wire upgrades

TIA

[Cristio Nasser]

Wireless surround speaker solutions are pretty good these days. Either a wireless amp connected to your existing speakers, or fully standalone wireless speakers that just need power.

[LooneyTunes]

Add some additional chases and put conduit in them to draw/re-draw cables through when needed.

We've done that in both our self build and recent conversion (in the former we went as far as plasterboarding over the backboxes until access is needed, at which point a faceplate can go on).

[jimmytheone]

LooneyTunes said:

Add some additional chases and put conduit in them to draw/re-draw cables through when needed.

We've done that in both our self build and recent conversion (in the former we went as far as plasterboarding over the backboxes until access is needed, at which point a faceplate can go on).

Plastering has been done now (grimace face).

My other thought was to buy some billy basic square section trunking, fitting those at the base then cut down the skirting to sit above it so the total height is as required. but those are some long cuts!

[Turn7]

Cristio Nasser said:

Wireless surround speaker solutions are pretty good these days. Either a wireless amp connected to your existing speakers, or fully standalone wireless speakers that just need power.

Slightly OT, but could I convert my NAD amp and B&W wired speakers to fully wireless ?

[.:ian:.]

If you are OK with it sticking out further from the wall like the example above, get your skirting of choice and stick some 5mm or so battens along the length to create a void and use a drawstring to pull the cable through. You can either then use that cable to pull any updated cable through or pull a second drawstring through with the first cable.

[omniflow]

jimmytheone said:

Hi all,

We're 90% of the way through a house rebuild and i want to manage cables in a TV room - The HDMI's and power are already chased but i'm talking here about the speaker cables for a 5.1 PLUS hifi speaker cable.

Ideally some combined skirting / conduit so i can access it again - a lot of the ones i've found have a rebate behind the board for permanently burying your cables but i want to be able to access them again so was thinking of some with a pop off cover - any ideas?

I've found a few at D-line but its an add-on to skirting boards, i was hoping to find some like this 65mm high but bigger - 120mm to match the other skirtings in the house.



120mm high
Accessible for future speaker wire upgrades

TIA

Why not use this one and put a 55mm piece of wood underneath to raise it. A thin bead of flexible filler smoothed down and a couple of coats of paint and you're sorted. Well - maybe sorted - you'll need to take a closer look at the bottom of that skirting and see how the cover finishes at the bottom.

[AmyRichardson]

The good looking stuff isn't accessible and the the accessible stuff looks a bit rubbish.

If you don't mind exposed fixings then you could rout a cable channel near the bottom of the room-side face and close it with a thin run of (say, 40x10 bullnose) architrave. With the right fixings - carefully/uniformly countersunk, in cups or similar it wouldn't look too awful...

[andyxxx]

It would be a fairly simple job to rout out a groove (perhaps 10mm deep x 30mm high) along the length of new wooden skirting board –you can then purchase the same board that matches the rest of your house.

Add draw string before it is fixed to your walls.

[jimmytheone]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

AmyRichardson said:

The good looking stuff isn't accessible and the the accessible stuff looks a bit rubbish.

So true!
My builder has scorned the industrial look that useful trunking would provide and i think he's right.

AmyRichardson said:

If you don't mind exposed fixings then you could rout a cable channel near the bottom of the room-side face and close it with a thin run of (say, 40x10 bullnose) architrave. With the right fixings - carefully/uniformly countersunk, in cups or similar it wouldn't look too awful...

Interesting, so get the same skirting, route out the face then enclose? Maybe magnetic fixings to hold it on?

.:ian:. said:

If you are OK with it sticking out further from the wall like the example above, get your skirting of choice and stick some 5mm or so battens along the length to create a void and use a drawstring to pull the cable through. You can either then use that cable to pull any updated cable through or pull a second drawstring through with the first cable.

As above but on the reverse. I like this as there's less finishing to do.
Potentially 2 AV speaker wires and 1 Hi Fi speaker per side is going to need at least 10mm, i'd have thought, the top pic has a cavity of 9mm x30mm.

[jimmytheone]

omniflow said:

jimmytheone said:

Hi all,

We're 90% of the way through a house rebuild and i want to manage cables in a TV room - The HDMI's and power are already chased but i'm talking here about the speaker cables for a 5.1 PLUS hifi speaker cable.

Ideally some combined skirting / conduit so i can access it again - a lot of the ones i've found have a rebate behind the board for permanently burying your cables but i want to be able to access them again so was thinking of some with a pop off cover - any ideas?

I've found a few at D-line but its an add-on to skirting boards, i was hoping to find some like this 65mm high but bigger - 120mm to match the other skirtings in the house.



120mm high
Accessible for future speaker wire upgrades

TIA

Why not use this one and put a 55mm piece of wood underneath to raise it. A thin bead of flexible filler smoothed down and a couple of coats of paint and you're sorted. Well - maybe sorted - you'll need to take a closer look at the bottom of that skirting and see how the cover finishes at the bottom.

Talked to the builder today about this, he thought getting 55mm MDF cut into strips would be challenging. And then there's the finishing again but i might be able to live with that,

andyxxx said:

It would be a fairly simple job to rout out a groove (perhaps 10mm deep x 30mm high) along the length of new wooden skirting board –you can then purchase the same board that matches the rest of your house.

Add draw string before it is fixed to your walls.

And this is nearly the simplest. There's loads of ready-rebated boards for sale and maybe i'm kidding myself that i'm going to change speaker wire every other week!
Maybe its an excuse to upgrade in advance, "future proofing"

[jimmytheone]

andyxxx said:

It would be a fairly simple job to rout out a groove (perhaps 10mm deep x 30mm high) along the length of new wooden skirting board –you can then purchase the same board that matches the rest of your house.

Add draw string before it is fixed to your walls.

Do pull throughs work around corners?

[paralla]

Flat speaker cable might work for you

https://amzn.eu/d/gNyqkTN

[andyxxx]

jimmytheone said:

andyxxx said:

It would be a fairly simple job to rout out a groove (perhaps 10mm deep x 30mm high) along the length of new wooden skirting board –you can then purchase the same board that matches the rest of your house.

Add draw string before it is fixed to your walls.

Do pull throughs work around corners?

I have never done it but I don’t see why not.

The builder/joiner will be able to round the inside of the corner slightly and also notch out a bit of plaster at the same height as the routed chanel on the board.

Speaker cable is fairly thin and Polyester Blind Cord to draw it through is very strong

[Griffith4ever]

paralla said:

Flat speaker cable might work for you

https://amzn.eu/d/gNyqkTN

Works for us, and after week 1 you never look again.