Burying Cable in a Solid Wall (TV Installation)

[Deactivated] on 19/12/2015 - 22:50

Hi guys, quick question.

I own a period federation home that Im currently renovating. I want to wall mount my TV above the fire place, and that involves burying the cables. Previously when I have buried cable it has been easy, because more modern houses have wall cavities, but this house has no cavity, its 115 year old bog plaster on brick. When I ethernet cabled the house, the electrician used a mutli tool to make a channel in the plaster/bricks, then ran the cable and we plastered over it. But With the TV, I want to bury not only an ethernet cable, but 3 HDMI cables and a 240V power cable. The cable also wont run in a straight line, it will need to span about 1.5 metres, and will need to move around the curve of the fire place, (so 0.7 metres on one wall, then perpendicular away from that wall for 0.3 metres, then 0.5 metres parallel to the original wall, which is the face of the fire place). Im thinking of running a conduit (as flat as possible) in the mortar between bricks, then plastering over it. Are there any dangers to this? Legal issues? I can get the electrician in to finish the job and certify it, but I would like to get a head start and dig the channels before hand, so I need to know If Im barking up the wrong tree.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • outlander on 19/12/2015 - 23:21
    +1

    Its called wall chasing, and you don't need to run conduit for it according to electrical rules for power at least.

    • [Deactivated] on 19/12/2015 - 23:25

      Awesome, so I can just bury the cables in the mortar? Im just going to be using a 5 metre IEC cable for the TV, burying that is fine I gather? I guess conduit might make replacing a dicky HDMI cable down the road easier though (I've had a few of those cark it).

      • outlander on 19/12/2015 - 23:41

        Thats true enough, but how are you going to pull through another hdmi cable through a conduit which already has several cables in it? Its never as easy as you think haha I would know.

        What you want to do is run everything to a wall plate behind the tv. That way, the hdmi cable stays inside the wall, and isn't as likely to get damage. Something like this http://www.jamellcables.com.au/images/detailed/1/wp-004.jpg

        • [Deactivated] on 19/12/2015 - 23:45

          Ideally I'd love to do something like that but I don't think I will be able to go deep enough into the fire place to have the cables turn right angle to connect at the back

        • outlander on 20/12/2015 - 12:01

          @thorton82:

          You can chisel out part or all of the brick. Alternatively you can buy right angle connectors

  • ESEMCE on 20/12/2015 - 00:26
    +3

    I am not an electrician or data cabler..

    You'll likely need 2 trenches.. with 30cm (or more) separation.
    One trench for Power, the other trench for data/HDMI.
    I'm 99% sure it's illegal to run power and data cables in parallel with no separation due to induced current in the data cable leading to potential electric shock.

    For HDMI, have you considered using HDMI over Ethernet?
    It's a legit thing, requires 2x cat6 cables I believe.
    then it can terminate in a neat HDMI wall plate.

    I'd also consider buying a HDMI Receiver. Then you'll only need 1 HDMI cable to the TV.
    The receiver does the switching between sources.

    For power, I highly doubt that it'll be legal to embed an IEC cable.
    I suspect, you'll need electrical wire to a Power point.
    I also suspect that you'll need to run the power directly vertical or directly horizontal.. no chopping and changing direction or going diagonally.
    Cause otherwise there's a risk of someone drilling through the wire in the future with no reason to believe that there's any danger.
    You'll also want to have good records of where the Electrical wire goes for any future work that you or someone else might perform.
    Why can't you run power from the roof straight down to where you want it?
    If the fireplace is unused, you could also just drill straight through into the flue and run your cables there.

    Finally,
    Don't mount too high..
    Nothing worse than sitting front row in the cinema, with a crick in your neck from having to look up from your sitting position, but at least it's only for a few hours of a single day, not every day..

    And do you use the fireplace?
    If so, does it get hot where you plan to mount the TV?
    If so, then your TV will be short lived…

  • Euphemistic on 20/12/2015 - 09:36

    If you run it in conduit you will have the opportunity to replace, repair, upgrade cables when something changes. Direct in the wall means next time you want something extra you need to dig up the wall again.

  • captobvious on 20/12/2015 - 13:45

    Do you have floorboards?
    chase the cables down, run them under the boards

    • [Deactivated] on 20/12/2015 - 14:02

      And that will connect to the TV mounted on the fireplace how exactly? I just need a straight line across the wall from the AV centre to the tv

      • captobvious on 20/12/2015 - 14:06

        nah don't do that, your TV wont last long. hot air rises, TV needs cooling. I assume you will be mounting smack on the wall.

        Best suggestion would be do build it in around the fireplace, make sure there is a cavity behind the cabinet work and you can get the sparkie to run as many cables as you need. And this will add value to your property.

        • [Deactivated] on 20/12/2015 - 15:09

          Yeah I live in a Victorian house, Im not building an American style entertainment hub, Im going to conceal the cables in my wall as per my original idea, so that the original features are preserved as much as possible.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/12/2015 - 14:03

    Thanks for some of the suggestions here, I think I'll get my electrician to have a look in the new year

  • [Deactivated] on 27/02/2016 - 16:06
    Merged from Wiring for Wall Mounted TV (Laws?)

    Hey guys, I own a period house which has no cavity in the walls, its just brick then about 1-1.5cms of plaster on top. I am mounting my television above a non functioning fire place, and intend to carve out channels for my HDMI cables (bought flat ones), tv aerial and ethernet. Ideally I would like to run conduit, but that would leave little to no room to plaster back over, so Its likely that I will just mount these cables onto the wall, then plaster them over, leaving about a meter of play at either end. The cable will wrap around the fire place mantle, then make a turn from horizontal to vertical and the wires will travel about 2 metres down to about 40cms above ground level, where I will use multiple face plates to exit the hdmi, aerial, and ethernet. The question I have is with mounting the power cable. I would prefer to to get a contracter in for an easy job like this, but Im not sure the legality of the situation. The television uses an IEC C-7 cable type, which Ideally I would like to get a 7 metre span of, and mount it in the plaster in the same way as the HDMI and ethernet cables. But I fear that legislation will say otherwise. Will I need to mount this in conduit (very difficult, but maybe not impossible, the real problem is turning corners), or will I need to get an electrical power point somehow mounted in the solid brick, with more heavy duty cabling feeding it?

    • [Deactivated] on 27/02/2016 - 16:28
      -1

      Use a Tesla wireless electricity device.

    • Findo on 27/02/2016 - 17:06

      Can you run an extension cord and have conduit piping on the outside for that?

      • [Deactivated] on 27/02/2016 - 18:06

        No I want the cables buried. Conduit looks tacky.

    • iratepirate on 27/02/2016 - 17:11

      Just pay a sparkie to install a power point behind the TV for you. I don't doubt that you could do it yourself, but your insurance may be void if it is not done by a pro. Is the other side of the wall internal or external?

      • [Deactivated] on 27/02/2016 - 18:08

        The other side of the wall is over a meter away, it's a fireplace. I know the electrician can do it, but I really want to do it myself and want to now the laws. Thanks for merging this with the last thread, I forgot I put this one here.

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