After three and a half weeks the bedroom rebuild project is nearly complete. All plastering is done, all the wall paper is up, the electrical fittings all changed, the light rewired.
Quite impressed with the results, considering none of us have done any plastering before.
Anyway the carpet fitters are coming in on Tuesday as we decided to get decent one with decent underlay, as it will last years rather than a cheap one which will last five years.
Anyway the problem is before I had the aerial cable going from a booster in the middle room, into the back room in question. The cable then went under the carpet tot my TV, the room was a right mess so this did not matter. Now its all been done to a high standard (well as good as a bunch of clueless DIYers can get it!) the cable needs to be moved.
The obvious thing would be to put it under the floorboards, but I can;t get them up without cutting them so that is not an option.
So really I need to get rid of this wire completely
I live in a fairly high signal area, so my options are:-
1) Run the cable via the skirting along the entire room - messy and a last resort.
2) Get a new aerial fitted but as the window is PVC, getting the cable into the room will be tricky and expensive.
3) Using an indoor areal if I get an expensive one is it likely to work with free view?
4) Do without the TV/PVR. I would miss it, but as I use TV on demand a lot, it is not essential.
I am thinking an indoor antenna is the best way to go but are they good enough?
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Where is main aerial. Answers below assume it's on roof and that downlead enters loft.
Run cable through ceiling either from main fly lead or new aerial in loft (which will be better than an indoor job)?
If booster is needed re-site it to loft. powered from lighting circuit if no access to ring main?
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 16 Mar 13 at 13:23
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>> I am thinking an indoor antenna is the best way to go but are they
>> good enough?
>>
>>
In my experience no.
Rattle, why not under the boards? You need not be daunted at having to cut a few, if you've got the skills top do a decent DiY job on the plastering that will be a doddle.
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>> Rattle, why not under the boards? You need not be daunted at having to cut
>> a few, if you've got the skills to do a decent DIY job on the
>> plastering that will be a doddle.
I agree with RR. Nothing to be afraid of.
>> 2) Get a new aerial fitted but as the window is PVC, getting the cable into the room will be >> tricky and expensive.
Only you know the exact layout but an SDS drill will have a hole through a wall in a couple of minutes. That's the option I would usually go for.
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>> Only you know the exact layout but an SDS drill will have a hole through
>> a wall in a couple of minutes. That's the option I would usually go for.
Our main antenna routes into the lounge that way. Hole backfilled with sealant and drip cover with cable enters hole from below with u-bend and has a drip cover over it.
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I expect the OP knew already but if not, there is a special saw to facilitate cutting floorboards. It is the same size as a tenon saw but with a curved cutting edge, so you can "rock-and-cut" across a single board practically without damaging others.
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You could run the cable around the skirting but at floor level. The carpet and underlay would hide it. Terminate the cable with an aerial junction box near where you are going to site your TV.
I installed a satellite dish at the rear of the house. I fed the cable from the dish through the wall and terminated it to a socket with twin F connectors and routed the cable around the skirting board and pushed it down the side of the carpet so it was completely hidden. A decent carpet and underlay will be thick enough to conceal the wiring.
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I think this is what I will end up doing. There is no way of routing the cable via the loft, as the cable comes in through the front of the house.
I will think of something tomorrow anyway. All the wall edges will have furniture in front of it etc anyway.
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Have you thought of getting a new cable run from the aerial to this room. Probably cost about £40 (or just under) to have someone to do it for you.
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>> Anyway the carpet fitters are coming in on Tuesday as we decided to get decent
>> one with decent underlay, as it will last years rather than a cheap one which
>> will last five years.
>>
How have your parents taken the news you're not planning on leaving any time soon ? ;-)
>> I am thinking an indoor antenna is the best way to go but are they
>> good enough?
>>
We use an indoor antenna to receive the equivalent to freesat here in Germany. It has a built in booster and no issues with signal strength. They're ugly though, I would find a way of running a cable as has been suggested by others.
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Indoor aerial may be worth a punt, they turned the power up on most main transmitters at least when DSO was complete, so indoor aerials are usable (if seldom ideal) in many places they weren't before.
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I guess I won't have anything to loose by trying an indoor one if I can take it back if it is no good.
Do it properly there would need to be a new booster in the loft, with the power taken from a spur of the lighting circuit and a new hole drilled into the wall to get the cable in there.
A lot of faff for something which will be soon antiqued, TV is moving towards online and I think it won't be long before you can get a true TV broadcast experience via the web.
I will sleep on it though before making any decision.
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go from the hall way into loft and back down in corner near your tv
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You can buy clip on plastic skirting board with a hollow back to route cables in.
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Yes and if your house is period/period style then new pine skirting board is often supplied with one profile on the face and another on the reverse for choice. Whichever moulding you put to the reverse will have a channel that nicely takes hi-fi or TV cabling. Done that here in places because I hate visible cables.
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In the end I just clipped the cable above the beeding on the skirting board. It looks ok as it is neat, and 90% of the wall space is going to covered with clutter anyway.
Carpet was fitted this morning, off to richersounds during a lunch break to pick up some speaker stands, bed is arriving tomorrow and then its all done. It has only taken a month.
Now I don't want to see any plasterboard, 1.5mm T&E, wallpaper or my Dewalt for a few months but something tells me I won't be able to hang up my toolboxes just yet.
I feel a bit lost now as I spend most the past on projects including kititng out my office, decorating other rooms, then the building work in my bedroom. I think the next job is the kitchen now I know how to dywall but I need a hot sunny place to spend a week in first!
A lesson learnt from this though is I should have sorted out the cabling issues before putting the wall paper up but the arial really was just an after thought. None of the job was really planned, it started out with a simple decorating job, but it ended up with half the walls going back to brick.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 19 Mar 13 at 12:44
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>> None of the job was really planned, it started out with a simple decorating job,
>> but it ended up with half the walls going back to brick.
>>
The skills learnt and knowledge gained will last you a lifetime Rattle, so it was a job worth the effort. Most of what I know on the DiY front comes from carrying out distress repairs.
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Yeah. I must admit it is very handy knowing how to drywall. A lot of jobs have been put off with the worry of not been able to afford the £1k to get a room replastered.
Learnt a lot from kitting out my office as the bench etc was all made from scratch. I will never professional but my aim is to do DIY to best I can. I think I have found a new patience which I never had when I was younger.
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TV antenna cable routing problem - Bromptonaut
