Should I place cable duct on top of moulding or along the floor?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Should I place cable duct on top of moulding or along the floor?

Kookoo

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#318032 8-Dec-2024 21:15

I've got a few meters of D-shaped cable duct from Bunnings, like this one here D-Line cable duct that I'm planning to use to route/conceal audio and Ethernet cables in the lounge.

The lounge is a standard affair - black carpeted floor and white moulding.

Question - should I place the duct on the wall, on top of the moulding, or along the floor glued to the moulding itself?

Basically:

Hello, Ground!

coffeebaron

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#3318197 8-Dec-2024 21:24

I typically will do A

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kingdragonfly

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#3318211 8-Dec-2024 22:28

I'd do the one that does the least damage. Is the molding wood? If so, I'd adhere to that.

If you own, there's also the option of removing the molding, put quite a few pull strings / fish tape / wire snakes, and use a junction box with a Keystone plate / keystone jacks. Just don't place any electrical wires in it.

Alternatively you can go wireless, even with HDMI connections. I have a rock solid wireless hdmi transmitter receiver from ebay which cost $nzd 55 delivered.

This video talks about an electrical connection, but again just use about 5 pull strings / fish tape / wire snakes. between source and destination.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3318212 8-Dec-2024 22:40

A will be lower damage as furniture and anything else will be pushed into the skirting, rather than pinching the cable/duct between the skirting and furniture or other object.

Gib is often used for bracing in which case it needs to be fixed around all sides. Cutting away a few inches at the bottom reduces the rigidity quite a bit.

neb

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#3318402 9-Dec-2024 13:49

Is there any way you can get under the floor or into the roof space if it's a single-story house? Just making sure all the bases are covered because running cabling outside the wall space would kinda be my last resort option.

kingdragonfly

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#3318422 9-Dec-2024 15:44

SomeoneSomewhere:
A will be lower damage as furniture and anything else will be pushed into the skirting, rather than pinching the cable/duct between the skirting and furniture or other object.

Gib is often used for bracing in which case it needs to be fixed around all sides. Cutting away a few inches at the bottom reduces the rigidity quite a bit.

In New Zealand, Gib screws or nails should be spaced at 300 mm apart along intermediate framing, and around the perimeter of the sheets, fasteners should be spaced at 200 mm apart.

For fire-rated or bracing systems, spacing requirements may be stricter.

It's not like the Gib is attached to the floor, so I don't think it would lose that much rigidity.

Honestly I never used the technique shown in the video, and always used under-floor cabling.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3318425 9-Dec-2024 15:54

It's attached to the bottom plate, which is attached to the floor. Removing that connection significantly reduces rigidity, and also makes it much easier to break the gib along the now-unsupported bottom edge.

In most modern NZ houses, at least some of the gib is doing bracing duty. In low-rise apartments, it's nearly every wall, and there's no penetrations at all in IIRC the outer 100mm of a bracing rectangle (floor to ceiling, often doorway to corner).

We often had serious issues finding enough wall space to fit switchboards and network cabinets, and had to move light switches out an extra ~45mm from doorways to clear the critical area.

Most other countries don't have this problem because the bracing is provided by plywood or strandboard sheathing.

k1w1k1d

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#3318430 9-Dec-2024 16:06

Is the floor wood or concrete?

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kingdragonfly

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#3318516 9-Dec-2024 19:35

Unrelated, but I was asked about the HDMI transmitter receiver I used. It wasn't on eBay, but AliExpress.

It looks like all the Unnlink models are limited to 1080p. I saw a review on Youtube and it mentioned the version 2 was more stable than version 1.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006247706602.html

Here's an alternate I have not tried, that does 4K

beddy

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#3318805 10-Dec-2024 15:07

A is what I did with mine.