I'm planning on running my speaker cables under the house. The house is up on poles, so it's easy to get under there. I'm running 3 pairs of cables (for my rears, dining room and outdoor speakers) and while I'm at it I'll probably take some cat5e from the study to the lounge (for my PS3). Is it recommended to run them through some kind of conduit? I was intending to put it through some PVC pipe and attach that under the house rather than fixing the cable directly to the beams (which seems to be the case with the existing electrical/telephone cables). I guess my concern is that the jacket might not be intended for exterier use? I am using this. I went to Bunnings and 32mm PVC pipe costs $10/m, I don't really want to spend that kind of money! I probably need 15m or so, then there's all the connectors, elbows etc. Can I just loosely clip the cable to the beams?
Also, I wanted to run the cables inside the wall, but that's not really feasible because the wall has a textured plaster finish which I think will be difficult to repair. As such, I'm just going to run the cable up the corners of the room/against the door frames as a temporary measure until I come to replaster (shame the cable is silvery black, but oh well...). Can I just drill a big (and/or little) hole in the floorboards and pull the cable through? Particularly where all the cables leave the lounge, firstly the TV is on a "decorative" brick wall that used to be for the fire that I intend to remove a brick from to access the garage behind, then the garage floor will need a sizeable hole (7 cables, 8.5mm cables, tightly packed = 25mm+ so it's not super tight) and there'll be a few gaps in the spaces between the cables which the wife is not too thrilled about (creepy crawlies/drafts etc). What are the better options here?
Finally, on the deck, again I intend to run the cable up the wall because it's easier than getting it under the cladding (i'll probably put it in some conduit and paint to be less conspicuous). Then I intend to run it inside the soffit to the speakers which will be mounted under the eaves. To enable this (and for other reasons) I thought I would install some downlights in the soffit. The holes I cut for them will make it easier to pull the speaker cables through and also I need more light for the deck anyhow. Do I need an electrician to run the mains for the lights? Any other considerations?
Otherwise, is anyone an electrician that would like to come and quote for the job so that it can be done quicker and better than I will do it myself?