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[Gaffers]

I will be moving in to my new place shortly and one of the first jobs I have is to network the house using a Cisco switch.  This will mean fitting wires around the house behind the plasterboard walls.

Doing this in the upstairs rooms will be fairly straight forward I believe as the gap will be accessible from the loft.  My question is, will that gap continue all the way down to the ground floor or will I have to break the plasterboard to fit the conduits through a floor/barriers?

[Marks DTM Calib]

My experience is that if the construction utilises a dob n dab plasterboard approach then you can feed such signal wires down behind the plasterboard on both floors.

As for a continuous gap, the answer is no, a partition wall is constructed after the first floor flooring is laid and hence it is not a continuous void.

You would have to lift boards on the first floor in order to deploy wires through to the ground floor.

Also be aware that there is likely to be some ground floor walls that are supporting (again i dob n  dab you cna feed wires in between the block/brick and plasteroard)

[redelitev6]

You'll probably find there will "noggins" in the plasterboard wall and the wall will have been built on top of the flooring , so you will probably have to "stitch" the cables through holes drilled everywhere, is there not an internal service duct you could feed the cables through?   

[I_want_an_Omega]

A couple of points here Guffer ......

The way that plasterboard/stud walls are constructed is that there will be horizontal braces fitted between the verticals. I think these are called "noggins" and there should be a couple of these within the height of the wall. They wont be in line with each other - but staggered to give extra strength. That means that any cable dropped from above will meet a Noggin within a couple of foot from the top.

All the upstairs stud walls I've seen have been built on top of the floor - that means that apart from the lower 4" x 2" of the wall frame there will then be the floor/ceiling before the lower wall starts.

I'm not in the trade, but have run lots of cables around houses - both as add ons and in new build where I had access to the inside of the stud wall prior to the plasterboard being fitted.

Another technique see's plasterboard bonded to a solid wall using dabs of material - this leaves a gap of about 1cm which can then be used for cables - with a bit of luck of course. Also hoping that nobody then hangs a picture and pierces the cable with a nail!

No easy answer I'm afraid as each installation will have its own foibles to contend with 

Good luck with the project ........

[Gaffers]

I don't think it is dob n dab as the walls sound hollow when tapped and I do remember seeing through the window vertical braces being installed during the building process.

I hadn't thought about the 'noggins' and that is a fair point.  In the kitchen I can hopefully use the conduit that leads to a telephone socket (not the master so no issues there)  In the living room though we are going to be putting hte TV and media stuff on a wall which has just a power socket, so I will likely have to run an arial feed as well.

I am guessing for that it will mean taking a vertical slice of the plasterboard off, drilling all the holes required in the noggins and the ceiling/floor above and doing the same on the floor above to get it to the loft.....eugh

[Marks DTM Calib]

A lot of modern build dont use wood for the partition constrcution (depends on the builder of course), they often use metal, these dont have the noggins but you will encounter a pressed metal plate you have to drill through first.

Also, following more recent building reg updates with respect to noise attenuation, you may also encounter insulation in the partitions to.

[Gaffers]

hmmm good point.  I think this is a job best done on a weekend when the missus is away 

[aaronjb]

hmmm good point.  I think this is a job best done on a weekend when the missus is away 

Take my approach.. just staple the big grey cable to the wall surface and say it's only temporary.. two years ago 

[Gaffers]

hmmm good point.  I think this is a job best done on a weekend when the missus is away 

Take my approach.. just staple the big grey cable to the wall surface and say it's only temporary.. two years ago 

I would but each socket is going to have 4 ethernet cables.  The missus will be pretty upset with that 

[Kevin Wood]

The easiest solution will be to slip the builders £20 and give them a couple of rolls of CAT5 to install when they buil..

Never mind. 

[Gaffers]

The easiest solution will be to slip the builders £20 and give them a couple of rolls of CAT5 to install when they buil..

Never mind. 

They weren't open to that or a whole load of other small requests such as the carpet underlay, putting in a conduit for VirginMedia, etc, etc

[Kevin Wood]

Some friends of ours had a house built about 10 years ago and had the option of 2 CAT5 sockets in each room, brought back to a central patch panel, instead of a phone extension in each room.

[Gaffers]

I dont know why developers arent offering more of it, it makes a lot of sense these days

[Marks DTM Calib]

I dont know why developers arent offering more of it, it makes a lot of sense these days

Quite simple 99.9% of people will use wifi.

Do you feel 'special' 

[aaronjb]

I dont know why developers arent offering more of it, it makes a lot of sense these days

Quite simple 99.9% of people will use wifi.

Do you feel 'special' 

And when they do offer it, they usually do it wrong.. friend of mine moved into a new development that was 'flood wired' back to the 'utility cupboard' and couldn't figure out why one pair of ports didn't work..

Yes, that would be because, when you opened up an inconspicuous looking junction box, the pairs in the CAT5e were all joined together with a chocolate block..

(One of these, for anyone unfamiliar with 'choc block' - http://www.autosportlabs.org/files/choc_block_214.jpg )