Re: Starting a new flood wiring project

[Robert Chasmer <robert.chasmer@xxxxxxx>]

> From: Dan Khan [mailto:dhk@xxxxxxx]
> Looking at my floor construction upstairs it looks like large pieces
> of chipboard that are tongued and grooved together.

[warning long message]

Well most of the structured cabling I've laid has revolved around a
mixture of lifting floor boards in key locations, and in one case,
cutting serious channels in the walls in the lounge to install conduit
to run cable from the ceiling/floor upstairs, to sockets in the wall.
I was installing halogen lighting at the time, so I had little choice
but to get the floor up upstairs.

By the way.....

I loved someones posting about the anglegrinder.  I cut channels in
the wallw using a big anglegrinder, cause it was cheaper to rent than
a proper wall chaser.  When I did it the house was empty cause we'd
just moved in.  At one point my neighbours thought the house was on
fire there was that much smoke pouring out the winders.
The thought of doing that with the sofa etc in the room made me
chuckle.

Anyway back to the floor.

To start with you'll probably not know which way the beams go.  I
wanted to cut the floor neatly so that I could be screwed back down
with enough of the floor resting completly on the beams.  This is
quite a bit of work at first but pays of, and saves you needing to
replace the boards.

x J x        J        x J x
_____________________
:        :   :        :
:        :   :        :
:        :   :        :
: cut-out floor board :
:        :   :        :
:        :   :        :
_:________:___:________:_

x J x        J        x J x

* To investigate I started off by destroying a small bit of flooring
with the help of a drill and jigsaw.  This is NOT the way to do
things as you'll be worring about mains and piping under the floor.
However at the end of this I knew roughly the dimentions of the
beams etc.

* Next I used a small drill and to locate where the joists start
and end (X's on the ascii art above).
* Mark up the floor so that you cut in the middle of the joists
as shown by the diagram
* Then using a ciruclar saw, adjusted to just the right depth for
the flooring set about cutting the wood.
* Next problem is the nails used to hold the floor down.  With the
help of a grinder cut the heads of the nails.  The floor will come
up with a bit of leverage fairly easily.

I had to repeat this in a long line as the beams were running across
the direction I wanted to run some of the cables.  I had to lift a
section of flooring up in a neat line so that I could drill holes
in the beams, to run the cables.  For others I could just poke them
with bendy conduit along the beams from room to room.

I did worry about cutting holes but there very small in comparison
to the size of the beams.  Also holes were already evident from the
install of the heating and electrics.

To replace the floor, screw the boards down, with lots of screws.
They won't squeek or creak anymore (mine did before any of the work)
You'll also be able to get the floor back up if you need to.  I also
cut the carpet gripper rods so that they don't need to be touched
again.


> Also, it looks like they probably run under the walls too.
> Anyone got any solutions or solved similar problems?

I decided to leave the floor under the wall alone.  I cut the floor
in a doorway instead, using the approach above, this allowed me to
drill some more holes.  I found that three beams are all together
inbetween one of my walls.

End result, retro fitting cables in my floor isn't to-hard any more.
It was a LOT of work to begin with though.  I think it paid of.
I just clear some of the room, lift some carpet, unscrew the floor
and lift the boards.


Rob

P.S. I'm mostly a lurker on this group.  It takes me weeks just to
clear the backlog of postings.  For the location thingy,
I live in Witham, Essex.

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