Hiding Wiring

[JayBird]

I'm looking at doing some modifications to a house that has old style wiring, where the wires are visible ON the wall (as opposed to embedded in the wall).

 

How difficult a task is it to 'hide' all the wiring in the walls (such that only outlets are visible in appropriate places).

 

Note, I know nothing about how to do this, and would be employing someone to do it.  Just curious how much effort and cost I can expect.

 

 

Thank you.

[VocalNeal]

Where i am currently the switches and sockets are embedded but the wiring is surface. Go figure.

[CharlieH]

Very labor intensive and extremely messy chiselling channels and then of course skimming/ covering it and redecorating.

[vogie]

2 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Very labor intensive and extremely messy chiselling channels and then of course skimming/ covering it and redecorating.

Arn't most walls built with double breeze block and have a cavity wall where wires can be fed down from the loft or where-ever.

 

[Crossy]

Yeah, it's a horrible job if not done when the place was built.

 

What might be practical is to run the wiring on the other side of the wall (in a less critical room) then go straight through to your switch / outlet or whatever.

 

Unless you are doing a complete refurbishment of your place I'd be tempted to just paint over the wiring ????

 

 

[CharlieH]

If its plug sockets at low  level, consider one drop in a corner surface mounted and then cover that, with, the horizontal to multi points will be easier than vertical drops to each.

[VocalNeal]

5 minutes ago, Crossy said:

What might be practical is to run the wiring on the other side of the wall

This is quite clever as, who cares about the outside? 

[2long]

Are you referring to the mains wiring from the fuse box to your sockets, or from sockets to appliances?

Our house is 10 years old, so the main wiring is all hidden. I then hide the wires from sockets to appliances by buying the super cheap long plastic things which stick on the wall.

Like you, I hate exposed electrical wires. Thais don't seem to worry, but there must be a market for these long plastic sticky tunnel things I'm referring to.

Trouble is, hardware stores are closed. ????????

[Crossy]

7 minutes ago, vogie said:

Arn't most walls built with double breeze block and have a cavity wall where wires can be fed down from the loft or where-ever.

 

Very few cavity walls here unless the house was built by a farang and even then not always. 

[scorecard]

1 minute ago, CharlieH said:

Very labor intensive and extremely messy chiselling channels and then of course skimming/ covering it and redecorating.

Agree, and part of the labour intensive is filling the channels and making them smooth and totally blended into the wall so after painting etc., they can't be noticed, otherwise it looks awful. This needs experienced workers.

 

My son bought a house some years back in a village on the beach at Chonburi city, the wires were exposed on the outside of the wallpaper in every room.

 

At that time he thought he was good at DIY and he did what your talking about himself.

 

The result looked awful including lots of damage to the wallpaper.

 

His wife was insistent she wanted the whole house wallpapered with a very simple non descript pattern/texture in a light cream colour.

 

The wallpaper people arrived and didn't want to do the job because my son had removed all the old wallpaper but the walls were still covered in glue pilling and tiny paper scraps and the filling of the channels was so rough it would be seen through the new wallpaper.

 

Ultimately he paid another contractor to do a lot more work to correct the items above then the wallpaper people did their work and it was good, but cost quite a lot of money.  

 

Good luck. 

[Denim]

If the walls are made from aerated blocks it is not too difficult. Messy , but pretty straightforward.

 

In an older build you are more likely to be dealing with red brick or standard blocks which could be more messy as increased likelihood of cracking.

 

I have done this when I installed an extractor fan in the kitchen. Best way is to use an angle grinder to cut two parallel lines down the wall about 3/4 of an inch apart then chisel out the middle to make a groove for the plastic ducting that the wires will run through. Initially you will be grinding through the render coat before you hit the block underneath. Here is the danger because trying to chisel the standard breeze block will probably result in it breaking so probably better to grind it away rather than chisel. Once you have the groove put in some ducting and run the wire through it. once finished re render the groove and repaint.

 

The fine dust mess this all makes cannot be overstated. The dust gets everywhere so all furniture must be well covered.

 

Another possibility is either to hide the wires behind decorative paneling or else re route the wires so that they run down the inside corner of a room where although still visible not as bad as running down the middle of the wall.

 

 

 

 

[vogie]

1 minute ago, Crossy said:

 

Very few cavity walls here unless the house was built by a farang and even then not always. 

All our external walls have a cavity, I have had extra sockets fitted and the electrician had no problems feeding a wire down the void, but it was built by the Burmese.????????

[tifino]

12 minutes ago, 2long said:

Are you referring to the mains wiring from the fuse box to your sockets, or from sockets to appliances?

Our house is 10 years old, so the main wiring is all hidden. I then hide the wires from sockets to appliances by buying the super cheap long plastic things which stick on the wall.

Like you, I hate exposed electrical wires. Thais don't seem to worry, but there must be a market for these long plastic sticky tunnel things I'm referring to.

Trouble is, hardware stores are closed. ????????

could always get it from Online... 

Cable Trunking via Lazada thai

 

 

[jimmjam]

Just box them off, upv or timber. Saves the task of chistling out channels.

[JayBird]

Okey,

 

Thank you for all the feedback everyone.  This sounds like a messy, expensive, and possibly problematic job.  At least, as far as hiding the wiring in the wall.

 

Are there other good options?  Simply painting over them still makes it visible.  I thought about 'adding' a fake wall (thin board on all walls) and in effect, hiding it that way.

 

Perhaps there's a good 'artistic' way to hide it?  Does anyone sell something decorative that can be done to hide it?  (Perhaps pillar/column looking decorations that you place every 3' across the length of the wall to give it a pattern, but in reality, one of them is hiding wiring).

 

 

[mrloy99]

23 minutes ago, vogie said:

Arn't most walls built with double breeze block and have a cavity wall where wires can be fed down from the loft or where-ever.

 

not in Thailand!! usually single block..no cavity

[Denim]

15 hours ago, JayBird said:

 

 

Perhaps there's a good 'artistic' way to hide it?  Does anyone sell something decorative that can be done to hide it?  (Perhaps pillar/column looking decorations that you place every 3' across the length of the wall to give it a pattern, but in reality, one of them is hiding wiring).

 

 

 

The fake wood paneling I put up just to add some texture to an otherwise boring wall was cheap and easy to put up. 60 baht a sheet. Needed two sheets for the width and 6 high, total 12 sheets. Just screws to the wall. Countersink the screws and putty over to hide them.

 

 

 

[giddyup]

33 minutes ago, vogie said:

Arn't most walls built with double breeze block and have a cavity wall where wires can be fed down from the loft or where-ever.

 

No.

[Rimmer]

37 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Yeah, it's a horrible job if not done when the place was built.

 

What might be practical is to run the wiring on the other side of the wall (in a less critical room) then go straight through to your switch / outlet or whatever.

 

Unless you are doing a complete refurbishment of your place I'd be tempted to just paint over the wiring ????

 

 

 

Or put them in some nice tiny white plastic channel, easy job, pin the base of the channel to the wall lay the cable on it and clip the cover over it.   

[mrloy99]

16 minutes ago, JayBird said:

Okey,

 

Thank you for all the feedback everyone.  This sounds like a messy, expensive, and possibly problematic job.  At least, as far as hiding the wiring in the wall.

 

Are there other good options?  Simply painting over them still makes it visible.  I thought about 'adding' a fake wall (thin board on all walls) and in effect, hiding it that way.

 

Perhaps there's a good 'artistic' way to hide it?  Does anyone sell something decorative that can be done to hide it?  (Perhaps pillar/column looking decorations that you place every 3' across the length of the wall to give it a pattern, but in reality, one of them is hiding wiring).

 

 

you can buy skirting boards(baseboards if you are American) which have recess for wiring.you can also get architrave with recess for wiring.but to be honest the best job is as you say,to add a thin wall...plasterboard is very cheap.and if you plan it correctly you might not have to do all the walls..can fit some outlets back to back in other rooms...Your second wall might also give you the opportunity to hide a thermally reflective screen to help keep the rooms cooler

[bankruatsteve]

If the main issue is the retro look of wires stapled to the walls, they could be covered with conduit and painted and that will make them far less noticeable. Far better, IMO, than the mess and subsequent attempt to cover up by putting in channels.  Sink boxes by drilling multiple holes and then hammer and chisel versus using angle grinder.  

[William Osborne]

You could replace with wall mounted trucking and boxes like below but not sure worth the effort.

Lot of these old houses had no earth so better off get someone to look at the fusebook and make sure you have earth protection (especially if u have electric shower)

I bought my first house in thailand about 18 years ago, it had that style wiring and I had to pay extra for an earth bar and RCD 

[finnsk]

45 minutes ago, vogie said:

Arn't most walls built with double breeze block and have a cavity wall where wires can be fed down from the loft or where-ever.

 

Depending on wich kind of building. Singlehouses are typical build with single stone waals in bricks or concrete blocks. Inside condos the inside walls in newer condos can be maked with gypsum boards on a skeleton, here you can with a little louck hide the wires in the cavity.

[JayBird]

31 minutes ago, mrloy99 said:

you can buy skirting boards(baseboards if you are American) which have recess for wiring.you can also get architrave with recess for wiring.but to be honest the best job is as you say,to add a thin wall...plasterboard is very cheap.and if you plan it correctly you might not have to do all the walls..can fit some outlets back to back in other rooms...Your second wall might also give you the opportunity to hide a thermally reflective screen to help keep the rooms cooler

Plasterboard, yes.  I was thinking of that (also called Drywall ?)

 

http://www.knauf.co.th/prddetail.php?prdId=26&lang=en

 

This is what I think we're talking about?  If I place that on top of the electrical cables, and do the whole walls with this (obviously now a gap behind the rest of the panels) this should give it a good clean look.

 

Also should help modernize the interior look with a nice uniform finish.  Then I could either paint/texture it, or leave it as is (and hang paitings/shelves/etc. for further decorating).

 

(Is my thinking right?  Again, I know nothing.  Just want to not sound like a complete idiot when I hire someone to do the work ???? )

 

Any idea how expensive this solution is (both purchase and installation).  I.e: Cheap, need to budget it, easier to build a house?

 

????

 

 

[stouricks]

1 hour ago, Denim said:

 

The fake wood paneling I put up just to add some texture to an otherwise boring wall was cheap and easy to put up. 60 baht a sheet. Needed two sheets for the width and 6 high, total 12 sheets. Just screws to the wall. Countersink the screws and putty over to hide them.

 

 

 

Horrendous....in my eyes!

[stouricks]

All my wiring is surface, and painted the same as the walls. Not very noticeable, especially if I do not look.

A bit like living near an airport, after a while you never hear the aeroplanes.

[RichCor]

For anyone interested in 'hiding' their wiring in a solid wall, here's a recent David Savery of dsus.uk video blog while he does an electrical retro-fit in the UK. Covers kitchen & bathroom electrical and room plugpoints. One of his more refreshing videos as it covers the start of the UK lockdown.

 

 

[Yellowtail]

The wires attached with little strips tacked to the wall can be made much less noticeable if you smooth them over with acrylic sealant before you paint. This eliminates the shadows in the gaps and allows for a much nicer finish. 

 

The cheapest, easiest way hide wires inside the wall would be to use a "wall chaser".   There are a few on Lazada that look interesting, be sure to get a "wet" one.

 

Also be advised that as I understand it (I am by no means sure) moving wiring from surface mounted to inside a wall reduces the load capacity and breakers may have to be derated.

[Bundooman]

On 4/7/2020 at 9:35 AM, 2long said:

Are you referring to the mains wiring from the fuse box to your sockets, or from sockets to appliances?

Our house is 10 years old, so the main wiring is all hidden. I then hide the wires from sockets to appliances by buying the super cheap long plastic things which stick on the wall.

Like you, I hate exposed electrical wires. Thais don't seem to worry, but there must be a market for these long plastic sticky tunnel things I'm referring to.

Trouble is, hardware stores are closed. ????????

you're right, I think they're called 'conduit channeling' - something or other - I bought some about 4 years ago in Surin. I'm pretty sure they will be available in the more upmarket places such as Global, Big C or the large electrical shops you see around town - (I can think of at least 3 in CM).

[malt25]

On 4/7/2020 at 9:27 AM, vogie said:

Arn't most walls built with double breeze block and have a cavity wall where wires can be fed down from the loft or where-ever.

 

You obviously don't live in LOS !