Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
doozer wrote:

I agree. I briefly considered running network cables behind a piece of
skirting in an area where putting them under the floor would mean
drilling a large number of joists. I quickly realized that putting them
behind the skirting rule broke (software development) rule number 1:


Always do the least surprising thing.


You might not want to bang nails into the skirting but what if the next
owner of the house notices a crack along the top of the skirting (where
it's come loose because you have crammed a load of cable behind it) and
whacks a nail in. Hmmm not a nice picture.


It's not exactly life threatening nailing through network cables, though?

And exactly the same can apply to nailing down a floorboard where the
joist has been notched for cable runs too.


Having said that though you can buy skirting that is designed to carry
cables. It's pretty ugly stuff and I wouldn't want it in my home but you
might like it.



I wasn't implying that nailing through a network cable was a life
threatening problem but that running cable behind a skirting isn't a
good idea in general because it's not necessarily expected.

All the electricity cables (bar one) in our place run through holes in
the joist at least 50mm from the top so there is little danger of
hitting them with nails or screws. I don't know about you but I don't
just bang nails into the floor because I expect cables and pipes to be
under the floor running every which way so I check first. I don't expect
them to be hiding behind skirting (but on the occasions where I have
nailed old skirting I have checked).