I like this idea of using dados in particular. It’s not the nicest looking but not terrible and makes it easy to install new network and power sockets with a single entry point in the room.
I have seen some skirting board for sale that looks more conventional and claims to allow sockets to be installed, but it’s hard to find in the UK.
I think this is okay in the UK, you are allowed to run wires vertically or horizontally from a socket.
Isn’t 6a harder to install though? I see you can get some slimmer types but not for outdoor rating. Obviously it’s going to have to make some 90 degree turns to go into the wall in places.
If you’re referring to the plastic spine in the cable, this is to help with shielding and add rigidity to the cable.
However, all non-SCC (solid copper core) cables are stranded copper and will be much easier to bend.
Put it this way, yes stranded utp cat6a is harder to bend than stranded utp cat5e, however, this pales in comparison to RG6 (coax). So IMO the point about it being difficult is moot unless you plan on tying it like shoelaces.
FYI any cable over 100 ft will likely have the spine even it is cat 5e (if you can find any).
Cables that are properly rated at Tbase1000 which is fancy talk for gigabit speeds at up to 300 ft (100 meters). But anything longer than 100 ft (33 meters) has to be non-stranded with the spine.
Both of those would allow you to retrofit cables inside the house without holes. There are also ones that would fully replace baseboard trim or crown molding, so you wouldn’t even be able to tell anything was hiding behind them.
I’d strongly suggest not putting holes through the exterior of your house if at all possible. Holes are prime locations for insect and moisture ingress. I’m dealing with that at my house courtesy of the previous owners running coax all over the place.
That’s what I want really, replace all the skirting boards with cable trunking ones. Most are not deep enough for sockets but I suppose having a short but of trunk going up to a surface mounted box isn’t too bad.
The down side is that you need to do a lot of it at once for it to really work but it might be worth it. Certainly easier than getting the whole house rewired.
What I mean is to go up through the plasterboard in the ceiling up to a point that doesn’t have floorboards overhead, so you could access the cables directly overhead and run them accordingly.
Given you’ve two floors and you need cables routed to both floors, that’s not really an option.
What you mentioned above about using the skirting board to hide the cables is probably your best option. Run them along the wall and then drill holes through walls where you need is probably the best option.
Skirting boards work well - you can find channels that are built to be installed instead of a skirting board in various designs and sizes on Amazon no less.
Carpeting edges that aren’t glued down well will usually fit a cable, inconspicuously in the corner, but not two.
Doors are usually an issue, but you can often drill through a corner inconspicuously instead of going around the wall.
You should have enough space in the ceiling or between floor joists to run stuff. If carpetted you’d need to lift it, drill and look, or remove a piece of osb/plywood whatever and put it back or if ceiling and you have lighting you’d need to take out a light fitting and look.
For looking, you can use those boroscopic stick cameras that you can snake into the space between floors. Or you can wiggle and feel and use magnets and stuff, or both.
If you have wood flooring or underfloor heating, you’d need to be really really careful. Also, with electricity, exposed main voltage wiring around ceiling lights, sadly is a real risk.
If you plan to be painting soon, it’s all easier then, there’s routers for cables or you can chisle it out by hand. Your electricals are probably done like that.
If the holes are already drilled, running some cables outside is a bit of a no-brainer. We moved in about 5 years ago and this is how we’ve done most of it.
Remember to leave a little loop of cable below the hole so that any moisture runs down and drips off the cable instead of going into the wall.
Then the rest are tucked under skirting board or behind furniture.
I live in the uk too, I wired my house for ethernet a couple years ago and just used outdoor rated ethernet cabling. The cables are on the outside with ethernet boxes on the inside of the house, it seems to hold quite nicelly
