The single biggest reason people don't run Ethernet in a house they already live in is the fear of mess — lifted floorboards, ripped-up carpet, chased plaster and a fortnight of disruption. In reality, most of the Cat6 we install across Stockport, South Manchester and East Cheshire goes into finished homes, and you'd struggle to spot the cable after we've left.
The routes we use in finished houses
Loft to first floor
The loft is the single most useful cable space in a UK home. From there, dropping a Cat6 down into a first-floor bedroom, office or landing usually needs one small hole in the ceiling void behind a wardrobe, or a drop down inside a cupboard. Neither is visible. This is the go-to route for upstairs offices and access points.
External runs on the mortar line
Where a room can't be reached from the loft, we run Cat6 in UV-stable external cable clipped along the mortar between bricks, colour-matched to the wall. Done properly it disappears from a few metres away — much tidier than the aerial coax already on most houses.
Skirting-line trunking
Along a downstairs room, thin white trunking hugged to the top of the skirting board carries Cat6 out of sight from any normal standing height. Rarely necessary, but a lifesaver on solid-floor rooms where under-floor isn't an option.
Service voids and existing conduit
Many newer builds have plasterboard service voids or existing telephone conduits we can piggyback for a spare Cat6. On period homes, old gas-lamp conduits, chimney breasts and airing cupboards give us hidden vertical routes between floors.
Under floorboards on suspended floors
On Victorian and Edwardian houses with suspended timber floors, we can often lift a single carpet edge, take up one board, run Cat6 the length of the room, and put everything back with no visible sign. This is a genuine skill — done by a novice it looks awful; done properly it's invisible.
Rooms that are genuinely hard
A few situations are honestly awkward: solid concrete floors with no loft access above, first-floor rooms in the middle of a bungalow, and heavily plastered stone walls in listed properties. We'll tell you upfront if a room is going to need external routing or a compromise — no salesman-speak, no "we'll figure it out on the day".
What a tidy install actually looks like
- Solid-copper Cat6 (not the cheap copper-clad rubbish), rated for in-wall use
- Proper single-gang faceplates flush with the wall — not surface-mount boxes
- Every port punched down and tested with a certified cable tester
- External cable clipped, sealed at wall penetrations, weather-rated
- Sockets labelled at both ends so future work is trivial
How long does it take?
A single Cat6 point in an easy run is typically 1–2 hours. Two or three points into different rooms is usually half a day. A whole-house install — six to ten points, a small patch panel and a Wi-Fi access point on each floor — is normally a single day, sometimes two on larger properties. See our data cabling page for what a finished job looks like.
Frequently asked questions
Will you make a mess in my house?
No. Dust sheets down, tools kept to one area, everything hoovered before we leave. The whole point of doing this properly is that the house looks the same at the end of the day as it did at the start — just with faster, more reliable connections.
Can you cable a house without lifting floorboards?
Very often, yes. Loft routes, external runs and existing conduits cover most homes without lifting a single floor. Where a lift is genuinely needed, we do one board neatly and put it back — no destruction.
Will the cable be visible?
External runs are visible on close inspection but done properly they disappear from a few metres away. Internal runs are always hidden — inside walls, under floors or in trunking that's colour-matched.
Do you patch and redecorate after?
Where we make a hole, we make good — filler, sanded, ready for touch-up paint. We don't do full redecorating, but you shouldn't need to.
How much disruption during the install?
Very little. Most rooms we work in are usable again within an hour. Whole-house installs sometimes need a couple of rooms cleared briefly — we agree the order with you before the day.
Can this be done in a listed building?
Yes, with more care. External routing is often preferred to avoid touching internal walls. We've worked in listed properties across Cheshire and know when to stop and check before drilling.
Need Wi-Fi, cabling or a proper home network sorted across Stockport, South Manchester, Tameside or East Cheshire? Evolution Data & Digital is a local, engineer-led business — the same engineer surveys, quotes and installs. We test the property properly, explain the honest fix and agree a fixed price before any work begins. Call 0161 399 1757, send a WhatsApp, or contact us online.
Free survey & quote, no callout charge. Most jobs same or next day.