What is this socket for?

BungleGirl

Oh I hope this picture shows up! (If not I will keep editing and trying to get it to display!)

I have two of these odd looking sockets in my house and I have no idea what they are - any ideas?

One is in the lounge and one in the dining room. The one in the dining room doesn't have the little black cover that is screwed into the middle on the one in the picture. I've unscrewed the socket and had a look inside and there is a really thick black cable running to the hole in the middle.

I'm decorating and getting new sockets so I'm not sure what kind of socket I should get for this

Southend1

I can't see very well from the pic but it looks like it could be for a tv aerial or speaker system.

muckybutt

They look very much like an audio plug of some sort, if so unusual to see them in a domestic surrounding.

I certainly dont know of any manufacturer that make them, it looks very diy to me. If you can take the cover off and take a photo of the cable in the back.

Tis

Looks like the TV arial to me

BungleGirl

I've had the screwdriver out and the two sockets are completely different things! I took the little cover off of the one in the lounge and these are the wires - some kind of speaker/sound thing? I'm guessing I can just cut the wires and cover it with a blanking plate?



The one in the dining room might just be an aerial socket - I will be very happy if it is!

With the cover on:-



And with the cover off:-

muckybutt

The first is audio cut the wires individually and put connector blocks on the end then you can blank it off.

The second is a tv point as you correctly guessed, again just blank off.

BungleGirl

Excellent - thank you very much for your help muckybutt!

sillygoose

Correctly identified. In the dining room as well as the remnants of the coax aerial wire, it looks like a 2.5mm mains cable just 'passing through' horizontally.

Just mentioning because it currently looks safe and the aerial wire is safe to touch - if doing any drilling or work low down at any time in the area be careful, mains cables may be in some unexpected places.

Also lot of debris in the bottom of the wall box, you can hoover that out, looks like box bottom rusted away perhaps had a damp/flood problem at some time?

Another thought.. is this an outside wall.. does the aerial wire go outside and up the wall or maybe just a hole left now? could have be rain running in from outside, check the outside around the cable/hole has been sealed with some silicon

BungleGirl

Thanks for the extra info - there is a plug socket right next to the aerial socket so that must be what the mains cable is running through it. I just had a look outside and the aeial cable has just been cut so that is possibly where the water is coming from.

Is it expensive to get a new cable run down the outside wall from the aerial which is on the roof?

I quite like the idea of having a TV in the dining room as we will have sofas in there and it will be more of a family room than a dining room.

Aparently we have some kind of booster in the loft which then has cables running to the upstairs rooms but in the lounge we just have a cable through the wall (no socket, oddly!) and looking outside that comes straight from the aerial on the roof.

sillygoose

BungleGirl wrote: »

Thanks for the extra info - there is a plug socket right next to the aerial socket so that must be what the mains cable is running through it. I just had a look outside and the aeial cable has just been cut so that is possibly where the water is coming from.

Is it expensive to get a new cable run down the outside wall from the aerial which is on the roof?

I quite like the idea of having a TV in the dining room as we will have sofas in there and it will be more of a family room than a dining room.

Aparently we have some kind of booster in the loft which then has cables running to the upstairs rooms but in the lounge we just have a cable through the wall (no socket, oddly!) and looking outside that comes straight from the aerial on the roof.

re. the plug socket, yup be the ring circuit passing through, horizontally running cables are to be avoided - generally they should go up or down not sideways for the reason its easier to predict where they will be, just have to be extra careful fixing things to walls.

The loft booster has to be connected to an aerial too, its possible it also has a cable run up to the aerial or you have another aerial in the loft. Its also possible its not connected to anything any more but the signal is strong enough to be picked up enough by the cabling alone - do the upstairs TV(s) work OK?

It depends if there are any spare 'outputs' on your booster or any going to wall sockets not in use you could reallocate. In which case you need a cable from the booster, out a hole through the loft wall and back in the current dining room wall attached to a new aerial socket plate. Typically max. 10 metres of cable, a few cable clips and a connector so a few quids worth of bits, a ladder and a long masonry drill bit, two squirts of silicon.

No idea how much it would cost as its the sort of thing I do myself but be very careful with aerial installers, its not unusual for them to try and big up the job selling people new aerials and boosters they don't need and breaking existing ones to show they were 'defective'. If anyone wanted more than £40-£60 absolute tops I would not let them in.