There will be several places in our house where it would make sense to install a flush-mounted multimedia channel*. We are planning to install channels measuring 1.5 to 2 meters in length, with end caps at both ends. The following locations are being considered:

• Living room
• Bedroom
• Workshop
• Dining room
• Kitchen
• Computer room

So, assuming 2 meters, we need more or less 12 meters of ducting. In reality, it will of course be a little less; in the workshop, for example, the ducting will only be about one meter long. After doing some research, I found that the ready-made sets were either suboptimal or very overpriced.

What to do?

While searching for alternatives, I repeatedly came across the idea of simply using a flush-mounted ventilation duct on several blogs and websites. These ventilation ducts have grooves on the outside, which makes plastering or fastening them much easier. However, the inner walls are smooth, which makes them ideal for use as cable ducts. In addition, the material can be easily cut to length with a utility knife and the necessary cutouts can be made later with a hole saw.

I immediately liked the idea, but there was one catch: these ventilation ducts are expensive and can only be purchased in large quantities by private individuals. Fifteen meters would have been ideal for us, with a little leeway for mistakes or new ideas.

⧉ Zehnder

⧉ Zehnder

⧉ Zehnder

I didn’t find that, but I did find a dealer who sold me 20 meters of Zehnder Comfotube 51 flat, including shipping costs, for just under €300, which works out to just €15 per meter, which seems downright cheap considering the available solutions.

I 3D-printed the end caps from PLA and glued them into the pre-cut channels with acrylic. The finished channel can either be fixed in the wall with PU foam or filled in with multiple layers of filler. I filled it and, after plastering, simply drilled the necessary holes through the plaster into the channel at the previously marked points using an 83 mm hole saw*. I then glued 3D-printed bushings into the wall using silicone and later screwed or plugged a “hole cover” into them.

Conclusion

The result is great, better than any ready-made solution could be AND also significantly cheaper. I also have a lot of flexibility with the duct dimensions. In the computer room, for example, the duct does not run from the installation height above the floor to approximately the middle of the room, but instead from the ceiling to the middle of the room, as it will be supplied from above.

I first came across this solution on 100prznt.de. Thank you very much for the great idea—unfortunately, the site is no longer available. However, this solution has also been chosen in other places.

Downloads

I am providing the STL files for the parts I created here, including the end cap that originally came from 100prznt.de – unfortunately, it is no longer available there. If this is not acceptable, please send me an email and I will remove this file, of course:

Update from January 14, 2026:

The original files for the end cap can still be found at Printables from the original creator!
However, the original bottom of the website is still not functional.

Der Beitrag Flush-mounted multimedia channel, but good and inexpensive erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

In the house we are currently renovating, there is a room that was formerly used as a “tractor garage” – for which there will be no use in its current form in the future.

The floor is in really poor condition; it consists of dirty (sand) stone slabs on earth, without proper foundations, etc., and it is also uneven.
In addition, during the renovations of the house in recent decades, no particular attention was paid to ensuring that the brick walls were aligned with the existing wall remains in the floor, with the result that the walls stand on much thicker “feet.”

The preliminary work is therefore to bring the walls into an almost straight shape over their entire height, which I did with a diamond roughing disc on a 125 mm standard angle grinder, in several attempts. Dry grinding creates a lot of dust and roughing mineral building materials is very strenuous.

Once that was done, I quickly put together a rough layout in Microsoft’s 3D Builder. More professional CAD software would have been better, but this rough version is sufficient to get a better idea of the whole thing. This is what came out of it:

The black blocks are intended to represent toolboxes, but in reality, they were arranged on top of each other rather than side by side in order to make maximum use of the space.

Build

With this rough idea in mind, we then started building. First, the parapet and cable ducts* were aligned and installed, then the lighting structure, and finally the table structures. A multimedia channel* for the planned touch screen was installed flush with the wall and provided with openings. A cross-line laser* was used for everything and proved very helpful—after all, many elements had to be arranged in a U-shape, which was an ideal application for it.

In the end, everything was dismantled again, imperfections were filled in, and the room was thoroughly cleaned. Then it was painted white several times. Next, as the most cost-effective compromise, industrial-grade PVC was glued in one piece to the slightly smoothed floor. This was turned up at the edges of the room in the form of a kind of “baseboard” and secured with aluminum profiles.

Then everything was put back in piece by piece – first the ducts, then the tables, the shelves, and finally the tool walls.

Of course, this was a very detailed and lengthy process. In total, the whole thing took several months (not full-time, of course), and two people worked on the construction.

Current status?

In the end, some things were implemented slightly differently than shown in the CAD above. For example, there are now three LED panels per side instead of four. The back wall is far from unused: it holds an old 40″ Samsung TV, a convection radiator from Kermi, and storage space for quick-release clamps.

The PC, indicated as a white block, was moved to a specially built compartment and shares it with a black Nintendo Wii, including a power supply and external hard drive.

In the main work area, a base cabinet was removed and replaced with a beverage refrigerator that even has its own switch in the parapet channel, complete with a blue status LED. Worktop lighting* with an aluminum profile anti-glare shield has also been installed.

I don’t have any photos of the final result at the moment—I would take some, but as is always the case, the room is currently being used primarily for storage; all the building materials have to go somewhere. I will submit detailed photos when the workshop is presentable.

Der Beitrag “Let’s build a workshop in this storage room” erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.