ᐅ Hiding cables in a solid wood ceiling?

Hello,

starting Monday, our shell construction will begin. We are building a solid wood house, and the ceilings will be made from visible quality solid wood and are currently planned to remain untreated (possibly oiled or waxed later). I want to prepare some cables in advance for things like presence detectors or similar devices, but I know that initially, most of these will definitely not be connected. This definitely applies to the rented residential unit and possibly also to my own unit. With our construction method, I won’t be able to install any cables afterward.

So far, I have planned to hide unused cables as follows: drill a hole in the ceiling for an electrical box, rout around the edge a few millimeters using a router, and then have a matching wooden ceiling panel made. This panel would sit flush with the rest of the ceiling and should not be too noticeable if secured with two or three small screws.

The cables (mostly signal cables / CAT7A duplex) would lie in the hollow space and can be connected if needed. Possibly also power cables. Would anyone have any concerns about preparing some cables this way?

I wouldn’t pre-drill anything. Wiring doesn’t cost money... So just run cables to all sorts of spots and measure them roughly. That way, if you need to access them later, you’re not limited to one position.