Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater suggestions for concealing speaker wires

Hello,

I dont have a room yet to set up my speakers. My home theater will likely be in the living room. I know placement will be contingent on room shape and size.

What are some ways to hide speaker wires running to the side and rear surround speakers? Id like to wire them inside the walls but i dont have any experience with dry wall.

Thanks

Just google: "how to fish wires" and you should be able to find several examples and videos. With time and patience, it can be done.You can also use paintable flat wire and paint it the color of your walls.

Here's one example of something not to do, unless you enjoy repairing walls.

My first HT project I mounted speakers on the walls, then used those stick-on wire channels. End result, not good, but passable. When the time came to upgrade and put the speakers on a different place, I pulled paint and portions of drywall off the wall along with the wire channels. There may have been a better method of removal, but this was my experience.

Assuming you've ruled out the obvious like putting a bookcase in front of the wires, I've seen some people use moulding or MDF wainscoting (with flat speaker wire). There are all kinds of pre-primed, hollowed-out MDF wall treatments (columns, etc.) that can be used to hide wire.

That being said, working with drywall isn't nearly as intimidating as it seems. Patching and sanding a hole is a pain, but even if you do a lousy job you'll be the only one who notices.

What about the wires running across your carpet or floor. How do you conceal those?

One method might be (I haven't tried it), is to carefully remove the baseboards (they break easily, so might have to replace with new) and if there's room, place the speaker wire under the drywall (or something similar). You could even cut a grove out of the drywall for the wire because it would be hidden. Just make sure the grove is at or near the bottom of the baseboard.

I have done Cats idea with removing baseboard before for friends. He is correct when he says it must be done very carefully. Also, be prepared to touch up the paint to restore a perfect look. You can also get up around doors by removing trim. Then fish up to where your wall outlet will be for the speaker wire protrusion.

I will never cut into drywall because seam filling is my most hated activity EVER but it gets your speaker wire anywhere it needs to go invisibly once it is re-seamed and painted.

Got up in the attic of my house for the living room setup to fish wires up and over and down the walls.

I will have to check out some fish wire videos.

How much would it cost to hire someone to professionally install some speaker wires? Little modifications here and there. I dont want to have to tear down a whole wall or anything

Seeking,
If you have an attic above you might be able to do this fairly easily as Randy (Sirquack) says. Otherwise you can try the 'behind the baseboards' trick which was previously mentioned and is not too difficult either, although it may have you replacing/repairing baseboards depending on how easily they can be pried off of the wall.

Hint on the baseboards - if your wall is painted you should run a sharp knife (boxcutter, exacto) along the corner of where the baseboard meets the wall to make sure the paint does not stick to the baseboard and peel off the wall as you pry.

No idea on costs to hire someone for this, although I would think any competent local AV shop would have an installation service that could get you a quote.

I've run speaker cables along the corner where the baseboard meets the carpet. I used a screwdriver to jam the wire as far as it could go. Most of the time the wire can be nudged into the available space.

Alternatively, you could pry off your baseboards, staple the wire to the underlying wall as tight to the ground as possible, re-mount the baseboard right above it, and nail in in shoe-rail or quarter-round so nobody can tell the difference.

Amen, brother. Cheers!

You don't necessarily need to remove your baseboard to run wires behind it...most quarter-round has a flat clearance on the back of it, cut on a 45* so you could cover your wires with it in front of the baseboard. I ran my wiring UNDER the floor by drilling some holes in the floor near the wall where my TV/reciever is, then running the wires thru the joists from the basement, then back up into the family room(theatre).

The secret to making drywall jobs easy, is to use a wide taping knife to feather the joint compound out and minimize the sanding. Most people make the mistake of using a small putty knife and create all kinds of bumps and crevices in the compound that need to be sanded out and reworked. You should have almost NO sanding if you use the right knife.

I'll second this, adding that the compound should be applied very lightly. Most first-timers throw on gobs of the stuff.

Also using a screen sander helps a lot.

Cut the drywall out, run wires as required, put up new drywall and then hire someone to come in and do the mudding, then finally paint as required; seems simple enough and probably costs the same as having the wires fished through as required.

I used this and it worked very well.

That looks like what I used that causes you to repair the walls after removing them.

If you have never done drywall removal/repair before, I don't think this is the best time to start. I doubt you'll get a satisfying result first time out. It's not expensive for a good painter to come do it. It is expensive to pay someone to fish wires.

And remember, if you do it yourself and it comes out crappy, it's going to cost more to have a pro first rip out your handiwork, before he/she even can begin his/hers.

Too many of us here, evidently, have tons of time and experience with this and have blocked from memories our first few attempts.

Note to members of "Team Destructo":

If you live in a dwelling with hardwood floors that are original to the structure, you CANNOT tear out the baseboards. They went down before the hardwood floor did. Their bottoms are sitting on the underlayment and would need to be flush cut to be removed.

Very good to know.

There are exceptions. My home has original hardwood flooring, but the baseboards are on top. House if about 65 years old.

Bob, I've never heard of baseboards going below the level of the hardwood flooring, this sounds ridiculous for the simple reason that hdwd flooring needs to expand and contract with the seasons. That's why you need to leave a good 3/8" or so gap between the edge of the hardwood and the wall, then instal your baseboard over top of it so the wood can move freely.

Hi Seeking,

After installing my four QS8 surround speakers I had wires running all over the room.
My theater room is in a bonus room so I could either run the wires in the attic above or in the garage below.
I also considered running behind the baseboards and I even considered running flat wire under the carpet.

I'm not really a DIY guy so I was concerned that I would make a total mess of our relatively new home.
The thought of removing baseboards or drilling holes through the walls was a major concern.
I was talking to a friend about this dreaded project and he mentioned the geek squad at Best Buy.

They installed four 30 foot runs (12 Gauge THX cert.) through the attic and inside the walls to banana plug speaker plates at each speaker and a master banana plug speaker plate behind the AV receiver.
They did a very professional job and the finished job looks extremely clean.

It took 2 installers approximately 4 hours and 2 of those hours were in the attic!
The total cost was just over $300 which was an amazing deal in my books.
Money well spent.

Zak

Hello Zak,

Your install looks very good. I appreciate the Geek Squad suggestion. I noticed that you said you did four runs for your surround speakers. How much more would it have cost to wire your front sound stage as well?

At this point I am leaning towards a professional install when the time comes. I would not be comfortable with all the dry wall and baseboard work since I have no experience with them. I am sure professional could do a way better job than I can in this case. I would not mind paying around $500 to get things wired for a dedicated listening room. More if need be.

I am sure there are tons of people who I can hire for this type of work, but more suggestions and ideas would be great. Thanks everyone for the advices.

If you're thinking of hiring, getting a general handyman will likely be quite a bit cheaper than Best Buy's people. You don't need any specialized knowledge to fish wires or patch drywall, and it's not electrical work. Furthermore, in-wall speaker wire is cheap as mud compared with what an AV shop will try and sell you.

You might consider a professional if you're doing multi-zone systems or some kind of crazy remote control setup, otherwise the work you need done should not run you $500

The local shop I patronize charges $100/hr. I would think $500 would be a reasonable budget unless you have some weird problem area.
There was a series on articles on audioholics a while back where they documented 5 different installs and what was involved.