 Good looking wiring?
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Now, I know this has been discussed ad nauseum, but now that I've moved into a house I own and have had professionally painted, I'm pondering the best way to mount and wire my QS8s.
The house doesn't have a crawl space or basement, and the attic is extremely cramped--in other words, I don't know if I can even get OVER to the right side of the living room, much less do anything when I get there.
The living room walls are pale green with a darker green under a white chair rail. I don't want to do what I did with the last place, which is run cables up the corners and down the edge of the ceiling to the speakers using foam tape. I discovered to my dismay how bad an idea that was when we moved out...
Any advice? I'm not a great painter, and we did just have the place painted for a pretty penny, so I'm less inclined to put up wire and paint over it. Still, it would be nice to have surround sound again.
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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 Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: Jun 2003
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axiomite
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axiomite
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I'm on a concrete slab and what I did was, I took the trim from around the carpet and ran the wire under the trim. Then I fished the wire in the wall out to the surrounds.
Rick
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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How good are you at fishing wires? Could you add a crown molding to the ceiling?
Jason
M80 v2
VP160 v3
QS8 v2
PB13 Ultra
Denon 3808
Samsung 85" Q70
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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I've never fished wire or put in a crown molding! Maybe?
OTOH, my wife informed me last night that she doesn't have a problem with exposed wire, and we could "just paint it!"
Aaaand I just mentioned the crown molding and she says "oooh!"
So.
Rick, I forgot to mention we've got Pergo in the living room, otherwise I would have been all over the carpet idea.
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: Jun 2003
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axiomite
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axiomite
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Ken, the wire is not under the carpet it is behind the base board.
Rick
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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shareholder in the making
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Ohhhhhh... I see. So basically you just pried off the baseboard stuck the wire behind it and nailed it back on? That could be doable.
I suspect I'm going to be running into framing in the wall, like David. Probably have to do a surface mount of some kind.
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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axiomite
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axiomite
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Prying off that baseboard is not the easiest thing to do. I've destroyed mine everytime I've removed it.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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axiomite
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axiomite
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Ken with the Pergo flooring there should be a 1/4" space between the wall and the flooring that is covered up with some type of moulding (shoe or quarter round usually). The gap is allowing for expansion of the flooring, you may want to research whether or not it is advisable to run wire within that gap ... I would probably think not. With carpet you'll not have that issue with the wires.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Yeah, don't pull the baseboard, pull the shoe molding or quarter round. If you break it, you can get a cheap mitre hand saw kit. Shoe molding does not have to be the accurate on the 45's
"A fanatic is someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject" Churchill
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: Dec 2003
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shareholder in the making
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I have never once had an issue with the baseboard breaking pulling it off, solid wood nor MDF boards, perhaps just very lucky but I am very careful to only pull it out a little at a time and as evenly as possible along the length of the board.
Jason
M80 v2
VP160 v3
QS8 v2
PB13 Ultra
Denon 3808
Samsung 85" Q70
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Same here. I recently redid a couple bathroom floors (and walls and toilets and sinks) in my house. I used a good pry bar to ease the baseboards out. My home was build in the 70s and the baseboards in each bathroom were original so there were many layers of paint, too. No breakage, even though I didn't want to keep the baseboards since I planned to replace them -- and did.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Founder, Axiom Upgrade Club shareholder in the making
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Founder, Axiom Upgrade Club shareholder in the making
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CatBrat's on the Brute Squad.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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connoisseur
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In proper contruction with hardwood floors, the baseboard goes down before the floor is put in (so do the door casings), so there's 3/4" of bsbd. hiding beneath the floor level. If that's your case, I'd advise leaving the baseboards alone. It may also need a channel routed into it to accomodate the wire.
The crown's a better idea, but, if you've never done it, and the walls are not 180 degrees with true 90 degree corners, it can be an aggravating bear of a job.
It should cost about $4-500 to crown a 12 x 12' room, with (non-exotic profiles) materials included. That doesn't include filling, sanding, priming (if you used unprimed stock), and painting.
Crown almost always needs all of its edges caulked, which will leave a white edge on both the ceiling and the wall, which will need to be re-edged (painted).
Hope that's some help, Ken.
Always call the place you live a house. When you're old, everyone else will call it a home.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: Dec 2003
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shareholder in the making
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Jason
M80 v2
VP160 v3
QS8 v2
PB13 Ultra
Denon 3808
Samsung 85" Q70
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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shareholder in the making
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OP
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Yeah, I'm scared.
I think what we'll probably do is chicken out and wire up the corner of the wall, then down on the corner of the wall and ceiling to the speakers. Then, my wife says, when she gets tired of looking at it, we can put up the crown molding. "Pretty!" she says.
The only question I've got now is how to secure the wires to the wall. I'm afraid Axiom's solution is a little rich for my blood. I've still got the 16 gauge flat wire from my old place, but I'll be damned if I'm putting up foam tape on walls I own. Any suggestions on adhesives?
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Ken, what about Wiremold products? You can paint them to match the wall, but they attach to the walls with screws...the holes from which can always be easily filled? How many times have you seen this photo?  
::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Hmm... that might not be a bad idea. I've got a chair rail on the wall, but I can just use white wire and split the raceway going over that. I had thought they taped/glued to the wall, but screws are easy. And one assumes it's light enough I don't even need to worry about anchors or studs. Here's a pic of hte room, empty. Which it ain't now...  The two corners visible are the corners I would run the wire up, then down towards the camera on either side.
Last edited by Ken.C; 10/17/11 11:54 AM.
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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axiomite
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axiomite
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I would still fish the wire through the walls. I've used some of the surface mount wire hiders. I guess it works ok, as long as you don't plan on removing it until the next wall repair paint job comes alone. It does make repairing the wall necessary when you remove them. I probably should of scraped them off with a knife. Instead, I just grabbed and ripped. Layers of paint and portions of drywall came out with it. Oops. Maybe I am Cat the Ripper.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Ken, I think that they do, by default, attach to the wall via double-sided tape. But I just drilled through the plastic back on the raceway and into the wall. Then I attached the back half of the raceway using a screw with a washer so the "hold" on the raceway was distributed over the washer instead of just the screw head. The plastic on the back of the raceway is relatively soft and I wanted to make sure the raceway couldn't pull off by accident.
I figured it always easier to patch a small screw hole than deal with removing the sticky tape if it was ever to be replaced.
::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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connoisseur
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Ken, I think's Mark's idea is the easiest and will leave you with the least damage when/if you decide to rearrange the room.
n.b. When removing anything attached to a painted surface, it's best to razor score all of the edges first. It will help keep the damage within the scored marks.
I like the profile-edged mounting plate. Sort of makes the QS's look like mounted big game trophies.
And though I DO like to scare people, it's not with this kind of stuff. Just wanted to point out the possible downsides before you dive into to something that's gonna get bigger that you imagined.
That clamshell (profile name) bsbd., (I think it is--it sure is on the window apron) may not sink before the floor level if it had been removed before the mfg'd. floor went down, then reapplied. It may be worth finding out. If it does sit on top of the floor, it'd be way easy to get off. Even if you damage it while removing it, it's only about $1.50 per linear foot. You'd still likely have to do some re-caulking and some edge painting.
Boy, this "being helpful" thing hurts. No swearing, no smarmy comments. Now I gotta go and find someone else's post to screw with.
Always call the place you live a house. When you're old, everyone else will call it a home.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Ken, I think's Mark's idea is the easiest and will leave you with the least damage when/if you decide to rearrange the room. Woo Hoo! After 7 years and howevermany posts, I might have gotten something right????
::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: May 2003
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shareholder in the making
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OP
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I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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shareholder in the making
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Expensive, though. I'm looking at ~$80-100 in raceways, at least from Home Despot.
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Ken, since Jen has blessed the exposed wire option, I'd surface mount with wall-color-painted raceways. As for how to work around the chair rail, you could cut a small section out of it, shave/dremel a channel through the back so there's room for the wire to pass behind it, then nail the section back into place over the wire. Any small remaining gaps could be easily filled/hidden with wood putty or paintable caulk.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: May 2003
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I've used the paintable wiremold raceways. I have them on the floor (epoxyed concrete w/ no carpet) in my living room. But I had them painted the same color as the wall that they're up against. You can't even see it. I actually bought them while the painters were working and had them paint it.
BTW, fishing up the wall may not always work. In most of my houses, there was a horizontal 'firebox'/stud. around 3' or 4'. You'd have to drill through that (behind the drywall) to fully fish it up the wall.
Last edited by oldskoolboarder; 10/17/11 10:18 PM.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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axiomite
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axiomite
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I think Mark just likes saying "my raceway."
With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 6,955
axiomite
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axiomite
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Ken, I think's Mark's idea is the easiest and will leave you with the least damage when/if you decide to rearrange the room.
n.b. When removing anything attached to a painted surface, it's best to razor score all of the edges first. It will help keep the damage within the scored marks.
I like the profile-edged mounting plate. Sort of makes the QS's look like mounted big game trophies.
And though I DO like to scare people, it's not with this kind of stuff. Just wanted to point out the possible downsides before you dive into to something that's gonna get bigger that you imagined.
That clamshell (profile name) bsbd., (I think it is--it sure is on the window apron) may not sink before the floor level if it had been removed before the mfg'd. floor went down, then reapplied. It may be worth finding out. If it does sit on top of the floor, it'd be way easy to get off. Even if you damage it while removing it, it's only about $1.50 per linear foot. You'd still likely have to do some re-caulking and some edge painting.
Boy, this "being helpful" thing hurts. No swearing, no smarmy comments. Now I gotta go and find someone else's post to screw with. And Bob, don't worry. Maybe you didn't swear but you used lot's of dirty words. "Easiest", "score", "mounting", "dive into to something", & "gonna get bigger that you imagined". And that was just in the first half of your post. The second half gets even better.
With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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aficionado
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What do you expect.. look at the title.LOL
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Re: Good looking wiring?
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old hand
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old hand
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Ken c i am in the same situation of you are, i just get a new pair of Qs-8 & i want a good wiring job.
How about put your QS on stands (FMS-Q) so wire won't run on wall.
but standard height is 38in, for my application, 42in will be fine, i actually waiting a reply from AXIOM if they can make it at custom height.(like the other stands), but this isn't a cheap solution, the standard stands are 300$/pr.
i'll keep you posted.
Last edited by Chevy; 10/25/11 06:02 AM.
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