Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Guide for home theater wire through the wall

I’m assuming from the layout that the wall it a free standing wall with no way to run the wires behind crown molding or baseboard trim.

You then have three options; 1) rout it above the ceiling in the attic 2) under the carpet 3) in the crawl space.

I’d go with the crawlspace if you have access. It would be fairly painless job, just be careful. You’ll need to first see what’s under your floor joists so don’t go poking holes in anything that ain’t supposed to have holes. Take a few barring measurements so you know where that back wall is while you’re under the floor. You will need to drill up through the sub floor to the wall locations under the receiver location and the back wall where you want to mount you speakers.

Go back to the living area and drive a small (ten penny) nail through the floor as close to the wall as you can get in line with where you want to mount the speakers and rout the wire from your AVR. The nail will be your reference when you go back to the crawl space to drill your holes. Measure over from the nail 2” and drill a ½” hole up through the floor. Don’t go any further than you need to go to get through the wall bottom plate. Shouldn’t be more than 2 ¼”. Go real slow and careful because your electrician may have stapled the romex to the bottom plate. You will know when the bit is about to bust through as it will start to bind at the very end when you drill slowly. When you’re almost through, poke a screwdriver the rest of the way just in case there is romex there. Don’t get crazy, just hard enough to bust through the last bit of wood.

After the holes are drilled, you need to cut in some ‘old work’ J-boxes. Get the ones that have a butterfly expander on the back. Just ask the sales dude at the hardware store and tell him you are retrofitting J-boxes in sheet rock. He’ll know what you need. When you cut them in, cut them in only as big as they need to be. They should fit snugly. After you get the holes cut, go back to the crawlspace and run a fish tape up the wall, keeping it up against the wall board. Shove it up there far enough to reach the J-box location. When you go back upstairs, grab a metal hanger and snag the fish tape through the hole.

From there it’s a slam dunk piece of cake and you will save yourself about $300 in labor. - At least that’s what my estimate would be.

If you have to route them through the attic, the same technique applies. Just make damn sure to not step on, kneel on or sit on the sheet rock. Stay on the tresses!

If you have any more questions, just holler.

Some excellent and thorough directions mdrew.
Any pics to go with that? Stick figures or something?

Especially of the knee going through the ceiling drywall.

Bren R.

Yes mdrew, draw us a stick figure description of the part about putting the knee through the drywall, right after the part where the circular saw was cutting the 8' section into the floor.
No, waitaminute, i think i read those directions wrong.
I'll have to go back to that post again...

Thanks, mdrew. I plan to drill holes on the wall, then wire through in-between walls and the attic.

Thanks again,

Han

Not that I've ever dropped through a ceiling or anything, but I've "heard", ......that it hurts......

Been there, done that...no knee, full leg.

OUCH!

Especially bad when it is in a house you are renting and the owner is standing right there when it happens.



WhatFurrer

LOL

priceless

Get some 12 gage wire, that has a thick plastic shielding on it, to protect the cable, some states/cities require fire safe cable if you are going to have it in the wall, but if your doing it, then its your call..

There is really on 2 or 3 things you need to do the job right,
1) snake
2) drywall knife
3) speaker distribution connector


you can go to homedepot to get the snake, it will be in the eletrical area, it is basicly a wire that winds around a cylinder, and at the end has a attachment with a hole at the end, you use this to tie the cable to the wire. You should get a buddy or wife to help you, one of you being in the atic with the snake, you might need to cut a hole in a cross beam depending on the location in your atic. And then push the snake down the wall to where you want the cables to come up from. Then attack the cable to the snake, and pull it up the wall. Run it across the atic to where you want it, then push it down.. you should get a speaker wire distribution plate, so you can have the wires attach to that and then go into the wall nice and neatly. You should do this about this time of year, sense it will take you a couple of hours, for me to run 4 cables it took me about 4 hours in my parents living room.this should not be a project to be scard of, just take your time, and don’t force anything.. one thing to note, is if you are going to be running cables on any exterior walls, depending on the construction of your house, there will be more insulation in those walls and pose a bit more resistance…



one more thing, when you are in the atic, get your self, a ¼” piece of plywood to lye down on, so you will not be lyeing directly on the drywall that is your cealing.

Also, if you're goign to be disturbing insulation in your attic, wear long sleeves and pants. Fiberglass on your bare skin is very unpleasant.