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Wiring Behind the Wall

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hypernova:
In anticipation of possibly getting a 360, I've thought about running some network lines in the house.  I've had times where I've wanted/needed to do this with coax, telephone, and network wiring before, but wasn't confident enough to do it, as I've always wondered a little bit on working behind the wall.

My main question are these:
How am I supposed to run wiring behind a wall that already exists without tearing it up?
Is there a piece of plywood or 2x4 between floors behind the wall?  i.e. if I open a hole on the second floor, and try to drop a cable down to the first floor, or furthur into the basement, will it actually make it there, or will it just rest on whatever floor I'm on because something physically separates the floors?

In the past, I've just used longer cables to bypass destroying walls and such, and/or tucked wires into the space between the carpet and floor molding (when on the same floor).  The possible future 360 is just another reason for me to learn this thing.  And I'd rather not spend the extra money for the wireless adapter, either.

Expressline99:
The walls of the house will be sitting on a layer of plywood (most likely) from your 2nd floor. So if you open up the wall on the upper
floor you will have to drill through the bottom of the wall (1 2x4 or 2x6) then through the plywood.... That will get you into the
area where the floor joist are. Of which you do not want to make a vertical hole through. So you'll have to figure out where your floor
joist are and drill between them. Once through the open space there you have to drill through 2 (2x4's or 2x6's) Which will be the
top of the wall below..... That would get you into the wall on your 1st floor.  However, most of the time there are blocks between
each stud that makes up the wall. About half way up....those run horizontally So you'd have to get through that some how if you wanted
the cable lower.

Best bet would probably be getting some UV rated wire and run it outside then into the room...and like you said tucking it between the carpet
and the baseboard.... or from there you could pull off a section of baseboard and cut the drywall down low...drilling holes on each stud
until you got the wire to the area you wanted....then you could pull the wire up into an "old Work" box. After that you would just have to put the
baseboard back over the area's you had cut out thus covering up the work.

Wireless adapter might be the way to go...depends on what you want to do.

Ed_McCarron:
Depends on how the house was framed.  Older houses are typically balloon framed (at least in my area of PA) where the stud cavities run from the attic to the basement - makes running wires a cakewalk, but insulating impossible.

Whats the ceiling like?  You can often cut a hole above it if its a suspended ceiling, and run the cable there.  Drop vertically to a cutout.  If its all low voltage, look into these:

http://homeavcables.com/71002.html

No worrying about boxes.  Don't use these for anything other than AV stuff.

You can also buy a drill bit thats about 6' long and bends - Home depot carries 'em.  You cut an outlet box, and start the bit down into the sillplate at the bottom of the wall.  It'll walk itself right into the basement.  Have your helper tie a string onto the hole provided in the bit and pull it back up to create your fish.

http://cableorganizer.com/greenlee/auger-d-versibit/

To go from the second floor to the basement, do like I just said on BOTH floors.  You'll end up putting a blank on the first floor, or patching the hole.

protokatie:
http://www.wiretracks.com/prod-rf.html

I saw something about this sort of thing in the TV series "Beyond 2000" back in the 90's. This seems to be the way to go if you do not want to do too much work, but still want to have "in wall" wiring.

EDIT: This method allows for a very easy way to add and remove wiring, so is a must for an easy upgrade path. Also, you can make these sorts of things if you have the tools.

SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: Expressline99 on November 15, 2009, 06:59:58 pm ---However, most of the time there are blocks between
each stud that makes up the wall. About half way up....those run horizontally So you'd have to get through that some how if you wanted
the cable lower.
--- End quote ---

You mean the fire stop? You'll need something like a flexible drill extension to punch through the fire stop. I'm still pissed off that one of my ex-employees tossed a sectional 30' one. That ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- is expensive  :angry:

Darn it! Ed described the process better than I could. I only partially disagree about the AV boxes. Functionally, they're useless but cosmetically I find wires coming out of random holes in the wall irritating as hell. Pissed me off when the cable guy threaded 12' of cable into the living room and didn't even bother A) putting it in a decent place and B) putting some sort of plug to prevent bugs and water from coming in.

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