Hidden Speaker Wire

[rjb294]

I just bought a new house and I want to run the speaker wire through the walls to my rear speakers. It is a slab house with an attic. Does anyone know the best way to do this? I don't want to tear up the wall, due to my wife complaining. Does anyone know the best way to go about doing this? Also what wire to use? Help!

[dougdrake]

Time to explore the attic!! I can't speak to what wires you should use from a "code" standpoint. I just ran regular ol' 12 gauge from Home Depot. You should be able to fish the wires up/down inside the walls with relative ease if you can get to the header rail in the attic (the 2x4 that forms the top of the wall). (Hope you don't have fire stops -- horizontal 2x4s fastened between the framing 2x4's -- those could be a pain to drill through, but it can be done with a very long drill bit. They make them for this purpose -- about 4-5 long, and flexible.)

Get a stud finder to see if you've got firestops in the walls first, just so you know what you're up against.

A trick to make it easy to find the top of the wall when you are in the attic is to shove a length of really stiff wire (like a coat hanger or the center of coax cable) through the ceiling drywall near where the wall and the ceiling meet. Then, you can find the wire in the attic to give you a landmark to work from.

If you have insulation in the wall, that will make fishing the wire a bit trickier. You can buy a wire snake at the hardware store which is designed for fishing wire which can make the job easier.

Ooorrrr, if you have baseboards that you can remove, you may be able to just gently pry them off the wall, and run the wire in the narrow gap that probably exists between the bottom of the sheet of drywall and the slab. That is an alternative if you can't access the wall top from the attic.

We have a new member of the forum who is a custom installer, so I'm sure he can chime in with much better info than I have.

Doug

[rjb294]

The problem is that I know I can get the wire along the baseboard for the right speaker, but getting the left speaker up will be the problem. There is an open space (a hall and the entry way) that wire could not be fished under. There is just plain carpet there, that is why I was wanting to go through the walls. Thanks for the advice though and if you have any other suggestions please let me know! Thanks

[Malcolm]

If you are in the U.S.A., you will probably need to use CL2 or CL3 rated cable to meet code. I used 12 gauge, stranded, twisted pair architectural cable. You can get appropriately rated cable from places like www.partsexpress.com. Your local home improvement center may or may not have it. Mine did not have it in 12 gauge.

My house is a frame house with an accessible attic. Interior walls were a snap, no firestops. Just drill a hole in the top plate, drop the cable through, cut a hole in the drywall, fish the cable through and terminate with appropriate plate. I used Leviton QuickPort plates with binding posts. I also put boxes in the wall. But they are not required for low voltage wiring like speaker cables. Don't run speaker cables through the same holes as your electrical wiring.

Exterior walls were more difficult because of firestops and insulation. It is more difficult to fish the cable with insulation in the wall. You also need to be careful not to damage insulation vapor barriers . The big problem is the firestops. Sometimes it is possible to drill through the firestops without opening up the wall. There are long bits that can be used to do this. They can be found at some home improvement centers. In my case, this would not work. So, I had to open up the wall to drill the holes in the firestop. With a little care in closing up, there should be no indication you were ever in the wall. Of course, I did this before priming and painting the entire room. And how much work is involved depends on the kind of interior wall you have. Mine is gypsum board with a knockdown finish. Plaster on lath would be another story.

[dougdrake]

Another trick for pulling wire if you have a difficult environment (fire stops/insulation) in the wall is to use an existing wire as a pull string. For example, if you have a phone jack in said wall, disconnect the wire from the phone jack, secure your speaker cable AND A PULL STRING SECURELY to the phone wire, then pull the phone wire up the wall from above in the attic. Remove the speaker wire, resecure the pull string to the phone wire, and then pull the phone wire back down the wall using the pull string.

Re getting under the carpet if you use baseboards for your run...you can buy flat speaker wire which you could pull under the carpet where it goes through the doorway. You will have to carefully lift a small section of carpet up from the tack strips, but you should be able to replace it with no problem. Which brings up another thought...if you have carpet up against the baseboards, you will possibly need to lift the carpet along the entire wall and run the wire along the inside edge of the tack strips rather than behind the base boards. Just depends on your situation. You can trim the carpet pad back from the tack boards to create a channel for the wire to run in.

DD

[jtkinney]

I did what Doug suggested and ran the wire along the carpet next to the baseboard. I also pulled the wire under the carpet to cross a hall. I used an antenna (ham or CB radio, but electrical fish tape would have worked) to fish the wires under the padding.

Another option that I was going to use is Crown Moulding around the ceiling. When I was using RS3's for surrounds, they were mounted at the ceiling/wall joint. The only way to get wires would have been the moulding (2 story house, family room downstairs). Since I switched to LaScalas for surrounds I don't need the moulding.

[dougdrake]

JT - Did you dispense with the artfully-draped-across-the-air-conditioning-vent method of cable running?

Re the crown molding on a 2-story... Where's your sense of adventure? I remember one time when my Dad was putting a couple of sconces on a wall, and there was a pocket door that slid into the wall he was "sconcing." Made it pretty tough to run wires in the wall!!! Not to be stopped, he got out his trusty Dremel tool, carved a trough in the drywall, ran the wires in the trough, and patched it all back up with dry wall patch. Couldn't tell he'd ever been there!

DD

[jdm56]

Another option to consider might be that plastic molding that can replace your baseboard molding or can be mounted parallel to it. It is hollow, so you can run your wires inside it. It could even be run up higher on the wall, as a trim to a wainscoated wall. I'm not sure off-hand what the brand name is, but I've seen it here in SW Missouri at Sutherlands.

[jtkinney]

Yes Doug, the swagged speaker wire from the AC vent is gone.

If the walls weren't textured, I would have cut into them a long time ago. It's such a pain to match the texture, that I look for other means.

[dougdrake]

JT - Ya know I was just pulling your leg. You wouldn't find me cutting troughs in my walls, either (LOL)!

[NOZ]

I ran mine before the carpet and base boards were put in. Turned out great. The drywall guy showed up early, before I had a chance to wire in my surrounds, so I ran the wire just below the bottom of the drywall and secured it with electrical staples. I then cut a small hole in the drywall just above the base plate, and directly below the surround mounting. I then cut a small hole directly behind the surround and fished the wire up and voila...

They are mounted on insulated walls, so it took a lot of patience, but well worth it. It looks soooo much better than seeing a wire running up the wall.