Installation Help - Hiding Wires...

[98kotart]

Hi i'm new to the site. My name is Dan. I recently built a house in Greenville, SC and forgot to put conduit in the wall to run my wires. I have a tv mounted over my fireplace and I need to get some wires over about 10 feet to my media cabinet. I thought about running pvc or conduit outside from the side of the fireplace jut out, further down the wall. I havent done so yet because i feel that this may cause problems with climate but I am not sure. I read about people asking the same questions but no answers yet.
What I need to run to the tv is:
- 3 hdmi's
- RCA cables to suround sound
- 2 speaker wires
- VGA cable to computer

I may be missing something else but not sure.

I was looking at the cat5/6 to hdmi wall mounts but wasn't sure if this would solve my problem of running the wires outside or just a distance problem. If anyone can help me spell out what I have to do to install these things it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum, Dan!

There are people here with good experience running wires like that. My limited experience, though, says that running the wires to the outside of the house, down a wall, and back inside isn't a problem (I think that's what you mentioned). You'll want to cover them on the outside with something, and of course environmentally seal the two holes.

I'd like to poke at the wires that you're planning to run. You mention running wires between a TV and a media center, but the number and type of wires (specifically, the RCA and speaker wires) doesn't match what I would expect. Would you mind expanding on your description and tell us what components you're connecting? I'm wondering if we can help you run fewer wires.

 

[Rickster71]

Hi Dan
Do you have a basement, or an attic in this area?

 

[ACsGreens]

Hi i'm new to the site. My name is Dan. I recently built a house in Greenville, SC and forgot to put conduit in the wall to run my wires. I have a tv mounted over my fireplace and I need to get some wires over about 10 feet to my media cabinet. I thought about running pvc or conduit outside from the side of the fireplace jut out, further down the wall. I havent done so yet because i feel that this may cause problems with climate but I am not sure. I read about people asking the same questions but no answers yet.
What I need to run to the tv is:
- 3 hdmi's
- RCA cables to suround sound
- 2 speaker wires
- VGA cable to computer

I may be missing something else but not sure.

I was looking at the cat5/6 to hdmi wall mounts but wasn't sure if this would solve my problem of running the wires outside or just a distance problem. If anyone can help me spell out what I have to do to install these things it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much

Dan, I will help you with the install suggestions, but can you please post a few pics of the area and list the components and t.v you are running. Also, is it a cantilever fireplace?

 

[98kotart]

thanks guys. starting back toward the top. I do not have a basement or an attic which does make this hard. thats why I am having this problem. Also what I am running from the side to the tv is hdmi's, rca's going to the surround sound, speaker wire to connect the center speaker at the tv, and my vga computer cable. I will post some photos tomorrow afternoon showing the room and what I think I need to do. Thank you all for your help

 

[Rickster71]

Take a look at some of the raceway from Wiremold.
Nonmetallic Raceway
It's a good bet for home owner installations, and ends up looking good.

 

[Duff man]

I would just cut through the drywall, run the wires, and patch it later...but then again, I drywalled an entire house and could repair that in no time.

 

[caper26]

Raceway or cutting the drywall are basically your only options for that many wires. For onesies and twosies, you can fish them with fish tape. Another option is hiding behind baseboards. Check my DIY thread on this topic HERE.

 

[98kotart]

OK, Sorry for the hold up. Heres what I'm dealing with. Here are a few photos. I also included one before drywall so you can see studs, etc.

A recap of what I would like to do. I need to run a few hdmi's, vga cord, rca cable, and a speaker wire to the tv above the fireplace.

I am trying to hook up a computer tower, surround sound, cable and hdmi's

I really dont want to cut through the drywall to run all of my cords through the 2x4's so i'm wondering if I can put a pipe on the outside of the house that houses all of the wires and seal it on the outside. I was thinking run them from the tv, to the left, to under the stairs then pull them in and have a single opening in the wall where all my wires come to.
I have no attic, and no basement. Also, I live in Greenville, SC so no snow

If there is an easier way to do this please chime in.

to see left wall look below.

 

[Nestor]

You could run a piece of conduit outside, but I think it will stick out like a sore thumb.

You could extend the bulkhead with a piece of conduit but it still means drywall/mud/paint.

It seems like the house is fairly new. IMO, bite the bullet, open up the drywall and build a raceway. Once it's done, it's done.

 

[98kotart]

yeah i think ill run a conduit due to time and it is already painted. if it bothers me i will redo it inside. i will have a shed on that side anyways which will block the pipe so it wont affect me. anyone else's input may help also. thank you

 

[FirstReflection]

Yeah, that's a tricky one, alright

Normally, I'd be telling you to just use paintable flatwire , but their HDMI solution isn't ready yet.

I do wonder though, why do you need to run so many wires to your TV?!

The much better solution for you would be to use a capable AV Receiver so that you only need to run a single HDMI cable to your television. The receiver would act as your "hub", as it should, handling all of the switching between devices and audio duties. There are a number of AV receivers that include VGA computer inputs as well. They will simply convert the VGA signal to HDMI, just like all the other video input types.

If you do things that way - and I honestly think that you should - then you will only need to run a single HDMI cable from your AV receiver to your TV. Right now, it seems as though you're planning to run all of your sources directly to the television, and plan on using the televisions various inputs for switching between devices. That just doesn't make any sense to me

While not paper thin like the FlatWire stuff, there ARE fairly flat HDMI cables available. And if you're only running one of them - which is all that should be necessary - that should be easy enough to hide using an interior cable raceway. Or better yet, you could just get a regular, white HDMI cable that blends into your baseboard and not even hide it at all!

So, to me, your biggest issue isn't hiding all of the wires, it's questioning why you need to run so many wires to your TV in the first place! If you connect all of your devices to an AV receiver instead, that will allow you to run just a single HDMI cable to your TV. And so long as both your TV and AV receiver support ARC (Audio Return Channel), you can still connect your QAM Cable or Over-the-air antenna feed directly to your TV, and that very same HDMI cable will send the audio from the TV's internal tuner back to the receiver as well. It's truly a "one cable" solution. So I think your solution here is a good AV receiver and a single HDMI cable, not a conduit on the outside of your house

 

[98kotart]

Thank you very much for that input. As you can tell, I AM new to this and I greatly appreciate your input. I believe I will do it this way. As for how to run different video inputs, do you just change it on the receiver and it changes the tv?

Yeah, that's a tricky one, alright

Normally, I'd be telling you to just use paintable flatwire , but their HDMI solution isn't ready yet.

I do wonder though, why do you need to run so many wires to your TV?!

The much better solution for you would be to use a capable AV Receiver so that you only need to run a single HDMI cable to your television. The receiver would act as your "hub", as it should, handling all of the switching between devices and audio duties. There are a number of AV receivers that include VGA computer inputs as well. They will simply convert the VGA signal to HDMI, just like all the other video input types.

If you do things that way - and I honestly think that you should - then you will only need to run a single HDMI cable from your AV receiver to your TV. Right now, it seems as though you're planning to run all of your sources directly to the television, and plan on using the televisions various inputs for switching between devices. That just doesn't make any sense to me

While not paper thin like the FlatWire stuff, there ARE fairly flat HDMI cables available. And if you're only running one of them - which is all that should be necessary - that should be easy enough to hide using an interior cable raceway. Or better yet, you could just get a regular, white HDMI cable that blends into your baseboard and not even hide it at all!

So, to me, your biggest issue isn't hiding all of the wires, it's questioning why you need to run so many wires to your TV in the first place! If you connect all of your devices to an AV receiver instead, that will allow you to run just a single HDMI cable to your TV. And so long as both your TV and AV receiver support ARC (Audio Return Channel), you can still connect your QAM Cable or Over-the-air antenna feed directly to your TV, and that very same HDMI cable will send the audio from the TV's internal tuner back to the receiver as well. It's truly a "one cable" solution. So I think your solution here is a good AV receiver and a single HDMI cable, not a conduit on the outside of your house

 

[Adam]

So, to me, your biggest issue isn't hiding all of the wires, it's questioning why you need to run so many wires to your TV in the first place!

Agreed. That's why I asked in the beginning.

Dan said that he wants a center channel speaker over there, too. So, he still needs to run some speaker wire to that location from the receiver to that speaker. There are flat speaker wires that work very well.

 

[Duff man]

Is that vinyl siding on the house?? Vinyl siding expands and contracts with changes in temperatures, making it difficult to properly seal any openings against weather. Based on my limited construction experience, making a hole in an exterior wall should be avoided whenever possible.

I would bite the bullet and cut the drywall. A handy DIY'er can repair that in no time.

 

[Rickster71]

Cutting out the drywall behind the base molding and hiding it there is an option.
The other option is to hide it behind the vinyl siding outside. You'll need a siding tool and a drill.
You need someone that's experienced at running wire, that has all the needed tools. Considering it's all low voltage, it's a fairly easy job.

 

[caper26]

you should only need to run ONE cable to your TV.. HDMI. let your receiver do the rest.

 

[slipperybidness]

you should only need to run ONE cable to your TV.. HDMI. let your receiver do the rest.

In this case, I think 2. Second cable actually will be speaker wire for the center channel, not to the Tv.

 

[caper26]

thats right.

 

[FirstReflection]

True. But at least with the speaker wire, you can use the paintable, paper thin, flat speaker wire from Axiom or FlatWireReady if you want to