Wiring speakers - in wall wiring advice please

[AParsh]

Hey guys,

I want to know the cleanest / easiest way to run speaker wire in the walls for a clean installation. My studs are ever 12inches, so it seems i'm going to have to drill through a lot of studs. Should i remove the baseboard and cut a hole near every stud, slide a right angle drill in with a spade drill bit, then vacuum out the dust? I think i'll need to drill about 4 or 5 on each side to get to the right distance from the main wall plate. Seems like a lot of cutting, and it makes me a bit nervous since i've never done this before.

(Long) Back story -

I just bought a new house (new construction) that i'll be moving into this Friday (finally).
It was not custom built so everyone thinking "oh this is easy, just run the wiring before you lay the drywall" that is not an option and never was with this specific builder. They drywall is already in place, the house is already complete right this second as i write this.

I'm wanting to wire everything very clean for both the downstairs family room and the loft (basically a second family room upstairs). 5.2 downstairs, 5.1 upstairs, i already have all the equipment, wiring, and probably most of the tools.

I'd prefer to have speaker wires ran inside the walls, and have bought nice wall plates.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OJ457AQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00
+RiveAV custom single gang plates that has 1x Sub & 4x Speaker.

I'd prefer to have everything wired inside the walls so if i need to remove the speakers for some reason, i can remove the cable and everything is clean, no wires hanging out.

I'll try to explain how i want to wire:
-Center: receiver directly to center speaker
-Front Left: receiver to 3gang wall plate, through wall, to RiteAV plate, then to speaker
-Front Right: receiver to 3gang wall plate, through wall, to RiteAV plate, then to speaker
-Rear Left: receiver to 3gang wall plate, through wall, to RiteAV plate, ran inside of cable concealment to rear of room high near ceiling to speaker
-Rear Right: receiver to 3gang wall plate, through wall, to RiteAV plate, ran inside of cable concealment to rear of room high near ceiling to speaker
-Left Sub: receiver to 3gang wall plate, through wall, to RiteAV plate, then to sub
-Right Sub: receiver to 3gang wall plate, through wall, to RiteAV plate, then to sub

Thanks in advance.

 

[AParsh]

Bump!

 

[TheWarrior]

Do you have a crawlspace, or an open ceiling available under the floor? How about an attic?

It would be much, much easier to run all speaker cables through one hole behind your receiver. And then direct the wires up or down, distributing the wires to each speaker location by drilling through the base plate (if going from underneath) or the top plate (from above).

You're in CA, which means you'll have fire blocks in those walls. Those are merely 2x4's placed perpendicular to the studs so that any heat/smoke rising from below would suffocate, or at least be slowed down. You will want to identify their locations as that will affect where you can have your speaker cables exit the wall. You CANNOT drill through those fire blocks if you ever want to resell your house!

Only other recommendation is the speaker wire needs to be kept away from electrical wire. In places where this is unavoidable, either run the speaker cable parallel to electrical, I believe a minimum of 16" away, or make them cross perpendicularly, but you can only do that once!

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

In-Wall Wiring for your Home Theater

 

[AParsh]

Do you have a crawlspace, or an open ceiling available under the floor? How about an attic?

It would be much, much easier to run all speaker cables through one hole behind your receiver. And then direct the wires up or down, distributing the wires to each speaker location by drilling through the base plate (if going from underneath) or the top plate (from above).

You're in CA, which means you'll have fire blocks in those walls. Those are merely 2x4's placed perpendicular to the studs so that any heat/smoke rising from below would suffocate, or at least be slowed down. You will want to identify their locations as that will affect where you can have your speaker cables exit the wall. You CANNOT drill through those fire blocks if you ever want to resell your house!

Only other recommendation is the speaker wire needs to be kept away from electrical wire. In places where this is unavoidable, either run the speaker cable parallel to electrical, I believe a minimum of 16" away, or make them cross perpendicularly, but you can only do that once!

Yes i do have fire blocks and know where they are...not planning on going anywhere near them, i dont need to.

No crawlspace, not going through the ceiling or the floor...

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

In that case, what you discussed in your first post is your only option.

Hey guys,

My studs are ever 12inches, so it seems i'm going to have to drill through a lot of studs. Should i remove the baseboard and cut a hole near every stud, slide a right angle drill in with a spade drill bit, then vacuum out the dust? I think i'll need to drill about 4 or 5 on each side to get to the right distance from the main wall plate. Seems like a lot of cutting, and it makes me a bit nervous since i've never done this before.

I'd highly recommend using an auger bit instead of a spade bit. Part 4 of my article has some tips on getting speaker wire up from baseboards to the speaker locations.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt