Installation assistance

[noaudexp]

I have a room that I need to run wires for 2 rear speakers.

The joists go the wrong way to start. It's my living room and I'm looking for suggestions. These are wall mounted speakers. They will need to be high enough off the floor to keep them away from inquisitive fingers.

I have photos of the room that I posted on a separate thread. They are located here on the 4th page:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=537413#post537413

Any recommendations? My FiL wants to run the cables through a hole in that in-wall cabinet down to the basement, across the ceiling of the basement, up the floor, out the Northwall onto our deck, up the outside of the house and back in again. I say piss on that. We're not going Sanford & Son on my house.

The receiver is supposed to come tomorrow but the speaker wires are not scheduled to get here till Monday. So I have some time. I am also fairly patient and willing to sacrifice time up front for the longevity and soundness of good planning. The receiver will live in the in-wall cabinet to the left of the TV. Which is on the South wall.

The 2 rear speakers will go on the South wall. I plan on moving the couch a little forward so the rears are effective. Oh and I bought some poseable wall mounts for the speakers due.. sometime. Any suggestions on where these speakers should go and how to run cable to them will be greatly appreciated!

The room runs: 25' x 15' x 8' with the joists in the ceiling running east to west.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[popotoys]

Is your basement finished?

If it is open, you could run down to there then back up to your room. Pull up carpet and fish up wall to speaker location.

Other suggestion is to get some flat speaker wire and run under carpet and along baseboard.

 

[noaudexp]

The basement was completely finished by the previous owners.

 

[highfigh]

I have a room that I need to run wires for 2 rear speakers.

The joists go the wrong way to start. It's my living room and I'm looking for suggestions. These are wall mounted speakers. They will need to be high enough off the floor to keep them away from inquisitive fingers.

I have photos of the room that I posted on a separate thread. They are located here on the 4th page:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=537413#post537413

Any recommendations? My FiL wants to run the cables through a hole in that in-wall cabinet down to the basement, across the ceiling of the basement, up the floor, out the Northwall onto our deck, up the outside of the house and back in again. I say piss on that. We're not going Sanford & Son on my house.

The receiver is supposed to come tomorrow but the speaker wires are not scheduled to get here till Monday. So I have some time. I am also fairly patient and willing to sacrifice time up front for the longevity and soundness of good planning. The receiver will live in the in-wall cabinet to the left of the TV. Which is on the South wall.

The 2 rear speakers will go on the South wall. I plan on moving the couch a little forward so the rears are effective. Oh and I bought some poseable wall mounts for the speakers due.. sometime. Any suggestions on where these speakers should go and how to run cable to them will be greatly appreciated!

The room runs: 25' x 15' x 8' with the joists in the ceiling running east to west.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

You had already planned to install crown molding, right? Right? Of course you were! That would make it easy AND add a little to the room's aesthetics. If not and since you have a basement, is it drywall or suspended ceiling? If it's drywall and there's an area that hasn't been finished, look over the top and see if furring strips were used. These should run perpendicular to the floor joists and might be all you need as far as space for running the wires. If the room where you want the speakers is carpeted, get a long 1/8" drill bit and shoot a hole right next to the shoe molding but make sure the bit can't grab the thread and unravel it (start by setting the drill to Reverse- it'll make it harder to grab). Once the hole is through to the basement (Drill on an angle so you don't end up trying to drill through the joist if you happen to be lined up with it), straighten a wire coat hanger and push it through the hole, into the basement, so you can see it by shining a light at it (use a white hanger if you can). This is much easier if the ceiling is suspended and you can remove the tiles. Once you can see where the wire comes down, you will be able to see if it's possible to drill upward, into the stud space. If the house has plywood or OSB sub flooring, you'll need to determine how far out the wall is framed, because you won't be able to see it like you can if they used tar paper and angled 1x sub flooring- with this method of framing, you can actually see the bottom plate of the wall.

Harbor Freight has push rods on sale now and they're really cheap. The make fishing wires much easier. If the wall is insulated (it should be), you'll need to tape the speaker wire onto the bottom end of the push rod, not the end that feeds into the wall. If you ever need to fish wires in an uninsulated wall, go to the lighting department at Home Depot and buy a long ball chain for a ceiling fan (mine is 12' long and has 30 lb tensile strength). This can be taped to the end of the rod and dropped into the wall space and if you go to the tool section, they have a few types of flexible magnets- one kind is on a metal stick and just pivots, but the other kind is flexible and can be bent. As long as it's not too flexible, it should be OK. Push the magnet into the hole at the bottom of the wall and twirl it around so it can grab the chain. Slowly pull the chain out and tape the wire onto it so it can be pulled out.

Two people makes this not suck too bad, unless you end up with the guy I worked with, who didn't usually think, listen, think, pay attention or worry about what the other people on the job were doing.

 

[noaudexp]

I'm doing it with the guy that looks like he's being shot at by the girl making the snow angel...

Aside from that, the basement is finished with that wood-looking paneling against concrete. There's crown molding in the basement but not the first floor living room, go figure. The basement ceiling is some kind of drop ceiling that dovetails together and is not meant to come apart.. from what I understand. I have to say that my construction experience pretty much ends at framing houses and I only did that for 1 summer. The house was built in '75 finished in '76.

There's loads of space behind that fasure around the fireplace and behind the inset cabinet. That space is where we've run cable down into the basement.

My FiL wants to do the easiest thing possible. I want it to look the best it can.

highfigh it sounds like you ran into one of my friends... or me when I was younger. Did we know each other? j/k.

I'll ask my FiL about those possible scenarios you have presented and see what he makes of that information.

This is a man that said we'd need an electrician to install recessed lighting and I've seen the DIY articles on the web.. it's not THAT hard. My only reservation is that the former owners of this house went hog wild with finishing everything. I had mentioned the molding but the FiL said it was expensive. I'm going to research it more.. I think that may be the ticket.

 

[highfigh]

I'm doing it with the guy that looks like he's being shot at by the girl making the snow angel...

Aside from that, the basement is finished with that wood-looking paneling against concrete. There's crown molding in the basement but not the first floor living room, go figure. The basement ceiling is some kind of drop ceiling that dovetails together and is not meant to come apart.. from what I understand. I have to say that my construction experience pretty much ends at framing houses and I only did that for 1 summer. The house was built in '75 finished in '76.

There's loads of space behind that fasure around the fireplace and behind the inset cabinet. That space is where we've run cable down into the basement.

My FiL wants to do the easiest thing possible. I want it to look the best it can.

highfigh it sounds like you ran into one of my friends... or me when I was younger. Did we know each other? j/k.

I'll ask my FiL about those possible scenarios you have presented and see what he makes of that information.

This is a man that said we'd need an electrician to install recessed lighting and I've seen the DIY articles on the web.. it's not THAT hard. My only reservation is that the former owners of this house went hog wild with finishing everything. I had mentioned the molding but the FiL said it was expensive. I'm going to research it more.. I think that may be the ticket.

If you go with crown molding, look for a blue-green plastic holder that sets the angle for cutting it on a miter saw (ideally, a compound miter saw).
http://www.cutncrown.com/

I have to think this will be the easiest way to get it there without going outside or into the basement. That ceiling tile is stapled in place and once it comes out, it can be replaced but you'd have to cut the tongue off on two sides, then either glue it back up or use a brad nail in each corner, which will always be visible.

 

[noaudexp]

So I would drill a hole at the top of the wall, run the wire up the inside of the wall and out at a hole at the top. Fix the wire to the joining corner of the wall and ceiling, run it around to the right locations, drill another hole in, run the wire down the wall and then out again at the speaker location?.

After all that I put the molding up?

 

[highfigh]

So I would drill a hole at the top of the wall, run the wire up the inside of the wall and out at a hole at the top. Fix the wire to the joining corner of the wall and ceiling, run it around to the right locations, drill another hole in, run the wire down the wall and then out again at the speaker location?.

After all that I put the molding up?

That pretty much covers it. Use a stud finder and nail into them when you install the molding, use 4 conductor speaker cable (takes up less space and is easier to fasten one run than two) and when you get to the first speaker (closest to the amp), bring the whole cable into the speaker location, leave a loop and bring the end out so it can go on to the second speaker location. That way, when you cut the cable, any cutting and/or splicing is done where you can get to it later, if necessary. One Cardinal Rule of installing is that you never want to make a splice that will be hidden in a wall or behind anything that is hard to remove.

 

[noaudexp]

That pretty much covers it. Use a stud finder and nail into them when you install the molding, use 4 conductor speaker cable (takes up less space and is easier to fasten one run than two) and when you get to the first speaker (closest to the amp), bring the whole cable into the speaker location, leave a loop and bring the end out so it can go on to the second speaker location. That way, when you cut the cable, any cutting and/or splicing is done where you can get to it later, if necessary. One Cardinal Rule of installing is that you never want to make a splice that will be hidden in a wall or behind anything that is hard to remove.

I already bought 14AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Loud Speaker Cable - 100ft

Should be arriving Monday.

Got my receiver yesterday. It's lovely. I haven't turned it on yet as I have no speaker cable but I am excited to get this ball rolling. This entire project started before Christmas. I'll be glad when it's finished.