Fishing wires

[desgnr]

How can i fish a wire from the basement to the 1st. floor when the wall i want to fish is bearing & i can't get directly under it to drill the hole straight up through the wall ?

[Reno]

"desgnr" wrote in news:hq72lv$1ijg$ [e-mail]:

Remove the baseboard and drill a smal hole hrouh floor that will be hidden when baseboard is replaced. Drill hole through wall from side that will be hidden by baseboard. Fish wire up into wall. You will need to cut depression into base of wall so wire can be recessed and baseboard can sit flush.

[jamesgangnc]

Or cut out a section of wall board big enough to let you put a drill in. Then patch it when you are done.

[DerbyDad03]

Cut and patch. Repeat as required.

[Bob F]

Cut a hole in the middle of the wall, and use a long flex drill to drill the top and bottom plates.

[Pete C.]

The normal procedure is to drill up at an angle so that the drill enters the stud cavity. You of course have to be careful to get your angle and starting point correct so that the trajectory is correct, and you have to be careful to stop once the bit is in the stud cavity or you risk over penetrating and going through the sheetrock on the far side.

Crude ASCII art:

|| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || / || ===/======= ======/============== / / / /

[DerbyDad03]

re: "you have to be careful to stop once the bit is in the stud cavity or you risk over penetrating and going through the sheetrock on the far side"

Many years ago I had to drill a hole in corner of a closet up into the attic. This closet happened to be right near the exterior wall where there is not a lot of room between the roof and the attic floor.

The crawl space attic has plywood on the joists for storage, so I knew that I would feel my long bit go through the plaster ceiling, into the free space of the joist cavity, and then through the plywood. That's exactly what I felt as I drilled.

I unchucked the bit, left it in the hole and went up into the attic to locate it.

Imagine my dismay when I realized that I missed the edge of the plywood by less than an inch and had actually drilled through the roof!

My simple cable fishing project turned into a trip to the store for roofing tar and a trip onto the roof - in the rain - to fix the hole.

[hrhofmann]

Just proves your human after all.

[RBM]

One thing you can do, as a marker, is to take one of those thin wires that are used to hold up insulation batts. You can get them in 18" lengths. With a pliers, cut one end at a very sharp angle, put the wire in your drill and drill straight down against the baseboard, through the floor and sub floor. When you see the wire in the basement, you'll be able to judge exactly how far from your wire to the center of the bay is, and you can drill up safely into the bay.

[aemeijers]

Rueful chuckle- BTDT, but the other direction. Shortly after buying this place, rewiring bathroom. Drilling down from attic, through old rock-hard doug fir top plates for wall (with worn out drill and dull foot-long spade bit), to fish wire down shallow stud bay where bathroom switches were. Unknown to me, the plates were not evenly laid. Ended up blowing a long tapered hole in drywall out into the bathroom.

At least I managed to smoke that drill, and it is now reserved for paint-stirring duty, since it wobbles like mad.

IOW, it happens to all of us once in a while.

[clare]

Drill the hole on an angle from the edge and use a good steel fish tape. (and pray there are no "fire stops" or crossmembers in the stud bay you select.

[clare]

IF you do this you MUST put a steel plate over where the wire gous past the sill-plate to prevent nails from the baseboard being able to hit the wire.

[mm]

Many years ago, I wanted to run some wires, (for phone, speakers, tv antenna co-ax, and ceiling light switch) from the attic down the outside wall of the house. My eaves are very short so I couldn't get a drill to stand up because it hit the roof in the process. I even bought a 90^ angle thing but with it and the chuck, still too long.

I tried loads of times but didn't get through the top plate or something, until finally I did.

But to be sure, I climbed out of the attic, ran outside to the back of the house, and there it was, 3 feet of drill bit sticking out of my wall.

Imagine my dismay when I saw the bit.

My cable fishing project -- I wouldn't call it simple now -- turned into a trip to the store for brown latex caulk. My wall was t1-11, painted russet brown, lucky for me, the same color as brown caulk.

It's been 26 years and it has not changed color or shrunk in all that time, even though it faces south. And I never even notice it because it's the same color.

I guess I'm luckier than you are, or maybe the moral is, drill down and not up.

I never could get the hole drilled right -- I probably gave up when I drilled the hole in the wall -- so I drilled up from just inside the wall and into the wall below the plate and ran the wires where it could be seen down from the attic and immediately into the wall. I had to come out again to bypass the fire-stop. I really must patch those places some day.

>

[Evan]

@desgnr:

Bob F. and Pete C. are offering you good advice... You just need to combine the advice and use all of it together...

I will add to their suggestions by saying that you should locate where you want to put your outlet boxes first...

See if the bottom of those stud cavities are accessible and you don't have things like pipes or ductwork blocking them from below, then cut the hole for your old work outlet box in the wall at the proper height... Use that hole for access to drill from the top, through the bottom plate, floor and sub floor and hope you aren't right above a floor joist underneath... You will be able to make a better attempt at getting the hole for the wire centered in the wall stud bay as best as you can by drilling from the top down...

That is why those long drill bits were made, for electricians to be able to drill and fish the wires without having to cut into the walls beyond what was required for installing the box...

Is this wire being fished for a lighting circuit or switch loop, or are you installing wall outlets ? If it is for a switch loop, then you have to cut into the wall down low to drill and repair it afterward unless you are good with installing an outlet in the same bay down below the switch box...

The comments made about fire blocking are very true... Hope that you don't encounter it as it is very aggravating to have to break into the wall to properly route wires around such blocking...

Good Luck...

~~ Evan