Wiring wall-mounted speakers

[AlexJDB]

Hi,

I just purchased a home theater speaker set and would like to wire it through my walls, even though they are all closed. Is there a cheap way to do this without destructing everything ?

Thanks

[avid_hiker]

Take a look here....this will give you some ideas of what you can do in your own particular install. There are many different methods.....

Probably the cheapest method is to make channels in your existing baseboard for the speaker wire and install behind the baseboard........then up your wall to desired location.

[Malcolm Hoar]

Yes, but you'll need some specialized tools and it *really* helps if you have some experience and know the tricks. It's called "fishing" and you'll need a "fish tape" as a minimum (available at Home Depot et al).

The pro's who install home security systems are typically

*very* good at this. Maybe you can find one who will do the job on-the-side for a modest amount of cash.

Electricians, telephone installers and others are often able to handle jobs like this. But the home security guys are far better at it in my experience.

[AlexJDB]

Thanks for this great site. It'll be very helpful ;-)

[Karl S]

You can get something like this to get the wire underneath the speaker location, then fish from the speaker to the baseboard:

Something similar is available at hardware stores including Home Depot.

If I had a new house built, I would include a system for routing low voltage wires.

[Pete C.]

It's really not all the difficult in most cases unless you have very unusual construction. I helped a friend install a whole house audio setup in his new house and after we did a few pulls together one evening he was able to do several more the next evening without me. The biggest trick is in mapping and measuring properly to insure you are working the correct wall cavity.

Pete C.

[MLD]

If there is room to crawl around, one way is to go down from the attic through the wall header, into the desired wall cavity and out where you want it. Usual clues as to wall location is the electrical wiring from attic to an outlet. MLD

[Pete C.]

Attic down or basement up are certainly the easiest. Entirely possible to do with finished space above and below though.

Pete C.

[MLD]

In my opinion, the experts at running wires are the guys who put in home alarm systems. I just couldn't believe the way they fished wires through out the house--basement, attic, finished ceilings/walls, door and window sensors etc. Our TV company will only run the cable from the pole to the house. All interior wiring is up to you. I ran everything from the attic, down the interior walls and fished the cable out at the desired cable jack locations. Thinking about it turned out to be more of a headache than doing it. MLD

[mm]

Yes. A lot depends on whether one is doing this on the top floor of one's house, or the floor above an unfinished basement. And to a small extent on whether the speakers go on the floor or closer to the ceiling.

In houses like mine, it's easier to go from the attic down, because the walls below are totally obvious from the attic. One sees the wood

2x4 that is the top plate of the wall framing. The rest is the back side of the ceiling sheetrock.

From the basement, one only sees the plywood floor above, and the walls are on top of that. But like someone said, you can determine where the walls are by looking for electric cables that go up into the wall. Or you can make a hole in the wall above, and use a long flexible drill bit to drill down into the basement (being careful not to drill through anything (which might mean wrapping the drill shaft with tape so that when the taped part reaches the wall, you know the tip of the drill is just coming out the bottom of the wall.

But from the attic you can just drill a hole and drop the wire down, then use your fingers or a bent coat hanger to fish it out where the speakers are.

I'm not sure how many interior walls have fire stops in them. (horizontal pieces of 2x4 half way up the wall or so.) My upstairs interior walls don't. But my speakers are near the ceiling so it didn't matter.

With a partly finished basement, one can use two snakes, one vertical and then hooking it with a horizontal one. I did my rear door switch for the burglar alarm myself this way, and I was lucky, but it will likely be a lot quicker with a helper.