Recommended Installers in Seattle/Bellevue (1 Viewer)

[Paul E]

I'm looking for installer to do my in-wall wiring for my 6-speaker system( 5 wall mounts), and don't want to get hammered on excessive fees. Anybody out there had experience with installers in Pacific NW, Bellevue-Redmond area of Washington State?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Trace Ahlers]

Paul, I noticed that you haven't gotten any help yet.
I live in Tacoma and although I don't know any one in particular, I might suggest that you check into the people responsible for the "Street of Dreams" projects.
Just a thought.
Trace

 

[scott>sau]

www.cedia.org will have a list of qualified designers and installers in your area.

 

[Jared Brock]

Wow! The street of dream installers......ummm....way expensive. My mom used to decorate those houses and let's just say *cough*overcharge*cough*. It sounds like this is in an already finished house? Have you though about trying it yourself? I used to be an electrician and running wires like that is usually pretty easy even for a first timer. Now if your house is valued at 1 million I could see why you wouldn't do it yourself, but otherwise it might be worth looking into. Is it first floor or top floor? If it's first floor it should have a crawl space underneath for code. The it's easy to run wire underneath and shoot it up to where you want it. If it's top floor and there's an attic above, even easier. Then you can just drop the wire down from there.
And if you still don't want to tackle it yourself, I would check out a licensed electrical contractor like Valley Elec. They're not specifically "audio" but I'm sure they could run something like that for a reasonable charge.
I hope that helps,
Jared

 

[scott>sau]

Jared is right, it's not that hard. www.swhowto.com is insightful. www.lsdinc.com has all the specialty tools for the job. All but one, the coveted Milwaukee "Hole-Hog" from your home improvment store. Don't drill without it!

 

[Paul E]

Thanks. I've been toying with self install idea. The only problem is that it's a brand new home, and I don't want to @#!% it up The exterior walls have insulation and probably some horizontal 2X6's between some of the wall studs. How do you deal with that?? Huge crawl (10-13') high, so that's not a worry. Also do i have to use fire rated speaker wire? I have 16 gauge now, longest run is 30'.

Paul:b

 

[Jared Brock]

What you would want to use for speaker wire is the in wall speaker wire. I would recommend going with 12 or 14 gauge. Even though you might not need it now, you only want to run stuf like that once Is it a custom home, or is it like a more common builders plan home? The reason I ask is that most common homes don't have horizontal 2x6 in the walls unless it's a header for a window/door, or the top and bottom of a wall. If for some reason you do have horizontal 2x6 blocking the way, you're outta luck.

It sounds like this is the bottom floor? And you have a big crawl below? That's cool, makes it pretty easy unless you want to have the speakers really high up the wall.

What I would suggest(disclaimer, at your own risk) is to go lay out in your room where the wires will come from and where they will come out in the room. Then pace that out down below to figure out where you're drilling. Be very careful drilling the holes, you just need to break through the wood. There shouldn't be any wires or anything close to the floor(usually like plug height though) but it's good to be cautious. Then once you get the holes drilled, stick a straightened out coat hanger or a wire fish up into the hole to make sure there's nothing in the way. Then once you make sure all the holes are clear and all the wires can go up into the wall I would cut your holes for where you want the wires to come out. Are you going to use like cover plates with terminals on them? If you are that works great cause you can cut the hole out and then have somebody fish the wire up while you look for it through the hole (my dad always used to make my brother and me do the running under the house).
Once you've got that all figured out and layed out it's cake. We just did the same thing in my dad's house not to long ago (it was a little easier cause we built the house too).

Anyway, if you plan it out and take your time you should be able to do it with a little help.
And feel free to email me or post up if you have any more detailed questions. I'm happy if I can help at all.

Jared

 

[Jared Brock]

p.s. you can get the in wall speaker wire at Loew's or the Depot. Comes with a gray sheathing, the code should be like "CL3" or something like that. You can get pairs for running one speaker or set's of more wires if you're running more than one speaker to the same location.

 

[Tommy_C]

Paul, one place you can try is:

Automated Home Solutions
Lester Ellis (owner)
in downtown redmond

425-883-2229

Tell him Tom The tree guy sent you. They do right what you want.

 

[Loring Cox]

Lester has been good to me also.

I however bargained the wiring into my home purchase. The builder had his electrician come back and do all the wiring. Call around to a few electricians and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Jim4o]

Hello do you have a new lcd or plasma TV that is in need of being professionally mounted on the wall where it belongs . I have over ten years and 3000+ of these very custom installations under my belt. I am a skilled and competent installer with all the answers to make sure your TV goes where you want it the way you want it. licensed. bonded .

Jim
e mail works best to contact me
253-217-6996

[email protected]

call or email for quotes and questions