booksix

Help running wires from bathroom, through fireplace wall, to TV

I just moved into a new apartment. I was spoiled with my last place, it was a huge 5 bdrm house, fully wired for sound and networking, and now I'm here... So, I have one main about question about running new wires.

The TV needs to go above the fireplace mantle but there is no power, cable or ethernet connections there. The fireplace chimney is just a 6-8" pipe, no brick or anything here. Directly behind the fireplace/chimney is a bathroom cabinet and one side o the cabinet is a 2x4 wall holding the medicine cabinet and an outlet. I plan on bringing power from this outlet (and coax/cat5 from another nearby source) through the backside of the bathroom cabinet and to the TV. I figure all the space around this chimney pipe is empty, but idk. Anyone have any ideas. Adding the box and doing the wiring is no problem; I'm just trying to minimize the chance that I end up with holes on each side with no way to connect them!

I tried posting pics from my photobucket but I'm to new here, it wont let me. i can make a diagram later if it'd help... Thanks

Leo Kerr

Re: Help running wires from bathroom, through fireplace wall, to TV

A word of warning about the chimney: it's generally a fairly "full" box of dead-space, baffles, and firestop. It also gets warm. Very warm. Punching through the stack is likely to violate all sorts of code and recommended practices.

You may be able to shoot sideways, either on the surface or just below the surface of the bathroom wall to one side or the other of the fire-place and punch through - beside the mantle.

If -- and only if -- you insist on going through the stack-space, here are some minimums you'll probably have to do to maintain some semblance of "safe" and "legal." Note both.

1. plenum rated cable for all power and signal going through the stack-space.
2. high temperature rated cable for all power and signal going through the stack space. High temperature in this case is probably considered in the neighborhood of 500°F/260°C.
3. Firestop. Generally I've seen it as a thick, red, fibrous goo. Anything and everything that violates the integrity of the stack gets packed with it, sealing all aspects of the stack again.

Even with those considerations, it still may not be legal or recommended, but that's probably a starting point. Plus, I don't know how hard it is to get 500° cable.

Leo Kerr

chuckg

Re: Help running wires from bathroom, through fireplace wall, to TV

I'd stay away from the chimney stack...too many potential problems! And, I doubt the apartment management would be happy about it, either.

Go over, go around, or look for a different way.....

--ignore the man behind the curtain