Pamela

Question about running speaker wire

Not sure which forum this goes in...


I moved all of my HT equipment to the house today. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to set it up. The house was built in 1933—not HT friendly at all. The position of the rear speakers requires me to run the speaker wires over the doors. Not usually a problem, except there are no door frames to run it around. And to top it off, the walls curve on the edges around the door. I'm stumped at how to run the wire. Pulling up the carpet is not an option.

Any suggestions?

Glenn Overholt

Paint the wire the same color of the ceiling and staple it?
Ok, the curves might be a mess. Super glue?

How about poking a hole or two? If you can get to the floor below and then string it through. Sometimes, in a corner you might even find where the boards (Walls & floors) don't meet anymore, and might be able to pull the floorboard out and drill a hole at the end of the floor. The floorboard would cover the hole and if you don't nail the floorboard all the way back in, the wire won't slip and won't be p;inched, either.

Hey, you moved! Nice going!

Glenn

John_Berger

Is a wireless speaker configuration an option for you at this point? (I know you just moved, but still...) It's certainly nowhere as cheap as speaker wire, but it's a good option if you don't want to have blatantly visible wires all over the place.

Philip_G

what is directly below the HT room? crawl? garage? other living space?
I drilled holes through the floor and ran mine in the crawl, a good way to go if this is an option.

if you have carpet I bet with an electricians fish tape you could get the wire run under the carpet and guide it to the other hole and thread the wire this way, I've never done it or am even sure it could be done, just an idea (that I do think might work)

look at the bright side, under that carpet might be some beautiful old hardwood floors just waiting to be discovered

Pamela

I thought about that, but yeah, the curves would be a bear.



Thought about that one, too. But I don't think the technology is there yet.




There is some crawl space. Thtat's how the cable folks ran the cable. I wouldn't want to try that myself. I'm pretty handy, but that is beyond my scope. Wanna come to L.A. and run my wires? How much do you charge?



There are beautiful hardwood floors underneath, but the landlords wouldn't refinish them. They spent too much dough rewiring the garage for my washer and dryer, not to mention the plumber's bill for for moving the faucets in garage and running a water line to my icecube maker!

Philip_G

Maybe a member near by will be able to help, it really is no big deal aside from the dusty nasty crawl space, I don't even WANT to know what it's like in a house that old, blech. But if you want to pick up roundtrip airfare to LAX... it's cheaper to fly me out of colorado springs whenever you're ready

the trick is to cut the carpet with a razor knife to slip the bit through so you don't snag it and run the carpet (learned the hard way ) then just drill away. It really isn't that bad and keeps the room nice and clean, if only I could hide the fire hazard of wires behind my equipment rack as nice... Then theres my fish tank that is seriously a fire waiting to happen.

John_Berger

Wireless speakers have been around for a while. I used wireless speakers as the rear speakers in my computer room for my 4.1 configuration for a long time. I'm not quite sure what technology you're expecting, but they worked for me.

You pay the expenses and I'll be there tomorrow!

Dennis Nicholls

The problem with "wireless" speakers is that they really aren't "wireless". Instead of running a signal cable you have to run a power cable - this really isn't solving the problem when you want to put, for example, the rear surrounds up high near the ceiling.

Pamela's house is probably finished with lath-and-plaster interior which is quite brittle. The only good thing is that there is probably more space in the walls for running a fish tape, and the house probably isn't up to current code with respect to cross-members between the studs.

Is there access to the attic above the HT room?

Feline videophiles Susie and Dukie.

Pamela

Anyone know how much professional installation to run the wires under the house would cost?

DonRoeber

Would using an electricians fish tape and flat speaker wire work to get the wire under the carpets? That's what I did in my home.

Luckily, right at that moment, an unconscious Argentinean fell through my roof.

He was quickly joined by a dwarf dressed as a nun.

andrew markworthy

Pamela - cheeky question, but why not?

Lifting up the carpet, putting down flat cable specifically designed for the purpose, and re-laying the carpet may be a cheaper option than running wires under the house, through the walls, etc. However, unless you clever Americans have found a new way of putting down carpets, I know what a swine they can be to get up and then get down again.