DannyZ

Speaker wire in Crown Molding?

I’m just about ready to take the plunge for my first Surround System. But getting the wires to the back of the family room will be a job. There is no attic (two story house), and there is a fireplace on the only wall, so I can’t go along the baseboard.

Has anybody put speaker wires in crown molding to run along the corner of the ceiling?
Has anyone seen crown molding built for that purpose, or do I just buy some with a space behind it?

Thanks

Danny

Jimmy F

I have done exactly that. I just use regular crown molding from Home Depot. There should be plenty of room for the wire to sit at the bottom of the molding so that it is hidden. The crown molding is an angled piece that has a strip that sits flush to the wall and another that sits flush to the ceiling. But the triangular area made up of the wall, ceiling, and molding face is open. In my case, I didn't put the molding flush to the ceiling, but installed it a couple of inches down. So in addition to running speaker wire inside, I also run rope lights for ambient lighting.

Kevin*Ha

I've never seen crown molding with wires in or behind it, but I just want to mention that in all the years I've been installing crown molding it's still one of the most difficult applications I find myself doing. If it's already up I would be very wary of tampring with it. If you're putting it up yourself it would be very easy yo rout a groove out along the back of the wood as long as you have adequate thickness. If you've never done crown molding I highly recommend a compound mitre saw (or if you're really feeling nutty, a crown molding template saw). Hand jigging the cuts out of outside corners is enough to make a man insane.

Erik Farstad

LOL...Kevin, working with crown can be a pain...but once you get it down...it becomes VERY addictive and you want to put it everywhere! I know I do! :b Ok, not everywhere...but it's so purty when applied correctly and with the right room design.

Erik

E-Cinema

Jason Edgecombe

A timely thread, as we just put crown molding up in three rooms in our house this weekend, and even with a mitre saw it was enough to drive me insane!

Anyway, based on what we did, I have a suggestion if you're installing new moldings and want to run wire behind it. The molding we installed was basically a flat board that was installed at a 45-degree angle between the wall and the celing, giving it a very "thick" look. In order to do this, 2x4s were cut into triangluar studs, mounted horrizontally on the wall, and then the moldings were nailed to these studs, flush with the celing at the top and with the wall on the bottom. My point here, is that along the studs we cut, there would be plenty of open room to run wires, although you would need to be very careful to make sure you didn't put a nail through a wire (especially if you're using a nail gun).

And, given this experience, if the moldings are already up, I'd leave well enough alone and find somewhere else to run your wires!

Chris Hovanic

I would assume that the room is on the ground level of the house. If so why not crawl under the house and string the speaker wire there. I did just that for cables from my Gear Closet to the TV at the front of the room.

I used conduit so I could pull new runs of wire when needed. With just speaker wire you would not have to use conduit.

Good luck

Chris Hovanic
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Jimmy F

In my case that's not possible as the house is built on a concrete slab (no crawl space).

For the mitre-impaired, there is crown moulding that has corner and divider blocks. You just need to do straight cuts. Sometimes, the corners aren't actually blocks, but corner pieces as well.

Check out this link. It'll also show the cross section of the crown moulding so that you can see how much space we're talking about in the "gap".

Balmer crown moulding

Dave^T

I did exactly what JimmyF did, except that my moulding is flush with both the wall and the ceiling. I ran the wire easily behind the moulding. When I got to the point where I
wanted my wall mounted rear speakers, I drilled a hole behind the moulding and another one about 15" below that in the wall.

The wire goes in the hole behind the moulding and exits the wall, (using a two jack utility box plate -- Radio Shack) behind the speaker mount.

steveFa

I did the same as Jimmy and use the rope lighting with a outlet behind the molding. I used MDF molding which is great if you plan on painting the molding, and its easy to work with. It was not hard at all or maybe I just got lucky. If you need more info on how to do it let me know. I could also send pictures.