Any way to run speaker wire under carpet in an apartment without ripping up carpet? (1 Viewer)

[Charles J P]

I am needing to run the speaker wire under the carpet in my new apartment for my surrounds, because there is no other way to hide the wire. One side of the room opens up to the dining room/hallway, and the other side of the room has a fireplace in the corner followed by floor to ceiling windows and a patio door that continue all the way to the back wall. Any idea how to do this? I cant go through the floor into a basement, or up to an attic because, as I said this is an apartment. It has to go under the carpet somehow.

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[jimstark]

I had the same problem in my former place. What I did was, I found a spot behind the entertainment center where the carpet was a little loose from the tack underneath. I loosened it up a teeny bit more, and fed a stiff wire in. It took a long time to get it all the way across the room, and in the right place, but I did it...them I attached the speaker cable to the end, pulled it through from the other side and viola'...surround wires!
If you know any electricians, or ask around at a home center, you might be able to find something to make the job of fishing lines easier...Now that I have a house, I find myself running lines for all sorts of things, and I got a 20ft wire with a loop designed to help fish lines.
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[J.R. Burn]

In my business we use a tool called a carpet snake it is long (about 20') it is flat about 1 3/4" and it has a loop at the end to attach some wire, But anything long and flat would do the job.
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[jeff peterson]

I've used an old tape measure. Flat, 25 feet, and free (for me)
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[Brian_E]

I'm in a similar situation as Charles. I just moved into a new home with bedrooms upstairs and of course the crawl space below. One side of the room is totally open/joined to the kitchen area and the other side of the room has a fireplace in the middle of the wall.
My questions are:
1) If I run the wire under the carpet, how do I pull up the carpet without messing up the base-board molding?
2) How do I get the carpet back in place correctly?
BTW, I plan to use Monster SuperFlat Mini (16ga) speaker wire. Will I notice this under the carpet?
TIA for any advice on how to do this as "professionally" as possible.

 

[Phil A]

I had to get wire across a doorway theshold for my brother and was able to loosed with the carpet about 1 foot on each side and then retack afterwards and used a yardstick with the wire attached to it to get it to the other side.
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[Rich Johnston]

Charles,
In my apartment, I used a Fish Tape, small coil of stiff wire, to help run the speaker wire under the carpet. It seemed to work pretty well. It can be time consuming, but it was far less destructive than tearing the carpet up. You can buy fish tape at Home Depot or any hardware store.
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[Richard Driskill]

Brian,
I would leave the carpet edges be, unless you have (and know how to use) a carpet kicker.
Take a brand new blade in a utility knife and make a 3/4" slit in the carpet where you want to have the cable go in, or come out. When you move, pull the speaker cable and squirt several drops of Elmers glue into the slit. Dab the surface of the carpet lightly with a damp sponge if you get a little on the top of the nap. It will bond the jute backing together again for the most part, and no hole will be visable.
The hardest part of all this is directing/pushing the "snake" wire to where you need it.
You wont notice the "flatwire", unless your carpeting is as thin as rice paper.