In wall Wiring Locations (1 Viewer)

[Roy Wallace]

Hello again:
Another trip to my new home job site yeilds more wiring questions...
First: Is it okay to run quad shielded RG6 in close proximity to my (approved)12GA speaker wire? If not, what is an acceptable spacing? I know I should stay as far away from 110V as I can.
Second: What is the easiest way to retrieve my installed surround speaker wires once the drywall is in place? I was thinking of drilling a 1/2" hole right where I need the wires, then using a hooked fish wire to pull them out of the wall, then using some drywall paste to seal up the hole around the wires once they are trimmed to length. Does this sound okay? Any better suggestions are welcome.
Thanks again, oh bringers of knowledge.
RW

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Roy,

It’s fine to run RG-6 or any other coaxial cable next to speaker wire. That’s why coaxial cable is shielded, to protect it from interference from things like speaker wire.

I hope your speaker wire fares better at your sight than it did at my friend’s several years ago. We stapled the wire between a pair of ceiling studs and left a note to drop it through the sheetrock dead center between the studs. They did it alright, but then someone came along after hours and cut off the excess wire. We barely had enough left to terminate the speakers.

Your plan to retrieve the speaker wire should work fine. Another thing you might do is install a standard electrical box at the proper location, and run the speaker wire into it, leaving enough slack to get to the speaker. Dry-wallers are accustomed to dealing with electrical boxes. Upon installation, you could dress the box with a blank cover that has a hole in the middle (typically used for rotary light dimmers) and run the wire through the hole to the speaker. The holes are a bit small; if you’re using large-gauge wire you’ll need to “punch out” the hole with a unibit (a.k.a. step drill).

Good Luck,

Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[trevis_h]

Hello,

With the construction of my new house in september, I ran steel electrical conduit from electrical boxes on the front and on the back of the room. After we moved in, I used a fish tape to pull wire through the conduit. The steel makes it very easy to fish wire through. I bought speaker plates at my local HT store and conected the inwall wires to the back of the plates. Now I have 5 way binding posts on an attractive Decora wall plate. Wire the amp to the plate - then the other plate to my surrounds. This is the second house I have done this too and it works very well. The total cost was about $3 for the boxes, $25 for the conduit, and $65 for the two wall plates (The are made by Phoenix Gold, not the greatest but the only thing availiable in Canada). The only word of causion is before you buy the conduit, make sure you have the proper bender or you will just kink the pipe. The other option is to use the GREY PVC and a heat gun to bend the pipe.

 

[Wes]

I installed 8 inwall speakers in my theater and had just stapled the wires to the studs right by where the speakers were to be installed. In all caes they were right where I needed them. Do leave plenty of extra wire!

Wes

 

[Roy Wallace]

Thanks everyone.

RW

 

[Bill Seliger]

Another option for running wires was given to me by my contractor:

Purchase faceplates for conduit boxes. Run your cables as needed and screw the faceplates to the stud where you want the faceplate located. Bundles the wire behind the faceplate - when they hang the sheetrock they will cut open the hole using a drywall cutter along the inside of the faceplate (looks like a very small plunge-router).

I used this for wiring RG-6, phone, cable tv and speaker wires in a recent addition and it worked very well for a few reasons:

- low cost

- face plates were located exactly where I wanted them

- a variety of face plates are available to match my needs

- it's easy to snake additional wires if needed (a box might make this a little more difficult)

Also, Home Depot carries face plates with small holes (about 1/4" dia) and large holes (~1" dia.). I was able to fit 12g speaker wire through the smaller faceplate without a problem.

One more note - these faceplates are availabe in a variety of depths. I used 1/4" deep faceplates on most walls, but one outside wall had 2 inches of drywall on the inside. I used extra deep faceplates (1-1/2"?) on that wall so I wouldn't have to find extra long screws for the faceplates.