Installing cable or telephone wire

[cpgoose]

Hi everyone...just curious if you had any ideas here.

I live in an apartment, and we just had cable installed for the tv in the family room. I would like to install another drop in the living room to put another tv in there. I was going to use a splitter at the tv in the family and drag the wire to the other tv.

I guess my question is, if I install a jack where I want it in the living room, how do I get the wires behind the wall and through the studs? I mean, I've installed it before going from one tv to another tv in a room that shares the wall....so you can just go right through the wall. But in this case, how do you get through the studs if you're going "sideways" so to speak.

I tried to show it in a very basic diagram. Any ideas would rock!

Thanks!

[thecoalman]

You don't unless you want to rip the walls apart. You could do that if you have a piece of molding to hide your handiwork behind. or even tuck behind or under the molding.... There's usually a little space between carpets and the wall too to hide a wire.

Other than that you either have to run it up the wall, hopefully you have drop ceiling then run it across the ceiling and down the wall to where you want it to go. Or down the wall into a basement or crawl-space.

Use a snake which is a flexible piece of spring-steel to pull the cable through, a stiff wire can be used as well.

You could drill right to the outside as well (make sure you caulk the hole)and try and hide it under a overlapping piece of siding or something else.

Really depends on how your house is set up. Can't go sideways though unless you want a huge mess on your hands.

[snafu099]

As you live in an aptment it is most likely that restricted from making modifications to the interior without the owner/landlords written permission. The easist solution is to use the splitter and run the cable along the wall at the baseboard, going through the wall to another room where needed would require the owner/landlords permission. Care should be taken that you are NOT going through a "firewall"

Sorry, the easist solution is to have the cable co do it.

Other options (with owner/landlord permission)
1. If there attic/crawl space above the ceiling then the calbe can be run into that area and then back down where needed. Same would be true if a basement were below the floor.

The method of getting past the structual framing as needed is to cut small groves in the wall covering, drywall-plaster-etc, which then needs to be patched and painted. This method can be used to go up/down or accross but going accross for any distance most likely will mean more patching and painting. A metal coat hanger or stiff wire can be used to "fish" the cable from one stud to another or bend a hook on the end to "fish" for the cable if going up/down.

Most walls will be framed with a horrizantal fireblock at the 4 ft level in standard 8 ft walls

"Tiger Paw" electric boes are designed to be used in remodel/existing walls and do not attach to structual framing.

[cpgoose]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I guess I'm kind of stuck, unless I want to just run the wire along the wall and maybe tuck it under the rug or behind molding or something. Yea, I can't do too much since I'm in an apartment, but these are definitely good reasons to wire ahead of time when I eventually get a house

[ZAPPER]

More info may help. Wall type, distance of proposed wire run, floor, ceiling, other side of wall.

There are special drill bits that could help out for a run of maybe six or eight feet if you can work from both directions toward a middle point. I don't know what they are actually called. But I bought one at home depot, I think it was made by Klein or GB or one of the other big electrical tool manufactures. Basicly it is a like 3/8 drill bit end on a long somewhat flexible shaft. The clever part, I think, is that there is a little hole in the flute of the bit that allows you to tie your cable to the drill bit when it pokes thru, and then when you pull the bit back out of the newly made hole your wire gets fished right thru where you just drilled. The bit is some what tricky to use, but if you went horizontal for like three stud cavities and put in a pull station and went like three more stud cavities you can get there. Just cover the extra pull station cut outs with blank plates that match your decor.

Another way to go horizontal in a wall is leapfrogging pull stations from center of stud to center of stud and on oppisite sides of the wall if possible. I have drilled 2 1/2" holes right in the center of the edge of the studs thru the gyp board and about an inch into the stud. Pry, pop, chisel out enough wood to allow working room and run your wire. Again, cover your work with blank plates to avoid having to mud and paint.

Look at the lay of the land and see what you have to work with. The space between a carpet tack strip and the wall ain't a bad place for low voltage wires. Or installing surface mounted wire molding may not be too objectionable.

[lumis]

well, if you dont mind installing the jack next to a power oulet, or nearby it, and you have the access you need.. what you could do is.

it's kind of a 2 man job

1) shutoff the power
2) remove cover from power outlet, unscrew wires from outlet
3) use black electrical tape & tape some strong wire (does not have to be large, just strong) to the electricity cable.. make sure you tape it good & secure, you dont want it to come apart.. make sure it is of a very sufficient length, 20 - 40 feet.
4) have the other guy (or yourself) up in the attic identify the electricity cable that is running to that particular outlet, then have him pull it up in to the attic.. make sure he doesnt pull so much up that you lose your "strong wire", you still need to have a few feet..
5) once he's got the electricity cable up in the attic, have him tape the coaxial cable where he taped the strong wire & electricy cable together..

6) once he's got all that taped up, and taped well.. you pull on your "strong wire" bringing back the electricity cable & coaxial cable..

now you have a little bit of room to move the coaxial around and about.. you could drill a hole and use the coathanger method nearby.. but it gets the job done without ripping the walls to hell.. and you usually need your coaxial outlet near a tv, which usually requires a power source.. so you can almost always conviently locate one.

i'm not an electrician by any means, this is just the way i learned to install coaxial, phones, etc without screwing up the walls.. i dont know if this is exactly safe (for the electricity wires), so do your own research (consult a certified electrician) for full safety requirements and standards in your area.. basically, dont sue me.

make sure you turnoff the power when you do this, you wouldnt want to die like an idiot