running coaxial cable through walls w/o having to re-drywall...

16 years ago

I may be purchasing a home that is, for the most part, in good condition, except that there is only one place where the cable for TV and internet enters the house...and the prior owners decided it was a good idea to run it along the tops of all the baseboards, up the stairs, all over...

The house does have an attic but no basement - and is a two-story. Is there a way to run cable down two stories and into wall outlets without ripping half the drywall out? Does anyone have a good online guide to this?

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Comments (6)

mightyanvil
16 years ago
Any competent electrician can pull the cable through the walls and ceilings with only a few holes that can be easily patched unless you have wall paper, etc. This is usually not a do-it-yourself activity; it takes a lot of skill.
Shannon01
16 years ago
We had to move cable from one wall to another and if we had to run it upstairs to other rooms we could find a way.

You can run it under baseboards and then up the wall to an outlet. Or you can run it inside crown molding and down walls to outlet. We had to run up a wall, across the ceiling, then down the wall to an outlet. We made a hole in corner of ceiling (knowing where the molding would cover itn) and fished it across room to another hole that was on wall as close to ceiling as possible, again making sure hole would be covered by molding. We also used the openings in ceiling for ceiling fan and can lights to run speaker wires and such. If I really had to go upstairs I would consider going through ceiling and into floor above so that cable would come up under the baseboard. It can be done with a lot of thought.
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I work as a an electrician/teledata installer and can offer a few tips. Consider a central location to route all your cables in the entire house and use a residental media hub like the one Leviton sells it allows you to add various components based on your needs . Buy having all your cables and components in one location it allows for a convenient place to do all your switching, cross-connects and networking in one place, plus the ability to adjust for future technologies. You could add multiplexers for security, convert a future fiber optic internet connection into an Ethernet swich that coverts signal for distribution devices as needed and many others options. Cat 5e/6 cables offer a lot of flexibility, baluns are the peices that can be soldered or terminated on the ends of an cat5e/6 cable allowing it to adapt to hdmi and a wide array of other connection types. Other users who offered the advice on raceways are correct smerf tube is a good way to go be sure to get a pull string or something similar (I use 16 awg thhn electrical wire) installed before closing the walls. Best of luck. Here's link to leviton home media cabinets. Here is a link that might be useful: Inside Leviton Structured Media Enclosures
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@ace_tx From what I've read a lot of people are suggesting what you said, so I'm thinking that would be a good idea.... can you just help me understand it a bit more? Would I run all four of those wires to where the tv would be in the room? or only 1 rg6 quad coax and 1 6pr cat5e/6 lines to where the tv and they other 2 would be at a different location in the room? (Then of course all those wires would run to the central location, right, and plug into what?, I'm not sure - guess I can figure that out later) Are there any other cables I should have behind my TV in the main viewing area (assuming my dvd player and stuff are in a separate cabinet)? THANKS!
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jasper60103
16 years ago
Running through the HVAC returns is another possibility.
bill_g_web
16 years ago
You might try a splitter outside the house and run a second cable outside to where you need it. I've run a 50 foot coax off a splitter with no degradation, but we've got a strong signal. Also, possibly off topic, but in case you want 2 tv's and have one digital cable box, you can run the cable into the box, then use a component cable to hook up the tv next to the box and a long hdmi cable for the remote tv. HDMI cable is 1/2" thick and accordingly tougher to run. Buy HDMI cable on the web and get a plain one - my 35 footer was $45. Best Buy charges $100 for a 10 footer. With this setup, the signal reaches the two tv's at about the same time, so if they're within hearing distance of one another there's little echo. Course, both tubes will have the same show playing.

Bill
arichard21
16 years ago
hairmetal4ever, just how old is this house? The reason I ask is because in alot of houses that are 60+ years old the insulation is almost non exisiant in some if them. My house for example, there was a few stud bays with NO insulation what so ever, and because it is baloon framing (walls straight up to the attic - as opposed to built 1st story walls, then 2nd story floor then second story walls) there is no fire stop, so it is a straight shot down from the attic.

If you have access, go in the attic armed with a flashlight, and look straight down around the edges of the attic and see how far down you can see.
davidandkasie
16 years ago
when possible i try to run it so that the cable outlet in the upstairs room is directly on top of and in line with teh one for the down stairs. that way when i cut the wall for the upstairs outlet i can drill down into the wall for down stairs. if this is not possible, then try to make teh cuts behind doors or in closets. you will have to come down directly above where you want the outlet, otherwise you have to cut a strip out of the drywall to run across the wall.

running coaxial cable through walls w/o having to re-drywall...

Comments (6)

mightyanvil

Shannon01

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