Running wires in walls/ceilings

[rcoundon]

Does anyone have any advice/war stories/guides on how to run speaker cable through walls and ceilings?

I live in a new build place and the developer refused to run cables in the walls for me while the house was being built so I'm left with the job of doing it myself.

All the walls are plasterboard and I can't get below the floor or down into the ceiling from above.

I think I'd like to run the cables up the wall behind the AV kit over, above the ceiling and down the two side walls and back wall for a 7.1 set-up.

What I'm stuck on is how you get the wire from A to B. I.e. Through the front wall, over the ceiling and down again. It's a pretty long room - about 6.5m so I'd think it would be very difficult to thread the wire through without losing the end.

Any help, greatly appreciated.

[oldnewbie]

I think what you are trying to do would be a complete nightmare because the wall will be spot and dab plasterboard fixed onto breeze block or pre made stoothing wall, basically you would have a great deal of problems threading the cable in straight lines and it would end up with loads of little holes in the wall to fill in. You haven't mentioned what type of flooring you have because we have carpets fitted and it was an easy job to run cables under the edge of the carpet then mount the speakers on stands like these Alphason AD100S, silver height adjustable home cinema speaker stands with glass bases (pair) | Atlantic Electronics and not one cable visible

[rcoundon]

Originally Posted by oldnewbie

I think what you are trying to do would be a complete nightmare because the wall will be spot and dab plasterboard fixed onto breeze block or pre made stoothing wall, basically you would have a great deal of problems threading the cable in straight lines and it would end up with loads of little holes in the wall to fill in. You haven't mentioned what type of flooring you have because we have carpets fitted and it was an easy job to run cables under the edge of the carpet then mount the speakers on stands like these Alphason AD100S, silver height adjustable home cinema speaker stands with glass bases (pair) | Atlantic Electronics and not one cable visible

Cheers for the reply. I did consider getting cable to run through the gripper of the carpet but my speaker wire - Van Damme blue - is to fat to go through it, especially if there are two pairs going down each side.
Underneath the carpet underlay is concrete so no option to go underneath.

How about over the ceiling, is this going to be the same nightmare?

[thorpe]

bar cutting a channel and replastering

you could remove the skirting and run the cables behind

you could use some electricians rods and thread a cable through, you would still need to make holes and replaster at convenient locations so you can run them along the route you want and then pull the rest through (will depend on the walls being stud or dot and dab, and which way the ceiling joists are running as to if its viable)

you could channel up and round the room and fit a picture rail over the top of the channel round the room

you could get some of that trunking for skirting boards and run them round the skirting (personally i dont like the trunking options)

if its dot and dab on block work your looking at channelling for anything of any length the idea of threading a cable will be nigh on impossible, and yes its more or less a certainty that trying to thread through the ceiling will be a nightmare

[oldnewbie]

Originally Posted by rcoundon

Cheers for the reply. I did consider getting cable to run through the gripper of the carpet but my speaker wire - Van Damme blue - is to fat to go through it, especially if there are two pairs going down each side.
Underneath the carpet underlay is concrete so no option to go underneath.

How about over the ceiling, is this going to be the same nightmare?

All depends which way the joists run and even then you would have the same problem as I mentioned running them up there and then you would have to pull the floors up which will probably be chipboard, Big job for a diy novice and pretty problematic. This would be your best option I think Starline Skirting Trunking

[rcoundon]

Hmm...I guess I could run some trunking over the top of the skirting board as it's the square type and so should be reasonably flush.
I just liked the idea of having it behind the wall or ceiling but don't want to take on a project that will mean me having to issue an SOS to a builder.

More cogitating required I think. Thanks for all your replies.

[mark_curd]

Hi,

You mention you have a concreat flooring, I helped a friend sort out his house recently and he had the same problems with running cables. He had no access from above to run them across the ceiling as it was an apartment. The walls where dot and dab plaster board and he also had a concreat floor. He did not want the cables on show nor did he want a type of trucking running all round the room. The route we went down (if I was in the same suituation would do this again) was to channel out the flooring, we pulled up one side of the carpet, removed the skirting board down one side and joining wall, then made a small channel the full lenght of the room and across the back. This way we was able to run all the cables from where the tv was to the surround speakers. Of course we put the cables in trunking to protect them, a quick skim of contreat over the top then put the underlay and carpet back. Job done. We managed to do this in an afternoon.

[pioneerman]

Originally Posted by rcoundon

Does anyone have any advice/war stories/guides on how to run speaker cable through walls and ceilings?

I live in a new build place and the developer refused to run cables in the walls for me while the house was being built so I'm left with the job of doing it myself.

All the walls are plasterboard and I can't get below the floor or down into the ceiling from above.

I think I'd like to run the cables up the wall behind the AV kit over, above the ceiling and down the two side walls and back wall for a 7.1 set-up.

What I'm stuck on is how you get the wire from A to B. I.e. Through the front wall, over the ceiling and down again. It's a pretty long room - about 6.5m so I'd think it would be very difficult to thread the wire through without losing the end.

Any help, greatly appreciated.

have alook at my thread ok not ideal would of liked to run through the walls etc but worked for me
pioneermans homecinema

[rcoundon]

Originally Posted by pioneerman

have alook at my thread ok not ideal would of liked to run through the walls etc but worked for me
pioneermans homecinema

Trunking is very well blended on your setup. Good job

I'm starting to think that trunking might be the way to go...

[pioneerman]

Originally Posted by rcoundon

Trunking is very well blended on your setup. Good job

I'm starting to think that trunking might be the way to go...

if you run round your skirting boards the d-line trunking looks very neat and comes in different colours.

[Marky P]

What about hollow skirting designed for hiding wires? Sure I've seen it somewhere.

[ash_s3]

Remove skirting boards and take off the bottom 2inches of plasterboard on the wall. This hides the cables and allows the skirting to sit back on flush