Running wires

So, we now have an idea about the speakers to install, but we don’t want wires hanging from the ceiling and running down the walls in plain view. Having visible speaker wire and HDMI cables are not only an eyesore, but also looks like the room isn’t finished. One trick to get the finished look is to run the wires behind/inside the wall. A lot of people think you have to rip apart the whole wall to run speaker wire, but that is not the case.

I must stress, before you start cutting into walls, know what you’re getting yourself into. Figure out where every live wire is, and where every stud is in the room. To avoid accidents, turn off the breaker to that room. It helped to also do a bit of research about runningwires.

    1.)   Make sure you purchase, or have, a stud finder that can detect live wires (electrical), a sheetrock hand saw, drill, and ¾” drill bit.

    2.)   In order to gain access to the studs for drilling the holes, use the sheetrock hand saw to make a rectangular square cut out that is large enough for your hand to get through. Keep the cut out pieces and make sure you remember which piece goes where! I kept my cut outs low to the floor to make them harder to see when I repaired my wall.

    3.)   On load-bearing walls, it is important to drill holes centered (through the widest side) and never at the top or bottom (measure about 6”-12” up or down accordingly).

    4.)   Drill your holes to wherever you need the wires to run. I recommend running 14-gauge speaker wire, to ensure that there will be no melting of wires if I decide to turn up the volume a bit. The lower the number gauge, the thicker the wire.

    5.)   Run your HDMI cables first, as they have large ends that will need the space to pass through the drill holes.

    6.)   Install your speakers after running the wires. As you can see underneath the screen in the photo above, I also decided to purchase a faceplate for the speaker wire to attach to. It looks more finished when there isn’t a hole in the wall with wires coming out.

    7.)   After running all the wires and installing the speakers, be sure to test every speaker and HDMI cable before patching up the walls. It is a pain to hook up everything, test, and take everything apart again, however, it is worth it if you find you need to re-run a wire.

Reference:

w., T. (2008, February 29). In-wall wiring guide: Installing speaker, audio/video, and

ethernet cable. Retrieved from http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZrYF64MT4vg/

learn/learningcenter/home/inwall_wiring.html