wires, wires, wires, need advice.

[03ozwhip]

so, like an idiot, i opted out of installing wiring in the framing when my house was being built, because i thought it was a rip off and my builder said i could just come by and run it myself on a certain day.

by the time that day came for me to go and do this, the drywall was already put up, nothing i could do about it because it was kinda just a side agreement my salesperson had with me.

anyways, wires. im sick of having all of the wires for absolutely everything just laying behind my TV and for my surround speakers running up the wall.

what is my best recourse for fixing this? get some sort of stand for all of my consoles etc and hide the wires behind that? what what my rear surround speakers?

TIA

[Perfect Dark]

If you are trying to run your wiring vertically up a wall it's easy...hole near the baseboard, hole behind the tv, then start fishing. It's when you have to go horizontally that it becomes a PITA.

Same for your surround speakers, how do you have them run from the reciever? Tucked into the baseboards?

[03ozwhip]

ya i was kinda thinking that the vertical would be alright, but ya, for the surrounds, some of it is tucked under the baseboards, some of it cant fit, its too tight in some spots, so its running up the wall, i hate it.

[ercchry]

main floor? unfinished basement? carpet? hardwood?

[Perfect Dark]

Originally posted by ercchry
main floor? unfinished basement? carpet? hardwood?

I assumed it was 2nd floor, but yeah if it's on the main floor and you have an unfinished basement (or acoustic tiling) you could always drill down, run the wiring through the floor joists, and then pop back up.

Little tip, always fish down...let gravity do the work. Also, don't skimp on the hole sizes, you'll thank yourself after it's done.

[03ozwhip]

sorry, i thought i mentioned this, its a finished basement, thats the problem.

[CanmoreOrLess]

Easier and takes less than an afternoon to do:

http://www.d-line-it.com/decorative-cable-cover.php

Complete video with cheesy music:

http://www.d-line-it.com/video-inthehome1.php

[wtf im nameless]

With a finished basement it will most likely be difficult, but what area are you in? If you're close to me I don't mind stopping by and giving you some free advice.

[03ozwhip]

^^that would be awesome man, but i live in strathmore, so probably nowhere near you. thanks for the offer though.

[ercchry]

how good are you at patching drywall? :rofl:

[03ozwhip]

LOL it was seriously on my list of something i might have to do, but fuck i hate doing that shit haha i want to try and avoid it at all costs.

[AndyL]

I've got this fancy plastic snap open/closed conduit... matches perfectly with 1/2" mdf baseboard... need to find more, but it was my plan for hiding wires...

[03ozwhip]

i have some sort of contraption that does that, but it doesnt stick to the baseboard and falls off, its a piece of shit. that other stuff canmoreorless mentioned seems alot better, but still for my surrounds, i dont want it going up my wall, however, i may look at that for the base.

[ercchry]

alright.

so hit up monoprice, get plates for everything you need.

for speakers, place a plate right behind where the speaker will sit. nice thing about this is you have to cut a decent sized hole for the plate. yes fishing down is ideal, but fishing to the bigger hole is best when the distance is going to be what? 8ft?

so right below the speaker you want to make a hole just big enough for the fish tape. but before that figure out if you want to hid the wire behind your baseboards (yes you would have to pop them off and reattach... or use one of those deals that CanmoreOrLess posted to run right above the baseboards.

now for the tv, easy... maybe, really depends on the setup.

i going to guess you at least have an a/c outlet behind it? if so, drop the wires straight down to normal outlet height, plate behind tv, plate at outlet height. throw a little tv stand under the tv for all the gear... done

[03ozwhip]

^^so when are you coming over then? lol i have to figure all of this shit out, think of some sort of proper stand and also decide if im going to mount the TV and center channel on the wall.

[ercchry]

so... its not on the wall? do you have a spot with an a/c outlet already? if not... uh, you will need that first. monoprice orders take about two weeks too.

list all the equipment you have/want

[03ozwhip]

maybe im brain farting, but whats the a/c outlet? :nut: no everything is on a short height and long width stand for the time being. i have a 58", center channel, ps3, 360, wii, tv box, receiver, 2 front and 2 rear speakers and sub.

[ercchry]

does everything plug into the receiver then the tv? a/c outlet... power, a/c*d/c.... ya know? :rofl:

...looks like a surprised face and everything on your house plugs into them?

[03ozwhip]

LOL im just slow today. ya, there are 2 on this wall, but none directly behind it, so i might have to wire one in.

[ercchry]

yeah you will want that right behind where you want the tv, they kind of frown upon running high voltage all willy-nilly through the wall :rofl:

[Ntense_SpecV]

If the outlet is in the same stud space that you want to add another up high you can purchase something like this.

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/rework-device-box/924835

That way you shouldn't need to do much drywall repair if any at all.

[03ozwhip]

Originally posted by ercchry
yeah you will want that right behind where you want the tv, they kind of frown upon running high voltage all willy-nilly through the wall :rofl:

they do? get the fuck outta here! lol im so confused on what to do, i wish i did this when it was being framed, im a tool.

[blitz]

Inside or outside wall?

If it's an inside wall, it shouldn't have any insulation or anything in it, so it should be easy. Another alternative to putting an outlet and a plate behind the TV is just to have a hole in the wall behind the TV (with a nice trim around it), and just run the powercord and HDMI cable themselves down to ground level and pop them out. Doesn't work if it's an exterior wall though.

[ercchry]

all monoprice 4 digit number are the part numbers

4958 8ft 28AWG High Speed HDMI® Cable w/Ferrite Cores - Black

need 1 for receiver to tv (in wall)

3992 6ft 28AWG High Speed HDMI® Cable w/Ferrite Cores - Black

need 1 for receiver to wall

4956 4ft 28AWG High Speed HDMI® Cable w/Ferrite Cores - Black

need 1 for tv to wall

2793 100ft 16AWG Enhanced Loud Oxygen-Free Copper Speaker Wire Cable

will probably need two of these, hard to say without seeing the area

4174 PREMIUM Adjustable Tilting 2.5mm Wall Mount Bracket for LCD LED Plasma (Max 165Lbs, 30~63inch) - BLACK

tilt is good, they have non-tilt low pro ones, but i bought one. didnt have enough room to plug in the tv

7330 Two-Piece Inset Wall Plate with 4 Inch Built-in Flexible High Speed HDMI® Cable With Ethernet - Single Port (1P) - White

need 2 of these

3639 High Quality Banana Binding Post Wall Plate for 1 Speaker - Coupler Type

need 1 for each speaker

9437 5 PAIRS OF High-Quality Copper Speaker Banana Plugs - Open Screw Type

need tons

4012 2-Gang 5.1 Surround Sound Distribution Wall Plate

need 1 if you have 5.1, need the 7.1 plate if you have that

7013 1-Gang Low Voltage Mounting Bracket

need 1 for each plate

7014 2-Gang Low Voltage Mounting Bracket

need 1 for 5.1 plate, or need a 3 gang for the 7.1 plate


lots of other stuff you may need, this stuff you need for sure

[Ntense_SpecV]

I saw this on another forum for wireless speaker options... don't know about speaker/sound delay but this might work for the surrounds.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/rocketfish-wireless-speaker-kit-rf-whtib/10087529.aspx?path=98696fd1b96cba38e531b32a2c3224ffen02

[03ozwhip]

so dont laugh, but here is a quick sketch of what i want it to be. the problem is that the consoles have big ass power supplies so i wouldnt know what to do with those...
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/cory_mr2/Strathmore-20121128-00144.jpg

[ercchry]

where is your utility/furnace room in relation to this room?

[03ozwhip]

nowhere near it, its on the other side. this is its own wall its not an outside wall. the outside wall has a window.

[chibwack]

I don't know what your time frame for living in the house is, but after pretty much having to re-drywall our entire university house before moving out, I can honestly say that to knock out a few patches to get through the studs really isn't that hard. Its the corners that wouldn't be worth it, but if you wanted an excuse to repaint that wall I'd just do that. Knock out the drywall, replace with scraps leftover from building if you have any, paste em up, sand em and good to go.

[ercchry]

biggest issue with floating all of that shit is going to be getting power to it all. wouldnt be an issue if they all took standard cords cause you can get those in different lengths... but the proprietary stuff? dunno

the bricks can sit behind the devices though, then run the cords through the wall with a nice plate/trim at each end and mount a power bar on the wall behind the sub :dunno:

[03ozwhip]

like i said, i think i could get some sort of vertical stand, put all of the consoles etc in there, but still run HDMI, component and speaker wires through the walls and hide the wires behind this stand...it could work i think...

[C_Dave45]

If you need to run the wires to a completely different part of the room (ie: rear channel speakers, etc) then go up into your attic and drill a 1" hole through the top plates. Run the wires vertically up the wall from a small hole behind your baseboard (or close to your amp/receiver) and right on up into the attic. Across to whatever wall, then another hole, and drop them down to where you want.

Sorry...that is if your house is a bungalow. lol.

[03ozwhip]

LOL thanks dave, its a 2 storey, not gonna happen.

[Maxx Mazda]

When I build my house, each and every room is gonna have Ethernet, power, and Coax on each and every wall haha :thumbsup:

[7thgenvic]

Take a picture of your room! Might be a better idea to see what you're working with...

[ercchry]

Originally posted by 03ozwhip
like i said, i think i could get some sort of vertical stand, put all of the consoles etc in there, but still run HDMI, component and speaker wires through the walls and hide the wires behind this stand...it could work i think...

your receiver doesnt up-convert everything so you can run it all over the hdmi?

i'd say get enough of that strip to wrap the entire room (so it just looks like its part of the baseboard) and the rest is easy. could even have plates on the wall where ever you want to put your devices

[03ozwhip]

hers a couple quick BB pics, sorry BB bad quality. ya my receiver has HDMI but only 3 slots so my xbox an wii use component so unless i buy another receiver, which im not going to do, im stuck with it.

with these pics, maybe someone can draft something up as far as another idea someone might have. thanks for all your guys help and suggestions.

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/cory_mr2/Strathmore-20121128-00147.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s5/cory_mr2/Strathmore-20121128-00146.jpg

[ercchry]

carpet! so easy... no trim needed

[wtf im nameless]

Where is the electrical outlet on that picture? Is there an outlet that would be under the TV where you want to mount it? Also, your TV is going to be too high if you're watching it while sitting on a couch or chair. At least it's a little easier being an interior wall.

You will have to patch some drywall it you want to do it properly, but depending on how close the electrical is to the TV it shouldn't be that bad.

[wtf im nameless]

Also, what's the model number of your receiver?

[wtf im nameless]

I just looked at that picture you drew again, if those outlets are correct you'll have to open up some drywall to run electrical.

[89coupe]

Why on earth do you want your TV so high? Why not do a low profile wide stand and be done with it. What are the dimensions of your room? Or did you post that already?

[03ozwhip]

It was just a drawing guys, calm down, it wasn't to scale, took me 2 minutes lol it was just an example to show what kind of idea I had.

I'm not sure on the dimensions, approx 12' long, 14' wide, 9' ceilings.

[03ozwhip]

The outlets are as pictued in my drawing, they're hidden by my sub and guitar. There are cat5 and coax there as well, but nothing higher up on the wall for the tv, I'd have to run one there.

[wtf im nameless]

Originally posted by wtf im nameless
Also, what's the model number of your receiver?

[03ozwhip]

^^im honestly not sure off the top of my head, ill check later on today....

[wtf im nameless]

Let me know and I'll quickly draw something out for you as best I can without doing a site visit. Do you have tools? Handy with installing this stuff?

[03ozwhip]

sounds good, its nothing special, its a pioneer vsx-520.