ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Fishy Spot to run a cable

Hows your carpentry skills Ian? We're about to learn a little about framing...

First there is no problem with drilling down if it is a bearing wall - that is if they match up, and pretty sure from here that they will. But it would be wise to measure from outside walls on each floor to make sure - even off by an inch or two you should be OK.

You can also safely assume that this is platform framing, as it is not a Victorian.... Or built in the 1890's...

Either way one can bet that the joists 8 of 10X's that the joist will run in the short dimention across the house. e.g. if the house is a rectangle - it would be that short dimention. And the joists will run accross the wall you plan to go down by looking at your sketch. Often - but not always the studs and joist will line up on the first floor, and often fairly close to lining up on the second floor. That said if you open up a stud bay in the closet up stairs you should be right above the wall you want to get into.

Measure from the front of the house on each floor to see if the area you want the tv at is below or close to the closet above, or if it ends up in the bedroom...

If in the closet... Use a good and powerfull magnet to find the screws that hold the sheet-rock on the wall, and that will tell you were the studs are... Take a level, or a plumb-bob and put a line up-down on the wall where the studs are on each side of the stud bay. And open the steetrock from the center of each stud in the bay you want from about 4" above the baseboard to ~20" high. Carefully remove the piece of rock, so you can put it back.... (You'll crack an edge - don't worry...) This way you can fit a drill into the wall.

Put a mark or tape on a 7/8" spade bit about 4 1/2" from the flat cutters, and drill through the bottom (two) plates and the sub-floor in the middle of the stud-bay. Carefull to go slower at the mark. If you go past the mark you are on the joist - do not continue... Move over a few inches and try again... This will put you in the joist-bay, and you should be able to peer down with a flashlight to see the top-plate of the wall below. Drill trough the center of that with a 1/2" x 18" bit. Then you are in the stud bay of the wall below. Your kitchen is below that.... So be carefull, there may be other things in the wall...

Try to drop a jack-chain, or a bunch of 1/4-20 nuts on a string down the wall, if there is plumbing or worse blocking... Then its plan B...

If not run surface in the closet, and into you hole in the closet down to the TV loc...

Anyway, you should do some more planning and take it slow if you do this yourself.

Good on ya guys,
This sort of work was all I used to do after I came out of my time as an Electrician.
I did a whole restaurant this way (Yes, that one John), just by "pocket work".
It is time consuming and yes it is frustrating, but the rewards are up there, if only a psychological one.
I HATE seeing anything run on the surface, it's the lazy way out.
Of course. a totally concrete building would be an exception.

Just bumping this up before I go to bed. The target wall and upstairs closet are 6" apart.

Ian A.

If you can open a hole in the closet drywall you could poke a hole in the sole plate, through the floor, into the joist bay. Then, if you had one of those "extendo lights" (light on a skinny tube) you could poke in the hole, you might be able to see the top plate below. I certainly would not start poking holes in the first floor until I was sure what was on the other side.
If your mom is a real good sport you could punch an exploratory hole with a straightened coathanger wire, with a point ground on it, turned real slow to see where you are downstairs. Don't push it, let the tool do the work (to keep from blowing out a chunk of drywall). Have someone below holler out when it starts coming through and you may end up with an insignificant pin prick that is unnoticable or at least easy to hide. I have also seen tricks with magnet retrievers and iron filings or a compass to "see" through drywall. Hold the magnet against the drywall and go looking for it on the other side. A little compass will usually point right to it. Move it around to triangulate the spot. The iron filing trick can be spectacular but you need a real good magnet (we used rare earth magnets out of disk drives) and it can be a little dirty.

Jubilee? Don't they have soffits on the front and back of the house where the first and second stories meet?

Cable box is outside, yes?

Stay outside and go into a soffit that lines up with the target wall spot. You'd have to notch drywall on the top of the wall to drill the plate, but patching that wouldn't be bad.
Hiding the cable under the siding isn't hard.

But I don't remmember what the outside of the Jubilees look like, got any pics?

That's what they're called. Yes they do, with access panels on both sides of the large room, and only the front of the smaller room.


Umm, did I mention this house is original as they get, right down to the Asbestos Shingles that shatter if you so much as look at them funny.

Where the cable box is located, we're just shooting a cable into the garage attic and up into the attic/soffit behind the larger bedroom.


Here's a pic of the meter location,


Here's a pic of the bathroom dormer, only here to show what the siding looks like,

Thanks guys,
Ian A.

[Edited 'cause I can't type at 7:am]

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 01-20-2007).]

If you have baseboard molding around the perimeter of the rooms and it's not glued to the walls, you can cut the bottom of the baseboard, which should be ~3/4" thick, at a 45 degree angle (or use a router) then you'll have a space behind the baseboard to run the cable.

The old "behind the baseboard trick." I've even used it myself once or twice. Just remember the steel plate required to protect the cable, if the cable is less than 1 1/4" back from the surface!

I had a similar install a few years ago. I got a break. The upstairs closet was carpet over subfloor. I sent my wire down thru the wall from the attic. Then I carefully remover and saved the base, cut the drywall behind the base, drilled thru the bottom plate and subfloor to the joist space. Then I peeled the carpet back and drilled (2) 1" holse thru the subfloor. One to use as a peephole and one to stick my extension bit into to drill thru the plates below. I got lucky and didn't destroy anything. I put the carpet back, kickplated the wall, put the base back and my customer was happy. Good luck.