Need to drill 4 Coax thru House wall into living room.. need some advise

[pro96]

Doing a small job for a member of the family, and they asked me to install 4 coax lines into their living room. What would be the best way to do this and make it look all clean once its done.

I know they don't make wall plates with 4 coax holes, so I thought I would use these plates that are used with plasma installations to fish the A/V cables... take a look

That way all 4 coax cables can be fed cleanly.

What would be the best way to drill the 4 coax from side of the house --> thru the wall directly into the living room wall?

Perhaps I can get some tips from actual Satellite installers here??

Thanks in advance.

BTW: Why 4 coax cables?

1 for Directv
1 for OTA antenna
1 for FTA dish
1 for Future hookup (when needed)

 

[brentb636]

Actually, they DO make wall plates for 4 coax connections ( or network jacks, or any combination of the two). The wall plates have 4 square holes, which are mated to seperate connectors for either networking, or barrel connectors for coax. I use one of them in my wife's room, for feeding both coax and ethernet to her room. Check Lowes, Menard's , Home Depot, etc, that's where I found them.

 

[Mr Tony]

yep I have a plate that has 6 slots if I wanted 6 cables

You can interchange with ethernet, coax or phone or speaker jacks

 

[brentb636]

Leviton makes them , for one.
Leviton QuickPort Single-Gang Wall mount plate - White Plastic - 4 ports

Leviton 10-Pack Quickport® F Connector Jacks, Almond - M05-40831-00A at The Home Depot

 

[turbosat]

pro they used to make cable pass-throughs for c-band , years ago, just a big clear plastic tube about 1 1/2" diameter x 6-8"long. Drill out a hole with a hole saw and put that thing in, but I never wanted to use one, looked too easy for bugs to get in! They had covers but I just didn't want to put ahole that big in the siding. I run my cables through a corner of a foundation vent, and then drill holes in the subflooring, run 'em up like the cable tv folks do. But yes thats a lot of holes lol. Seal around the cables good or you'll have ants and whatever else.

 

[guapoharry]

What kind of material is the exterior made of?

 

[pro96]

Well the home has cement feel to it on the exterior walls.. at least thats how they build them here in Los Angeles.. the house is fairly new built in 1992

 

[pro96]

Ok I guess they do have them plates with 4/6 holes. According to my local Lowes and HD they both said they only carry with 2.. hehe

So what would be the best way to drill thru? A hole for each coax or a large enough hole to fit all 4 coax cables?

 

[crackt]

do the homes in LA have vapour barriers ? up here in canada we do. if i was cabling here id drill thru the outer floor plate and snake the wire up into the wall from below and in front of the vapor barrier. not sure what the building code is like that far south. the "pros" who did my starchoice install just drilled straight thru and i can feel the draft where they compromised the vapor barrier. its good to make things look good but they need to function properly as well. as for the wall plate... you could always buy a plastic blank and drill 4 holes in it for f-f coax butt connectors. i added 2 cables this way to a phone / single coax plate i had.

crackt out,.

 

[Dishman Dan]

I used the same PVC stuff as the electric service to run my wires into my house. The PVC rises out of the ground then turns 90 degrees just above the foundation blocks and goes through the siding and wood header. This also protects the wires from the weedeater and is spouse approved! I used 1 1/4" PVC but for the minimal extra cost I should of bought 1 1/2". I did shove 2 ribbon cables plus a mess of RG6 inside so I do have extra wires when I need it.

Inside the house I ran the wires (ribbon cable & a few coax) to the living room up inside the wall from the basement. I did not put my plate in yet until I figure exactly what I need and want. The wires come through the drywall "temporarily" and the hole is hidden behind my entertainment center for spouse approval. In the basement I took a sawzall and cut a square hole through the bottom 2x4 plate where I wanted the wires to go up into the wall and then out the drywall hole. My house is only one story so it does not take much to fish the wires through. I placed PVC in my wall from the basement to the attic too so I can easily fish wires as needed. Currently going to the attic are the coax/rotor wires for OTA along with the rear surround speakers, CAT 5 for Netflix, coax for internet and coax from the channel modulator for whole house distribution. I feed the bedrooms down from the attic to the wall mount tvs.

 

[Larry1]

I have a separate hole for each cable. In my case, I have a poured basement with brick. I drill the holes in the mortar between the bricks. That way if ever the cables are removed, the mortar can be replaced and does not damage the brick. Behind the brick is a 2x12 beam leading into the basement. A masonary bit to drill the mortar, then a long (1.5 foot long) bit to drill through the wood. Once the cable is in place, silicone the hole to prevent weather and bugs from entering.

 

[pro96]

OK.. some good tips so far THX for that.
Any more from local satellite installer from L.A?

 

[B.J.]

....
What would be the best way to drill the 4 coax from side of the house --> thru the wall directly into the living room wall?
....

Are the FTA dish mounted on the house, or in ground? If in ground, it generally violates code to just bring the wires in through the wall at random, you're supposed to bring the wires in where the house power comes in.
This sort of thing would never bother me, which is obvious to anyone who's seen the pictures of the wires coming into my house, but it might be important to someone trying to do things like an installer would.
Now ME, on one side of my house I drilled about a 2.5 to 3" hole in the wall with a hole saw, and slipped a short section of PVC pipe through the hole so it fit tightly, and that gave me roome for some ribbon cable, several runs of RG6 (for scanners), and several runs of RG-8 (for ham radios), and some RG58 for an external GPS antenna. On the other side of the house, I did the same PVC pipe thing, and brought in 2 runs of ribbon cable, some Cat-5 cable, and about 5 runs of RG6, all for sat dishes. Obviously not very "neat", but just wanted to show the 2 extremes, 1, following the NEC code, and one doing it the sloppy way.

 

[Cadsulfide]

It can look nice if you take your time, I have 4 runs of RG6, a cat5, and a 4pair 18AWG cable shielded going out to the array. I also added a GFCI power run out there.

 

[pro96]

Are the FTA dish mounted on the house, or in ground? If in ground, it generally violates code to just bring the wires in through the wall at random, you're supposed to bring the wires in where the house power comes in.
This sort of thing would never bother me, which is obvious to anyone who's seen the pictures of the wires coming into my house, but it might be important to someone trying to do things like an installer would.
Now ME, on one side of my house I drilled about a 2.5 to 3" hole in the wall with a hole saw, and slipped a short section of PVC pipe through the hole so it fit tightly, and that gave me roome for some ribbon cable, several runs of RG6 (for scanners), and several runs of RG-8 (for ham radios), and some RG58 for an external GPS antenna. On the other side of the house, I did the same PVC pipe thing, and brought in 2 runs of ribbon cable, some Cat-5 cable, and about 5 runs of RG6, all for sat dishes. Obviously not very "neat", but just wanted to show the 2 extremes, 1, following the NEC code, and one doing it the sloppy way.

Good advise.. I will do it just like you said it, see how it goes.

 

[pro96]

Ok used a standard 1/2" masonry drill and made a perfect hole big enough that was able to feed 4 coax cables thru.. The outer wall from the house is stucco so it was actually easier then I first thought.

Still deciding on which plate to use..

 

[Mikhel]

yep I have a plate that has 6 slots if I wanted 6 cables

You can interchange with ethernet, coax or phone or speaker jacks

I got the same 6 slot plates at Home Depot to install at an uncle's house, really cheap (the plates not my uncle LOL), and even had diff. looks, from plain white/cream to metallic look and some that look like stuff for a hangar LOL (industrial look with a plastic 'cup' to cover it all.