Wires in walls: How To?

[mike_r]

I've got a 46" Samsung LCD mounted on the wall, and my wife is sick of looking at the wires running to the receiver! So I thought I look here and find some links to installation tips/tricks of running wires through walls--especially for wallmount displays.

Anyone have links of some favorite sites that demonstrate tips, techniques, best practices?

Thanks... --mike

 

[Paul Wozniak]

If you don't want to make holes, you can buy some wire guard at the hardware store. It sticks to the wall, encloses your wires, and then you paint it to match the wall. Did this with my speaker wires leading to my on-wall installed Magnepans.

 

[14karat]

IF you are staying within the same wall studs (going vertically and not horizontally).
Oversized wallplate at the base of the wall and another behind the TV wall mount.
If you are going horizontally, there are several things possible, but the best methods involve either going under the floor or above the ceiling... unless you really do want to replace that wall cover...
Because my home is a raised foundation, all my stuff comes from underneath...

 

[jayn_j]

IF you are staying within the same wall studs (going vertically and not horizontally).
Oversized wallplate at the base of the wall and another behind the TV wall mount.
If you are going horizontally, there are several things possible, but the best methods involve either going under the floor or above the ceiling... unless you really do want to replace that wall cover...
Because my home is a raised foundation, all my stuff comes from underneath...

14karat is correct. You need to watch out for fire breaks where they put in a horizontal piece. This generally happens on 2 story rooms at about the 8' level.

If you don't have basement access, you can also pry off the baseboard and dig a channel from the bottom of the drywall to the point where the footer board ends. The drywall doesn't go all the way to the floor (to allow for heat expansion, so you can run the cable under the drywall and then put the baseboard back in. This will allow for a horizontal run as well.

Home depot and Lowes sell a standard electrical box that is front mounting. You cut a rectangular hole in the wallboard and slip the box in from the front. A pair of mounting screws allow a tab to rotate 90 degrees, locking the box in place. This leads to a very clean installation because you can mount an A/V faceplate that takes modular connectors for everything from banana plugs to HDMI sockets.