Hiding Speaker Wire

D

dust'n the callipygous

Well-known member
I just got a new Panasonic Plasma and Klipsch surround sound setup for the new house. I've been ready to hook it up for a week, but every brilliant mounting idea I come up with is quickly shut down by my girlfriend. here's the setup: one side of our living room has a 58" wide wall. there are two closets on the other side of the wall. it's a 42" tv, so it's 40" wide and will leave me just enough room on each side to mount my two front speakers. i'll probably put a shelf below the tv for the center channel, and the rear speakers will go on the back wall behind the couch.

the components and sub are going in one of the closets behind the tv. it's got an outlet, so that's good. i'm going to cut a hole through the wall to run wires/cables from the components in the closest to the back of the tv.

here's where it gets tricky. i've got to run wires to the speakers in the back. the house is built on a slab, so i can't go under the floor. it's also a two-story house, so i can't go through the ceiling.

the best idea i've had so far is to run the rear speaker wires up the wall inside the closet, then out through the wall into the living room, and tack the wires to the wall all the way around the room. we're going to put up molding, so i'd put them were the molding is going, and when that gets installed the wires will be hidden behind it. i'd just have to get some heavier gauge cable, because they would need to be about 50 feet long to run around the room.

there's got to be a better way than this. any ideas?
 
I find duct tape to be pretty much invisible.

IMGP0110.jpg
 
You need an electrician buddy with a fishtape... go through the closets... run the wires... patch the drywall holes... paint. Goes quicker then you think... invisible... perfect.

OR... just go with the ducktape.
 
Even a two-storey house should have dead space between the storeys.

I like the flat wire bit, too. Got some around here somewhere...just haven't gotten around to using it. MY wife keeps rearranging the livingroom....no sense in wiring just yet.
 
If you do hide the wire behind molding, be sure not to compress it. If the molding has an interior channel, all the better.
 
Don't really know any electricians around here. That tape looks pretty cool. We've got carpet now but we're switching it out with some fake wood floors soon. Anybody know if that tape wire would still be good after it's run 50 feet? Not sure what gauge that stuff is equivalent to.
 
is it okay to run that flat speaker wire under the laminate-wood flooring? it would go over whatever we put down between the slab and the floor. i just don't know if that would create too much pressure on the wires, but i wouldn't need to buy as much and wouldn't have to worry about corners. i'm trying to avoid calling an electrician. no money for that right now.
 
dust'n the callipygous said:
is it okay to run that flat speaker wire under the laminate-wood flooring? it would go over whatever we put down between the slab and the floor. i just don't know if that would create too much pressure on the wires, but i wouldn't need to buy as much and wouldn't have to worry about corners. i'm trying to avoid calling an electrician. no money for that right now.
Click to expand...

Yes, you could, but if you're on a slab, I'd put dri-core down first as a sub floor, then the laminate on top. With the dricore you could run any kind of thin speaker cable as it has little channels for water run off. You can get dri-core at any home depot. Will also protect your floor from any light flooding and keep it warmer.
 
IMGP0110.jpg


As a licensed Electrician... I might need to give you my number. Oh, in the meantime, invest in some smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top