The Meaford Independent

RUN THROUGH ATTICS, BASEMENTS OR CRAWL SPACES. If a room has attic above or open joists below the floor, running cables to the location and then fishing them up or down inside the wall can be relatively easy. Wear a face mask in the attic to avoid breathing in the insulation, long sleeves and gloves to protect your skin. If it’s a summer day, start early. The attic will be an oven by noon. Be careful to step only on the framing; the drywall won’t hold your weight and you’ll end up with your foot sticking through the bedroom ceiling. Take your time with careful measurements and locating landmarks like exhaust ducts, pot lights, and plumbing to find your spot. Drill through the top plate at the right location and drop your wire down to the opening you’ve prepared below to feed it to. When you’re finished in the attic, level out the insulation, and make sure you haven’t blocked the ventilation. When working up from below, you can determine your location by relating it to heat registers or plumbing that comes through the floor.

DROP POT LIGHTS TO GET ACCESS ABOVE CEILING. Ceiling pot lights are in cans that can be dropped down from the ceiling without disconnecting them from the power. Older pot lights were bigger than they are today and when you drop them down you have a larger access. In most cases, the ceiling drywall will be installed directly on the joists so you can only run the cables within the one joist space you’ve gained access to, running parallel to the joists. If there’s strapping, you can fish cables both ways. If you’re running cables for recessed ceiling speakers, cut the opening for the speaker first so that you have an additional access point.

USE THE RETURN AIR CHASE TO GET BETWEEN FLOORS. If your house has forced-air heating, it’ll have return air plenums feeding back to the furnace. From the cold air return on the wall you can fish down to the basement where the heating contractor has nailed sheet metal to the underside of the studs to form a chase to the furnace. Pull back the sheet metal just enough to get your cable out. Don’t bend the sheet metal too much, though, because it won’t flatten out again. Replace it carefully: it’s feeding air to the furnace from upstairs.

TUCK THE WIRE BEHIND THE TACKLESS STRIP OR BASEBOARD. In a room with wall-to-wall broadloom you can pull it back from the edges (carefully, to avoid ripping or unravelling the carpet) and you’ll find that there is a gap under the baseboard behind the tack strip that holds down the edge of the carpet (mind the sharp nail points). That gap under the baseboard may be big enough to run your cable through, and then you use a knee-kicker to re-install the carpet edge and make it tight. A hardwood floor is trickier. Running behind the quarter round should only be tried as a last resort. The quarter round could split taking it off, the gap might be inconsequential, you might nick the wire when you reinstall the quarter round, and you’ll have to touch up the nail heads. But it works in a pinch if you’re very careful and it’s a small cable.

RUN CABLES BEHIND THE DOOR TRIM. There is always a gap between the door jamb and the wall studs, covered by the casing trim. If you remove the casing you can run your cables in that gap to get around the door opening. If necessary, you can cut the drywall back knowing that the casing will cover it. As with the quarter round you run the risk of splitting the casing when you try to remove it, and you’ll have to touch up the nail heads regardless. You also have to take care re-installing the casing you don’t put a nail through the cable.

RUN CABLES IN THE CROWN MOULDING. The angled crown mould at the top of the wall in your living room or dining room has a gap behind it large enough for several cables. In this case the trick is to get into and out of that gap without leaving visible holes.

INSTALL AN ACCESS PANEL INSTEAD OF PATCHING. If there is no way around making holes, you should try first to make them in a closet or other area that is not normally visible. But when there is no option other than to make an opening in the ceiling, you can avoid the cost of patching by installing a metal (or plastic) access panel that can be painted to match the ceiling. Of course there are some rooms where that would be unacceptable but in many cases an access panel will never be noticed. A similar trick if you need a wall opening is to cover it with a blank switch plate. Naturally the concern in both cases is to make sure you cut the opening the right size, and locate the hole in a place that looks natural.

SPECIALIZED TOOLS. There is a wide array of specialized tools available to the professional, from slingshots for the attic to tiny cameras mounted on long flexible necks to look inside walls. But the most useful tool in fishing wires is the fibreglass rod. They come in five or six foot lengths, with threaded ends so they can be combined to form longer lengths. You’ll find them in most building or electrical supply stores. They glow in the dark to make them easier to see in the attic or crawl space. Feed these rods through your fishing space and then tape the cable to the end and pull it through. It’s helpful to have a man on each end. And don’t spare the electrical tape. If the wire slips off halfway through the space, you have to start all over.

EXPECT DELAYS AND FRUSTRATIONS. The main thing you’ll need if you are going to be fishing cables is patience. It can be a case of trial and error and there will inevitably be a lot of what seems like wasted time as you struggle to get through a particular route only to find in the end that it can’t be done and you have to try something else. Don’t swear in front of the kids.