Hello Folk,
I am in the process of fishing/routing data cable (ethernet, cat5e/cat6) and coax cable (rg6) through my drywalls and betweens different stories of my home (basement and two story home). The holes tend to be a liggle bit larger since I will install cables with terminals already installed (5/8" holes). The inside walls are made of drywall and painted with texture (and it has insulation inside the walls), the exterior walls are made of bricks (masonry walls) as can be seen in the following pic:
Outside of my unit, mine is the one on the left, the cable shall go to second floor).
Initiall drilled hole to route cable thorugh the basement ceiling (shown where the yellow rod is):
Cable successfully routed to the first floor:
The process of a hole large enough through the basement joint was relatively straightforward, I had to drill a relatively large hole (5/8” drill bit) with my angle drill attachment and was able to pass a fiberglass wiring kit and the cables themselves through such hole. It was a little difficult to pinpoint exactly where to cut the drywall in the first floor in order to pull the cable, so I ended up cutting two openings in the drywall and only found the spot from where the cable was coming through on the second attempt (used a plate cover to cover the wrong hole). I am using stud finders, but it is not that precise. Would the studs between the first and second floor be always in the same position, would they be symmetric? And would the be around 16” apart? That is the assumption I am making.
Drill and angle drill attachment shown below:
The difficult part though has been to run the cable from the first floor to second, and the fact that the external walls are made out of bricks (masonry walls) and the insulation inside the walls may complicate things somewhat. I am also trying to cause minimum damage (openings) on the drywall as possible. So I measure where the outlet should be locate in the seconds floor, and got a good ballpark of the its spot, but not a very precise one, so I ended up opening two holes between a stud, as shown below.
I ended up drill two holes on the joist (5/8” drill bit size) with the help of an angle drill trying to find the best spot to route the cable down, but once the drill apparently finished up drilling the joint it stumbled upon something else harder (maybe concrete or bricks), but there was a very short hollow space between the joist and that something harder, but with a relatively flexible wire (like fishing wire or fiblerglass fishing rods) one could get around such harder thing. Would such 5/8” represent any type of compromise to the strength of the floor or joists, I would believe that not, but I am not sure? I may have to drill another one. Below are some pics of the drilled holes close to the baseboard inside the walls on the second floor:
I only cut the drywalls at the spots where I would install the wall outlet plates and trying to route the cable from the firs floor to second, but it is difficult to pinpoint where the cable is going without seeing. I would imagined that creating more opening on the drywall along the way (first and second flloor) would make it easier, but I am trying to avoid it. Would there be a better approach or way of doing it.
Any insight would be appreciated.
thanks
tk3000
I am in the process of fishing/routing data cable (ethernet, cat5e/cat6) and coax cable (rg6) through my drywalls and betweens different stories of my home (basement and two story home). The holes tend to be a liggle bit larger since I will install cables with terminals already installed (5/8" holes). The inside walls are made of drywall and painted with texture (and it has insulation inside the walls), the exterior walls are made of bricks (masonry walls) as can be seen in the following pic:
Outside of my unit, mine is the one on the left, the cable shall go to second floor).
Initiall drilled hole to route cable thorugh the basement ceiling (shown where the yellow rod is):
Cable successfully routed to the first floor:
The process of a hole large enough through the basement joint was relatively straightforward, I had to drill a relatively large hole (5/8” drill bit) with my angle drill attachment and was able to pass a fiberglass wiring kit and the cables themselves through such hole. It was a little difficult to pinpoint exactly where to cut the drywall in the first floor in order to pull the cable, so I ended up cutting two openings in the drywall and only found the spot from where the cable was coming through on the second attempt (used a plate cover to cover the wrong hole). I am using stud finders, but it is not that precise. Would the studs between the first and second floor be always in the same position, would they be symmetric? And would the be around 16” apart? That is the assumption I am making.
Drill and angle drill attachment shown below:
The difficult part though has been to run the cable from the first floor to second, and the fact that the external walls are made out of bricks (masonry walls) and the insulation inside the walls may complicate things somewhat. I am also trying to cause minimum damage (openings) on the drywall as possible. So I measure where the outlet should be locate in the seconds floor, and got a good ballpark of the its spot, but not a very precise one, so I ended up opening two holes between a stud, as shown below.
I ended up drill two holes on the joist (5/8” drill bit size) with the help of an angle drill trying to find the best spot to route the cable down, but once the drill apparently finished up drilling the joint it stumbled upon something else harder (maybe concrete or bricks), but there was a very short hollow space between the joist and that something harder, but with a relatively flexible wire (like fishing wire or fiblerglass fishing rods) one could get around such harder thing. Would such 5/8” represent any type of compromise to the strength of the floor or joists, I would believe that not, but I am not sure? I may have to drill another one. Below are some pics of the drilled holes close to the baseboard inside the walls on the second floor:
I only cut the drywalls at the spots where I would install the wall outlet plates and trying to route the cable from the firs floor to second, but it is difficult to pinpoint where the cable is going without seeing. I would imagined that creating more opening on the drywall along the way (first and second flloor) would make it easier, but I am trying to avoid it. Would there be a better approach or way of doing it.
Any insight would be appreciated.
thanks
tk3000