Getting Speaker cable under the floor.

[TW]Taggart · 29 Jan 2010 at 15:55

Ive setup my Cinema room but id love to hide the cables under the floor. Its on the ground floor but has a suspended wood floor.

The problem is that the floor boards arnt able to come up as we layed them without gaps before sanding and varnishing (why oh why didnt I do this at the time.. I ran everything else just not this) I can get one board up which is under my setup luckely to run the cables to the front of the room for sub, centre and left and right

Does anyone have any neat tricks to get a pull through to the other end of the room?? its about 20' My two daft ideas were a remote control car or a long flexible bit of wood/plastic.

Tr Insanity · 29 Jan 2010 at 16:08

This is what you need

Just clicked the first one which I came across , so there may be some cheaper ones too.

thepharcyde · 30 Jan 2010 at 10:15

Pet mouse and a block of cheese at the other end

mark66 · 30 Jan 2010 at 10:20

Tr Insanity said:
This is what you need

A "CABLE ACCESS FISH TAPE MOUSE PULLER KIT"....how does it work?

Participant · 30 Jan 2010 at 11:49

[TW]Taggart;15850075 said:
Ive setup my Cinema room but id love to hide the cables under the floor. Its on the ground floor but has a suspended wood floor.

The problem is that the floor boards arnt able to come up as we layed them without gaps before sanding and varnishing (why oh why didnt I do this at the time.. I ran everything else just not this) I can get one board up which is under my setup luckely to run the cables to the front of the room for sub, centre and left and right

Does anyone have any neat tricks to get a pull through to the other end of the room?? its about 20' My two daft ideas were a remote control car or a long flexible bit of wood/plastic.

Do you have lots of wire coathangars lying around? I estimate each coathangar will give you 2.5 ft so you would need 8. Unravel and gaffer tape each one together, push through to the other side, gaffer tape cable to coathangar, pull back to start.

Redgie · 30 Jan 2010 at 12:22

Got any really strong magnets?

1. Obtain large magnet and place on floor
2. Attach multiple pieces of string to metal ball of some sort (Anything metal will do, but metal balls are better for rising over random pieces of broken wood underneath
3. Put metal object under floorboards
4. Slowly pull the magnet along the top of the floorboard to the other end of room
5. Pull pieces of string out and attach to wires
6. Pull string from other end to pull wires through

Alternatively, use the RC car, that would be awesome ^^

Tr Insanity · 30 Jan 2010 at 17:00

mark66 said:
A "CABLE ACCESS FISH TAPE MOUSE PULLER KIT"....how does it work?

From Wikipedia :

A fish tape (also known as a draw wire or draw tape) is a tool used by electricians to route new wiring through walls and electrical conduit.

Made of a narrow band of spring steel, by careful manipulation, the tape can be "fished" (guided) through the confined spaces within wall cavities. Once guided through, the new wiring can be pulled into the wall by attaching it to the end of the fish tape and pulling the tape back whence it came.

[TW]Taggart · 31 Jan 2010 at 12:44

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+Tools/Electricians+Tools/Draw+Tape+Nylon+10m/d10/sd170/p35379

bingo. thats for all the help.

Tr Insanity · 31 Jan 2010 at 13:56

I think it would be funner with an RC car though

Kanifee · 31 Jan 2010 at 15:52

may sound a silly question but have you made sure you arnt running 90 degrees to the direction of the floor boards? the joists may be a problem otherwise, issue i had when doing mine, luckily i invested in a very very thick carpet so i run it inside of the gripper rods, sits nicely and unoticable.

kingy666 · 2 Feb 2010 at 18:55

Tr Insanity said:
This is what you need

Just clicked the first one which I came across , so there may be some cheaper ones too.

Just to let you know, i am a spark (electrician), and the above linked fish tape/nylon cable pullers won't work as they are made to be pushed through conduit/tube.

Solid wooden floors and laminate flooring are the bane of most domestic electricians lives. I am glad i am a commercial electrician.

sk1n · 2 Feb 2010 at 19:00

i would use http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Han...ols/Cable+Access+Kit+10+x+1m/d10/sd170/p75799

Tr Insanity · 2 Feb 2010 at 19:05

kingy666 said:
Just to let you know, i am a spark (electrician), and the above linked fish tape/nylon cable pullers won't work as they are made to be pushed through conduit/tube.

Solid wooden floors and laminate flooring are the bane of most domestic electricians lives. I am glad i am a commercial electrician.

Just when I thought I had the perfect answer

Eddmac · 2 Feb 2010 at 19:16

Wireless speakers are a possibility, although you still need to get power to them.
Depending on the size of the cable you may be able to fit it in the expansion gap under the skirting, or you can get surface mount trunking, or fit a dado rail and put it under that. erm theres more but thats all i can think of

If, as someone previously stated, your joists run the rigght way, you should be able to get the cable down with a thin piece of wood (or I used plastic conduit to do mine, attached a bit of string to the end with PVC tape then attached the cable to the string

)

Tr Insanity · 2 Feb 2010 at 19:36

I just had another idea.

Tent poles!

Those flexible ones should bend quite a bit and are probably long enough to reach

ZG002 · 2 Feb 2010 at 20:36

What you need mate are rods. Like the cable access kit linked to further up. May be abit of a hassle tbh. How long is the floorboard you can get up? You may need to cut small access hatches at each point you want to cables to.

Tesla · 2 Feb 2010 at 21:22

You can get cable access rods with a camera kit too. Maybe you could rent one but you may get joists in the way?

Kanifee · 2 Feb 2010 at 23:57

false skirting would be an easier suggestion, very discreate if its not on a wall of focus, simpler aswell, maybe not ideal though i think.