flatscreen on wall problem...

[copterdoctor]

not sure if this is the right area, but here it goes.....

I am going to hang a 42'' flatscreen on the wall...
when we had the house built, we told the contractor that we were going to hang said tv, on said wall.
They installed a elect. outlet up where the TV will cover it when hung. what they forgot to install, is the coax plate.
there is power and coax down low, behind the 3ft tall entertainment center.
long story short, we want the tv to be mounted on the wall, with no cords hanging in site. including cords from blue ray player, etc...

has anyone here ever installed some sort of pipe, or just the cords them selves, into an existing wall??
our house is brand new, and I'm not the best drywall guy when it comes to matching textures... lol
the wall is an outside wall, and has very thick insulation in it. not sure what R rating, but we have a 5+ star energy rated house....

looking for advice/suggestions....
thanks

 

[JRW]

I mounted mine on an interior wall (no insulation) and I ran the power and HDMI cables in the wall. They exit the wall at standard outlet height and I mounted a plate cover with a couple of blank inserts. I notched the inserts to allow the cables to be tight with no play.
I did have to slice the cover plate because the plugs were too large to pass thru the insert openings.
Just make the holes in the sheetrock small and the cover plates eliminate any sheetrock work.

 

[Ocho]

Flat HDMI cables painted wall color?

Get some fiberglass rods (HF has them for about $15) and fish your HDMI wires from the TV down the wall to your entertainment center. Unless it's spray in foam, you should be able to sneak it between the insulation and the drywall.

If you want to make it look nice, you can get HDMI wall plates from Monoprice.com and have one behind the tv and another behind the entertainment center.

...or you could just paint your cables wall color.

 

[ddawg16]

How close is the existing coax to the location where you want the TV...specifically, is it within the 'outline' of the TV but down low?

If so, easy....cut a hole the size of an outlet behind where the TV would be....remove the plate on the coax...pop out the top of the box...run the cable up the wall to the opening....this is assuming you don't have smoke blocking in the way.

Then, at the top hole....use an old construction box to keep the coax in...

If the existing coax is a few feet away...it gets more complicated.....the end result being how much work you want to do to keep in concealed.

 

[Buckled]

I used a 2" hole saw and cut a hole where it would be behnd the TV and another directly below it near the outlet and cable outlet. dropped the cables in from above and pulled them back throught he bottom hole. Very easy and witha cabinet below the TV you can't see any of the outlets/cables.

 

[61scout80]

just did this, although my tv is on the interior wall, some of my speakers are not. this only works if your low cable jack is in the same stud bay as the desired location of the high one.

First, take a good stud finder and make sure there is no fire blocking (horizontal lumber) in the area the cords will be running.
If there isn't fire blocking get yourself a fish tape. cut a hole in the top and bottom of the wall and push the tape from one to the other. In my insulated wall case I have a 1/4" hole up high and a 2" hole down low. (Try pulling your cable cover plate off before making any new holes, there might not be a box behind it. You would be able to put a T on that end, hook a short lead to the low outlet and run the other one up the wall. )
Tape your wire to the fish tape and be sure there is nothing that could snag the insulation, then pull your wire up. If you don't make sure it is as "aerodynamic" as possible it will get stuck in the insulation.

On the low side of mine I used this cover plate that looks like a hood scoop on a car to run all my wires through. The high side I used a 3" cover plate like you would see on a desk in an office. got everything i needed at the local ace store.


Also, go to your user cp and fill out your location, there may be someone near you willing to give you a hand.

 

[TONE]

Not that anyone cares, but it isnt code to run the tv power supply cord into-down the wall.

The coaxial cable is fine but not the power source.

 

[Red05GT]

We recently did this for a customer and used 1 1/4" sealtite flexible conduit fished into the wall and run into a box and then used the coax cover plate to finish it off.

 

[Kevin54]

What I seen them do on TV to hide the cables is to use 1/2" MDF. Miter the corners on a 45 and build a boxed channel. The size can me made according to what you thing looks suitable and mounting to the wall can be done in a variety of ways. Paint the boxed channel to match your wall color

 

[1320stang]

Not that anyone cares, but it isnt code to run the tv power supply cord into-down the wall.

The coaxial cable is fine but not the power source.

I think he has a power outlet high and low, low for the DVR/tuner/dvd etc.

 

[copterdoctor]

I think he has a power outlet high and low, low for the DVR/tuner/dvd etc.

yup... that's exactly how it is....

and I'll probably get some of that sealtite conduit.... I've got pics of that wall during construction, house is only 6 months old, so I know there's no fire blocks in.... just can't believe I didn't make the whole tv thing clear to the contractor during construction... the wife got the tile, and kitchen she wanted.... lol

the insulation has clear sheeting placed over the batting, and it puffs out probably 2 inches past the studs before they put the drywall up....
so the problem i'm foreseeing is trying to fish that flexible conduit through the wall, in really dense insulation... I live in Alaska...lol, so it's the good stuff...

hey red05GT... did you have to fish the conduit in an insulated wall??

 

[gatchel]

You could use 2 of these:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...d=1042505&p_id=3997&seq=1&format=1#largeimage

and get in wall rated cables also. Monoprice.com has them too, cheap. I have had good luck with their product. Wall plates, HDMI cables, etc.

 

[jdub63]

You could try a "magnetic" fish tape...that would keep the cord between the sheetrock and the plastic sheeting. Like this or make your own...

http://www.licensedelectrician.com/Store/RT/Wire_Python.htm

 

[GarageEnvy]

+1 for the fiberglass rod to fish it through. However, if you're as cheap as I am then grab a metal band off a stack of lumber. I've used those plenty of times and you can actually steer them in the wall better than the fiberglass rod (imo). Plus, they're free!

 

[ultgar]

If you're going to be running HDMI in-wall or using HDMI wall plates, make sure you go with HDMI 1.4 spec cable and accessories. SD

 

[cowboyjosh]

If your going to attempt to do this yourself make sure all your cables are rated for "in wall use", otherwise if you have a BRAND NEW house, why not call back the electrician who wired it or the fella who installed low voltage wiring, who will bring all the right tools and could run the wires and have you in business in a hour or less?

 

[rmousir]

don't cheap on it. it is easy to run the cable but if you are unsure, call a installer.

 

[Red05GT]

Copterdoctor, we had to open up the wall because we were mounting the flatscreen
above a masonry fireplace, and had to drop down and cross over horizontally about 6'
to get to the existing cable feed and electrical outlet. In your case with no fire blocking,
and if you can go straight up, I would take a double plastic cut in box, or a 4" square
metal box. Establish your location for mounting and cut your top box hole. Down below
remove the single box and cut out the opening for a double box, now you should be
able to shove the sealtite through and with the double box opening you can get your
hand in the wall cavity to grab the sealtite. For cover plates get a couple of double
blank cover plates and drill the hole size you want for the cables. Our customer purchased Monster cables and we ran those throught the sealtite. Good luck.

 

[copterdoctor]

quick question.... can you run a blue ray player to your tv using the coax??? or is it HDMI only??

the reason I ask, is, well... I made a mistake when posting this thread.... I'll explain...

I am 500 miles from home, in the middle of BFE working... I was posting this thread from my memory... well, after looking at some pics, I realized I was wrong on a few things.... or not remembering correctly is probably a more accurate description...

there ARE power AND coax plates up high.... dunno what I was thinking....lol...
but, not sure if the two coax plates, the one up high, and the one down low, are tied together... but i'm pretty sure they would be...
so here's the newest "dilema" lol. can I run a coax splitter down low, going in to the lower plate? the splitter would be for the blue ray, and the satelite hookups...

this is getting simple in some ways, yet more complicated in others.... lol

SO, the coax down low, goes to the back of the satelite receiver, then to the tv.... so assuming we mount the tv up high.... we'd still have to figure out how to run satelite hookup UP to the tv.....
here's a pic I finally found.... the hookups down low are the same..... http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4616337&l=708bd7c4d2&id=777464147

 

[copterdoctor]

If your going to attempt to do this yourself make sure all your cables are rated for "in wall use", otherwise if you have a BRAND NEW house, why not call back the electrician who wired it or the fella who installed low voltage wiring, who will bring all the right tools and could run the wires and have you in business in a hour or less?

ya I may end up doing that..... we're having a few warranty issues with our contractor, but I do have the electricians business card....
but honestly, I'd like to do this myself....
the only reason I wasn't more involved during the construction is because I was gone working so much.... I would come home for a 3 or 4 day break, head over to the house being built, and have a million and one things to look at.... the tv issue was small beans, at the time, compared to all the other stuff....

pretty sad, I can fix helicopters, but home construction isn't my strong suite... lol

 

[Red05GT]

Not that big a deal, I can't fix helicopters!!!

 

[61scout80]

pretty sad, I can fix helicopters, but home construction isn't my strong suite... lol

Yeah, I'll stick to drawing houses. If I miss something on a plan someone has to figure out how to run a wire behind their drywall, rarely do houses plummet from the heavens if i have an off day!

 

[Ocho]

Use the coax as your fish tape.
Tape an in-wall HDMI cable and a string to the coax in the wall.
Pull the coax out of the wall at the other end.
Use the string to pull the coax back up (or down) through the wall.