Doing It From the Rear!!

Evanguy2004

I have a question for everyone on installing rear surround sound speakers. I currently have a Denon AVR 1706 system with Polk Audio Studio 10's as my main right and left speakers along with a center channel speaker plus a PSW111 subwoofer. I would now like to add rear speakers to my set up and need advice in the wiring.

My main listening room is in about 20X24 great room over a garage. I recently have drilled a hole in the floor and ran speaker wire from my AVR channel 2 to the back of my house to set up a outdoor Bose speakers for my deck. Since I could use the same hole in the floor now (Front of my house) to wire my rears I would like to try it. I assume all I would need to do is measure the distance from the front of my family room to the rear wall of the family room. I would then drill up from garage ceiling trying to capture the exact area of where the wall is to feed the speaker wire. I would cut a hole in the wall and feed the speaker wire up through and then put a plate on the wall to make it look nice.

The thing I am afraid about it drilling up from the garage ceiling. Could there be electrical wiring I might hit? How does a professional know exactly where there is wiring? There is an electrical socket plus a phone jack on the same wall I want to feed the wiring for my rear speakers. What would you recommened?

Also does anyone know if there is a good wireless rear speaker surround sound solution I could use to avoid the hard wiring? I have never had luck with wireless speakers in the past. I keep getting interferance with the wireless speakers I have used in the past for lets say the back outdoor deck. Is hard wiring a better solution than going wireless? Also I want to avoid if I can running the rear wires around the floor in my family room. My wife would kill me cause she hates the looks of wires.

Help!

Retro152

Are you drilling through the top plate of the garage wall?

Retro152

If your gonna use Bose, you might want to change the title of this thread to " taking it in the rear". LOL:p

Evanguy2004

retro152 wrote: »

Are you drilling through the top plate of the garage wall?

Well it would be the top of my garage roof which is plaster board which is directly under my family room. I am not sure what you mean by "Top Plate". I am not into construction if that is a technical term. I have drilled through it already in the front part of my great room I just need to drill now at the back of the room where the wall it. There is another room in back of my family room which takes it all the way to the rear wall. Thus the wall I need to drill up between would be located around the center portion of my garage roof.

Evanguy2004

retro152 wrote: »

If your gonna use Bose, you might want to change the title of this thread to " taking it in the rear". LOL:p

OMG...:rolleyes:Very true on the Bose! I purchased some of their outdoor models last year and put them on the deck. I love the sound of Bose but they ain't cheap!!

tcrossma

Evanguy2004 wrote: »

The thing I am afraid about it drilling up from the garage ceiling. Could there be electrical wiring I might hit? How does a professional know exactly where there is wiring? There is an electrical socket plus a phone jack on the same wall I want to feed the wiring for my rear speakers. What would you recommened?

There could technically be wires above the ceiling, but it's extremely rare to actually puncture a wire with a drill in this type of scenario. In the unlikely event that you would even hit a wire, it will usually just get pushed out of the way by the drill bit.

As to wiring in the wall when adding an outlet, my advice there would be to cut the hole for the box with a good old fashioned drywall saw. You have a lot of feel with one and if you hit a wire, you should know it and be able to adjust without doing any damage.

Good luck with the project.

Retro152

tcrossma wrote: »

There could technically be wires above the ceiling, but it's extremely rare to actually puncture a wire with a drill in this type of scenario. In the unlikely event that you would even hit a wire, it will usually just get pushed out of the way by the drill bit.

As to wiring in the wall when adding an outlet, my advice there would be to cut the hole for the box with a good old fashioned drywall saw. You have a lot of feel with one and if you hit a wire, you should know it and be able to adjust without doing any damage.

Good luck with the project.

Agree with this, electrical is stapled to the sides of studs and floor joists. Try to locate the center of a "Bay" this being inbetween two studs. Second floor stud layout should fall right over first floor layout by rights.

Evanguy2004

tcrossma wrote: »

There could technically be wires above the ceiling, but it's extremely rare to actually puncture a wire with a drill in this type of scenario. In the unlikely event that you would even hit a wire, it will usually just get pushed out of the way by the drill bit.

As to wiring in the wall when adding an outlet, my advice there would be to cut the hole for the box with a good old fashioned drywall saw. You have a lot of feel with one and if you hit a wire, you should know it and be able to adjust without doing any damage.

Good luck with the project.

Thanks Tcrossma,

You make a good point on the wiring. I agree that most of the time the wiring if it were hit would just move to the side. I guess I am concerned more on the wiring between the wall that I am drilling up to from the garage ceiling. However that should be the same scenerio. I like your idea also on the drywall saw. Once I cut out the square I would also have a better idea where the other wiring is between the walls.