cables in wall or from outside the house?

devilish

The low voltage installer came by today and he mentioned that its better to run the cables to the outside of the house and drill back in rather than the drywall. The reasons he stated are:

#1 - Avoid the 1 inch hole in the wall that he would have to make to put the fish eye in.

#2 - Easier to patch the small hole while selling the house.

#3 - He also claimed that the wires and sound would not be impacted in the short or long term.

His quotes are the same whichever way I want to do it. ($50/speaker for labor)

I already bought 14AWG in wall cables so will be using them -http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023902&p_id=2820&seq=1&format=2

Advice?

Thanks!
Devilish

superjunior

Lasareath wrote: »

Find a new installer

yep, I'd get another opinion on that

devilish

hence my question to this awesome forum

kolyan2k

outside is always easier, but do you really want wires on the outside of the house ?

if he can make them invisible, its ok, otherwise i would do it inside.

and as far as #3 goes, I am pretty sure that impact on wires is minimal (if any) even in very low or high temps. (unless we are talking 50+ year, then possibly there maybe a problem)


and $50 per speaker ???? I just wired a living room few days ago for $700 labor including TV cable

kcoc321

Does your house have a crawlspace, as in wood floor? That would be WAY better than outside.
One thing I did for another install, was take off the baseboards and DADO them out and run the speaker wires inside there. I used the 'trim head' screws, which are not too big, and used a wax based filler, so I could take them out easily, later if I needed to. Course you would need to be somewhat handy with access to a table saw or a router. And I had 1X6 baseboards to work with. Install came out nice and clean. No sheetrock to patch and paint.

Another fairly easy option is to run them up the wall in a stud bay, using 2 double gang boxes at top and bottom of wall, and then run the wires laterally in the attic and back down again. Works IF you ge lucky and there are no horizontal blocking in the wall. ONe 'hint' on this method is to locate the bottom hole high enough (16-24") off of the ground so that you can run a long flex-bit up if you need to (I did) I trimmed the bottom ones out with speaker plates and the top with LV boxes and blank cover plates. painted to match. Course the side and reares would have speaker plates as well. Would result in less holes (& less mess) to patch in the drywall than the horizontal, in-wall method.

jimmydep

You could run the wire at the ceiling and cover it with a crown or cove moulding. We use this method when running pipes in an older home.



Jimmy

nguyendot

Never, ever run your wires outside the house. About the only thing that MIGHT be out there should be the cable or satellite (both RG59/6 usually). AV cables are not made to go outside and will break down quicky due to UV, among other things.

bigaudiofanatic

Lasareath wrote: »

Find a new installer

Yep I agree

kolyan2k

nguyendot wrote: »

Never, ever run your wires outside the house. About the only thing that MIGHT be out there should be the cable or satellite (both RG59/6 usually). AV cables are not made to go outside and will break down quicky due to UV, among other things.

yeah, it doesnt say "UV resistant" or "outdoor" on that cable you purchased.....

might wanna run that inside or buy another cable then, just to be safe

devilish

I do have a crawlspace. I'll have the installer go through the drywall given the comments and the fact that the cable is indeed not UV resistant.

thanks guys!

kcoc321

I would go crawlspace route.
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