I need to do 8 runs of speaker wire around a doorway. The door way transitions from laminate to tile, but since I have 8 runs of wire, it won't all fit under the laminate transition piece. I'd prefer to have the wires hidden completely instead of using some kind of conduit around the door frame.

What I'm looking at doing is tucking the wire under the baseboard until I get to the door casing, pop off the casing, cut small holes in the drywall about every 18" around the door way, pulling the cord up and around through the holes, then out the bottom on the other side.

Professional engineering drawing:



Would there by any issues leaving the holes in the dry wall and covering them back up with the casing? It's an interior wall, so insulation wouldn't be an issue.

EDIT: Better picture. Red boxes are holes in the drywall, yellow line is the speaker wire.

[This message has been edited by AgDrumma07 (edited 1/29/2014 10:41a).]

No issues that I can think of; you'll end up caulking the casing anyway I'm sure. so it's not like air would get into the wall cavity that way.

Unless you have super wide casing, you're probably going to find a jack and king stud where you want to cut holes in the sheetrock.

If the casing/molding will cover the sheetrock, I'd be tempted to just cut a 1/4 inch path all the way around. Just push the wire into it.

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Unless you have super wide casing, you're probably going to find a jack and king stud where you want to cut holes in the sheetrock.

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Crap...

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If the casing/molding will cover the sheetrock, I'd be tempted to just cut a 1/4 inch path all the way around. Just push the wire into it.

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I thought about that but I'd prefer to do as little destruction as possible. With my luck, I would really screw it up and have to patch drywall outside of the casing.

Have you removed your door trim yet? Is there any free space between the door jamb and the framing, or is it tight? If you have some space, you'd probably just have to work around some shims.

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Have you removed your door trim yet? Is there any free space between the door jamb and the framing, or is it tight?

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Good call. I haven't yet. I wanted to make sure this is what I'm going to do before tearing it down. I didn't think about the door jamb idea.

I don't know anything about your house, but is going above the ceiling an option?

It's easy to go up through a wall and drop down a wall where needed.

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I don't know anything about your house, but is going above the ceiling an option?

It's easy to go up through a wall and drop down a wall where needed.

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I have a two-story house and it MIGHT be possible to do that option, but that would involve crawling through crawlspaces, which wouldn't be much fun.

Pop off baseboard and door trim. Notch out stud and trimmer. Run wire in void between the jamb and trimmer.

How big is the wire ?

A normal rough opening should be framed 1 inch bigger than the door jamb

go through ceiling. much neater option

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How big is the wire ?

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I'm planning to use something like this from HD (I don't know the exact brand). It's just your standard speaker wire:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/CE-TECH-50-ft-16-Gauge-Stranded-Speaker-Wire-Y280730/203726260

Pretty sure it's just 16 gauge.

I know it's not your favorite store, but Monoprice has a pretty good price on in-wall cable if you decide to run through the ceiling. They also offer more in bulk, so it may be cheaper if you're having to buy 300' instead of 50'.

Personally, I'm a fan of above the ceiling. But I'm also a fan of single story houses.

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I know it's not your favorite store, but Monoprice has a pretty good price on in-wall cable if you decide to run through the ceiling. They also offer more in bulk, so it may be cheaper if you're having to buy 300' instead of 50'.

Personally, I'm a fan of above the ceiling. But I'm also a fan of single story houses.

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I'm going to rethink MP now. It turns out that the HDMI issue was with the TV/cable box, not MP's products. However, MP is letting me return everything anyways (shipping on my dime of course).

I'll look into their wire prices...thanks for the tip. Now that I think about it, I'm going to need a lot more than 50' to 8 runs around a doorway. I think HD sells it in bulk too.

My next house will be a single-story. No more of this walking upstairs business...

Excellent, I'll send over your official Monoprice fan club sticker shortly.

Take a better look at wireless options. They have come a long way recently.

Wireless is not so useful for speakers since it requires a receiver and an amplifier (or amplified speakers) at the speaker end.

How thick is the molding? This may be a stretch, but could you cut a dado in the back of the trim that would act as a channel for the wires? This way you do not damage the wall and still hide the wires. Just my $0.02

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How thick is the molding? This may be a stretch, but could you cut a dado in the back of the trim that would act as a channel for the wires? This way you do not damage the wall and still hide the wires. Just my $0.02

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This is the molding:

http://homedepot.com/p/Woodgrain-Millwork-WM-356-11-16-in-x-2-14-in-x-84-in-Prime-Finger-Jointed-Casing-Propack-108378/202086607/

Specs show 2.25" width. I like the dado idea but I don't think I have the tools to do it.

I tackled this project on Saturday. Here is the door frame in question with one piece of trim taken down for inspection:



The left side needed some work with a drywall saw to open up the groove. There wasn't going to be much room but I did what I could:



Here's the door frame with all of the trim removed. The top and right side had more room for wire:



Since I can't math, I only needed 4 runs of 16-gauge wire, not 8. That helped somewhat, but I still ended up having to staple the wire, as flat as I could, in some spots:



I tested the speakers to make sure everything worked, then went through and painted the edges of the inside of the frame since the trim was down. The trim was then painted and is awaiting re-installation. I don't own a nail gun but I did manage to pull the trim off with a lot of the original nails still countersunk.

Not the cleanest install, but still gettin' it done.

Meh, it will all be covered up anyways.

ceiling

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ceiling

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Two story house with (probably) no attic space in that area

What tool is required to cut a dado in trim?

Ah, don't own a router. Probably won't buy one just for this. I have other tools I need instead.