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Pulling the Cable
Pull the cable in sections (from the stereo
to the volume control, from the volume
control to the speaker). Start with the
longest sections and use left over wire to
complete the short sections. If you plan to
pull many rooms at the same time through
a central route, walk off the distance to
each destination, add a generous fudge
factor for turns and other obstacles, then
cut off each section so that you have a bun-
dle of wires you can pull at once.
Whenever you run the wire further than
four and one half feet from a hole in a stud
or joist (open attic space, going up walls,
etc.), fasten the wire to the joists or studs
using cable clamps or appropriately sized
wire staples. The wire should not have
large sags in it, nor should it be too tight.
Try to protect the wire from being stepped
on in attics or other unfinished crawl
spaces. There are guard strips, raceways
and conduits which can be used to protect
the cable. Consult the local building code
for special requirements in your area.
Concealing Speaker Wire
in Existing Walls
This is actually a fairly simple
task if you restrict your choice of
speaker locations and wire
routes to the interior walls or
ceilings of your home. Interior
walls in almost all North
American residences are hollow,
so that it is easy to flush mount
speakers into them and route
new speaker cable around the
house. What you see when you
look at the painted wall board,
plaster, or paneling is only the
skin of the wall. Behind the skin
is the skeleton; two-by-four
wood or metal “studs” running
vertically from the floor to the
ceiling in walls and two-by-six or
larger “joists” running horizon-
tally in the ceilings and floors. In
between the studs and the joists
is the space for the wiring and
plumbing of your home.
Exterior walls are different. They must insu-
late the house from the heat and cold out-
side, so they are stuffed with insulation.
The national building code requires that
the hollow wall space in exterior walls be
broken by a horizontal stud placed
between the vertical studs. This “fire block-
ing” makes it very difficult to retrofit long
lengths of wire. In some areas of the coun-
try the exterior walls are constructed of
solid masonry, and have no hollow space
for speakers or wires.
Start by examining all the possible routes
you might take to run the speaker wire
from the speaker to the volume control and
back to the stereo. Use a stud sensor or
other device to locate the internal structure
of the wall. You want to avoid all studs or
joists. A typical route would be: from the
speaker location up the inside of the wall
to a new hole drilled into the top “plate”
(horizontal two-by-four at the top of the
inside of the wall), into the attic crawl
space, then down to the volume control
location through another top plate, back
up to the attic, across the attic, and finally
down another plate to the wall behind the
Installation Fundamentals
11
Figure 9
Speaker
Location
Volume
Control
Location
Stereo
Location
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