OT - Any electricians on this forum?

[wickedsolo]

[QUOTE=phatboy;637501]

WTF!?!?

If you do not want to tackle it your self you can call GS Electric in Thurmont Ask for Gus, Brandenburg Electric and TEI Construction are in Frederick. All are customers of mine.

Thanks. I have some other electrical questions, so I'll probably give them a call.

[wickedsolo]

I've wired several homes in the past. Lowrider offered the do-it-yourself advice I would give. That's assuming your basement is unfinished. I'll add a few points. Get a long drill bit from Lowes or Home Depots and an old works box. Use the box as a template to cut the rectangular hole in the drywall where you want the cable to terminate. The drill bits are long and flexible to work in the tight space and go through the floor. Most important, make sure you measure and check where you are drilling so you don't hit a pipe, cable, duct, etc. They sell staples for cables that you can nail them across the basement floor joists to keep everything tidy.

Thanks!

I have a set of auger bits (flat bits), but I'll look into getting a longer bit.

[wickedsolo]

Fish Tape - Check.
Coaxial Cable wall jack - check.
2 50ft RG6 coax cable - check.
two way splitter - check.

Successfully cut a hole in the drywall where the coax jack is going to go. (Not too bad).

Cut a hole in the ceiling of the basement.

Now I am trying to figure out where exactly to drill the hole...totally stumping me. I didn't want to do this, but I guess I am going to have to go back and buy a flexible drill bit extension.

[Shas]

Shas,

My goal is to NOT have to go across any studs.

I did speak to a gent at Home Depot (seems like my hangout now) and he was recommending that I fish the line up to the attic and then down. I get that is probably an easier process, but the closest distance to the wall where I want to go is up through the basement ceiling and splice the wire with a 3 or 2 way splitter.

I have a drop ceiling in my basement so it was definitely easier for me to bring the cable from outside into the basement and then, from the multi-tap, up through the basement ceiling right inside the stud bay where I wanted to put in the new-work box that low rider referenced. I only needed to drill up through the footer with a long, straight bit. In my case, with this method, I didn't need to use fishtape, even with the trickier plaster walls.

Is DirecTV wireless?

You don't have to worry about digging up your yard but from the dish to the box it still requires a cable.

Nope.

But the installer knew what he was doing and ran lines in the walls.

I have DirecTV and have moved cables on more than one occasion, necessitating that I do the work of fishing through walls. And withDirecTV, in order to be able to record to DVR and watch another channel at the same time, it means fishing two cables per TV. Is that also the case with Comcast?

My dish actually sits atop my neighbor's house, and then runs in a trench I dug between our homes to get into my basement. When they came out to do the initial install they couldn't get a line of sight due to trees. And now the house next door was just resold, so I'm waiting to hear if the new neighbor objects. Luckily, or unluckily, a 75 year old pine tree that was one of the main culprits has since died, and I may be okay if I have to move the dish.

DirecTV definitely has some challenges, but I won't go back to Comcast.

[BPF2]

Fish Tape - Check.
Coaxial Cable wall jack - check.
2 50ft RG6 coax cable - check.
two way splitter - check.

Successfully cut a hole in the drywall where the coax jack is going to go. (Not too bad).

Cut a hole in the ceiling of the basement.

Now I am trying to figure out where exactly to drill the hole...totally stumping me. I didn't want to do this, but I guess I am going to have to go back and buy a flexible drill bit extension.

Little late to the discussion, since you've already made some cuts, but couple of suggestions. First, use a wood-boring bit. It doesn't take any extra effort, but gives you a wider hole through the floor plate to fish the coax or any other cabling. Using a standard drill bit results in a relatively narrow hole and when you're trying to pull the fish tape and attached coax, you can very easily get caught on the edges trying to pull it through.

Also, if you are mounting a flat screen on the wall, I highly recommend putting the jack up behind where the TV will be. You can also install an electrical outlet behind. That makes for a cleaner look, no cables hanging down. You still need the hole at floor level you've already made to do the drilling, you'd just have to replace the section you cut out.

That's the other advantage to the wood-boring bit and wider hole is that you can run more cable through. I have the Tivo box, DVD player, stereo receiver and internet router all in the basement and wired up through the ceiling/walls to behind the tv. So there's no visible devices. Just a small wireless remote extender on a table. I got mine at Radio Shack and haven't had any issues in the 4 years it's been in use.

If you do run multiple cables, you can pull them through at once. Just tape the widest one to the fish tape so it's first through the hole. Tape each next cable to the previous one. So if you run HDMI, that has the widest head. Tape that to the fish, then tape the coax to the cable portion of the HDMI, next would be something like Cat-6 to the coax, speaker wires to the cat-6 etc. there is a limit to how much you'll be able to pull through a single hole though.