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My wife and I just bought a house built in the 1940's. We are putting the TV in a part of the living room where we will have to drill a new hole to the crawlspace below to fit the cable through. This is my first house with REAL hardwood floors so I want to make sure I do it correctly without causing any extra damage.
The wood panels are 2 1/4 inches wide. There are two other holes that have already been drilled in other parts of the house. One is in the center of the panel, and the other is right in between two panels on the crease. Does it matter which why I choose to do it?
Also, is there anything else I need to know about dirlling the hole and which specific spot I choose? Thanks for any feedback.
When I added a coaxial connection in my living room with hardwood floors, I located a spot on the desired wall that was between the studs and and that I knew didn't contain water lines or wiring. I used a drywall hand saw to open up a small opening for the co-ax plate and to visually check that the wall cavity was empty. Then I removed the shoe molding below the small wall opening, took a very long and narrow diameter drill bit and drilled a small hole right at the base of the wall and at an angle to the wall, deep enough to reach the basement below.
After sticking a length of unbent coat hanger through the hole, I went down into the basement to look for the end of the coat hanger. I then put an appropriately sized auger bit onto my drill and drilled up from the basement into the wall cavity, triangulating the proper location from the coat hanger indicator. That's the tricky part -- get the triangulation wrong and you're going to leave an ugly hole either in the living room or in the room on the other side of the wall.
Once I had pushed a length of the coaxial cable up through the new hole, I went back upstairs to the living room, reached into the wall, pulled out the cable, attached it to the coaxial cable plate and installed the plate in the wall. Re-installing the shoe molding at the base of the living room wall covered the small pilot hole that I had drilled previously.
Maybe it's not how the pro's do it, but it worked for me.
Thanks for the feedback. Dont worry, I don't have this scheduled for today so I'll make sure I have all my cards in a row. Is there any reason besides aesthetics to use the COAX plate in the wall instead of just having the cable come up through the floor directly to the cable box? It doesn't seem like it would be any type of fire hazard, but I guess I could be completely off on that.
Thanks for the feedback. Dont worry, I don't have this scheduled for today so I'll make sure I have all my cards in a row. Is there any reason besides aesthetics to use the COAX plate in the wall instead of just having the cable come up through the floor directly to the cable box? It doesn't seem like it would be any type of fire hazard, but I guess I could be completely off on that.
Yep, IMHO the difference is "amateur ghetto vs. professional". At some point you will want to put other cables such as Ethernet to that spot. Do the job properly with a retrofit junction box and wall plate. If this is too much for you, have some one do it as opposed to drilling a hole in the floor, which will be there for ever, even when you decide to move the TV! I am always amazed by the DIY bodge jobs I see in other peoples homes and I start to wonder what else, that I is not visible, has been bodged!
Thanks for the feedback. Dont worry, I don't have this scheduled for today so I'll make sure I have all my cards in a row. Is there any reason besides aesthetics to use the COAX plate in the wall instead of just having the cable come up through the floor directly to the cable box? It doesn't seem like it would be any type of fire hazard, but I guess I could be completely off on that.
Going on the floor is what most cable/satellite service provider provided installer do. Why? Quick and dirty and no chance to create other problems. It also require some investigation into what could be behind the walls. If it's your house and you are doing the work, rational1 recommendation is spot on.
If you don't care, then it's just a quick 10s with the drill and you are done.
Yep, IMHO the difference is "amateur ghetto vs. professional".
Apparently you have seen work from the so-called "professionals" today! Most of it is done by subcontractors that the cable companies hire- get in, get out, hack a hole anywhere!
STOP! You're doing it wrong and backwards to boot.
Drill into the wall...
Drill *UP* from the crawlspace and NOT into the floor...
then set a proper COAX plate in the wall.
That is how the cable man did mine. I'd choose it over driller into hardwood floors.
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