Woody

I am wiring up my new surround speakers and want to run the wires under the carpet. Any advice on how to do this (I am an incurable do-it-yourselfer). I am thinking of using a fishtape and pushing the wire through but have nightmare images of bunched up carpet padding in the middle of my room! Is it easy to secure the carpet again after pulling up a small edge piece? TIA.

jsun

I recently did this. I would suggest trying to do a short run under the carpet toward a wall, and then running the wire along the baseboard at the edge of the room. I was able to conceal 16 gague wire under the bottom of the baseboard behind the tackstrip. I used a coat hanger to fish the wire under about a 2.5' run of carpet. I would definitely suggest running it under the padding because as long as your fish-wire is not sharp you shouldn't tear it up too bad.

SEH

A couple of years ago when I was in an apartment, I used a metal coat hanger to place speaker wire under carpet at a hallway door. Worked great if you didn't mind a speed bump! The padding some plastic junk that bunched up a bit. I wasn't bothered too much because I wasn't staying there forever.

Other than that, it worked like a charm.

Stephen

audrey

if you want to run wire under the carpet you should consider getting "flat" wire; monster (flame retardent suit, check) and several other companies make quality cable that is thin and flat, rather than round. these cables can be had in either two or four lead configurations.

Woody

Here are some post-installation comments.

I ended up getting the Monster super flat cable and was trying to run it 30 feet under carpet. I first tried making a small hole in the carpet and feeding in a standard fish tape. Disaster! The fish tape ripped into the carpet pad just a few inches in. I had to pull up the edge of the carpet to smooth out the pad. A regular fish tape just doesn't work for this long of a run. There are a couple alternatives - a special carpet tape that is much wider and won't bend like a regular fish tape or a special zip kit that uses sectional fiberclass rods. Then I came up with a poor man's version. I used a corded fiberglass pole from our camping tent! It worked great and was very easy to direct under the carpet. The disadvantage was you can easily push the pole but pulling it could overstress and break the elastic cords. My solution was to hook the regular fish tape on the end of the pole and use the fish tape to pull the rod back out. Voila! The 12 guage cable is imperceptible under the carpet, the carpet edge was easy to reattach to the tack strips and my surrounds sound sweet! And no unsightly wires - just a little wall patching to do!