Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Wall Drop

I need another wall drop in my living room about 20 feet away from where one is currently. I'd like to avoid paying the cable company 70 bucks to do this. How difficult is this to do? I have access to the attic and I don't think it'd be hard to find excatly where I need to put the drop (there's a huge cross beam that goes across my living room where I'm going to put it.) My main concern is how to hook it into the existing cable line and what type of cable I'd need.

Any advice or links would be much appriciated. Thanks

Ben

It is fairly easy.

You are going to need a fish tape. (Usually found in the electrical dept of home centers)

Get yourself some RG-6 COAX cable and a good quality splitter.

Get yourself a "low-voltage, old work single gang box". It will be orange.

The easiest route is to split off the cable going to the other outlet in that room.

You are going to disconnect that cable outlet and connect the end of that COAX cable and tape it securely to the end of the fish tape.

Once it is taped, go up into the attic above this wall, find that COAX cable that goes through the top plate and start pulling it up. Once the cable is pulled up, remove tape and macke sure the fish tape does not go back down in the wall.

Attach the cable to the "IN" portion of the splitter.

Now take your new RG-6 cable and attach one end to the "OUT" side of the splitter, tape other end to fish tape, and pull the new cable down into the existing outlet.

Now,

Scan the area you want this new receptacle at for wall studs. You don't want to cut the sheetrock out and find a wallstud in your way.

Cut your access hole too the size of the new gang box.

Now look up and find something to reference the walls location in the attic, like a vent duct, light, etc. I usually measure from the vent duct to the wall.

Once you got this, go back up in attic and try and find the top plate (2 2x4's)in the location you measured.

I usually drill a 11/16 size hole in the MIDDLE of the top plate to allow room for the fish tape and wire end.

Once hole is drilled, see if you can see the hole you cut in the wall, I usually put a flash light in the hole so I can see it easily.

If it lines up the first time, sweet, if not, try again.

Now, drop your fish tape down the top plate and have your partner try and grab it from the new hole.

Once the fish tape is through, attach new RG-6 cable to fish tape, pull up through wall, attach to splitter.

You are done now. You just have to put the cable outlet in.

This is not difficult. It's just time consuming getting the fish tape down the wall sometimes.

Make sure you wear pants and wear a dust mask so the insulation does not get to you.


If something is unclear, let me know.

Good luck.

this is not very hard at all if you have the access to the top of the walls.
the things that make it difficult are "fire blocking" (the horizontal 2 X 4 in between the studs) and insulation in the wall. all you should need is a drill, flashlight and a fish tape.

I would run a new RG-6 cable from the cable dmarc location outside to your new drop, you may have to get a splitter. The less you split your cable the less you degrade your signal.


Hope this helps.

Can I use premade cables with a female to male connector (If I'm right in thinking it needs to be male to male on both ends) Or is it better to use raw cable with screw or crimp ends? I ask this because I don't want to have to buy a stripper for $20, between that the cable and the fish tape I'd be better off paying Time Warner to do it (Although hopefully i can borrow the fish tape from work nasty as that may be)

You can buy the cables that have the connectors already on them. By codes, you should have coax cable that can be "in-walls".

I could have let the cable company install my outlets, but I like the satisfaction of doing the work myself.

If you get the tools, which are not that expensive, you will have them for any future runs you want.

You do know what fish tape is?

Here is an example:

http://www.smarthome.com/9066a.html

Here is another question for you that a lot of people don't think about.

Is there an electrical outlet near where you are putting your new drop? You will need to plug in your tv you know......

Yeah there is, thanks for thinking of that though