miamicanes
Active Member
Does anybody know of a web store that sells plastic rectangular conduit that's a hair less than a half inch deep (let's say 1cm) and 1-2 inches wide (let's say 2-5cm)? Kind of like this:
My problem: my new townhouse is solid concrete. Literally... walls, roof, and suspended slab for the second floor. Actually, it's awesome for hurricane purposes, but it pretty much nukes my original plan of having 4 vertical conduit runs behind the drywall, because the drywall is screwed on to ~1/8" furring strips that don't even leave enough room to pull coax, let alone RapidRun.
So... I came up with "Plan B", more than slightly inspired by Wiretracks (which I'll be using to run cable horizontally behind the baseboards). Does this sound like something that will work?
* Remove the baseboard from the second floor room
* Cut away the drywall to make room for the WireTracks
* Drill a 1/4" hole straight down through the suspended slab until it breaks through below.
* Go downstairs and look to see whether there's a hole in the ceiling and note its position relative to the wall. If no hole is visible, drill another 1/4" hole at a slightly greater angle towards the room below. Repeat until a bit finally breaks through the ceiling, then back up a step and use THAT as the correct drilling angle.
* Enlarge the correct hole to 1/2". With a little luck, the drill bit mangled the drywall directly below the hole, but didn't break cleanly through. Remove the rubble from a 2" wide by 12" high area. The 1/2" hole should be (more or less) centered within it.
* Go back upstairs and drill 2 more 1/2" holes so there are ultimately 3 1/2" holes in a row that more or less line up with the drywall below's vertical plane.
* Remove the baseboards. Cut away drywall to make room for the WireTracks.
* Cut a 2" wide hole in the drywall from ceiling to floor, centered below the three holes in the ceiling.
* Cut a piece of rectangular conduit so it can run from a point just above the top of the Wiretracks conduit to the holes in the ceiling.
* Glue a 2" wide rectangular conduit in place with something like mirror mastic so the top lines up with the holes in the ceiling, and the bottom lies just above where the Wiretracks would run.
* Place the WireTracks in both rooms, leaving a gap for cables from the vertical conduit to run into the WireTracks.
* Bury the vertical flat conduit behind drywall paste, refinish the drywall surface, and repaint the wall.
With a little luck, nobody will ever realize there's a flat bundle of wires running literally down the middle of the wall behind a sanded layer of drywall compound :huh:
My problem: my new townhouse is solid concrete. Literally... walls, roof, and suspended slab for the second floor. Actually, it's awesome for hurricane purposes, but it pretty much nukes my original plan of having 4 vertical conduit runs behind the drywall, because the drywall is screwed on to ~1/8" furring strips that don't even leave enough room to pull coax, let alone RapidRun.
So... I came up with "Plan B", more than slightly inspired by Wiretracks (which I'll be using to run cable horizontally behind the baseboards). Does this sound like something that will work?
* Remove the baseboard from the second floor room
* Cut away the drywall to make room for the WireTracks
* Drill a 1/4" hole straight down through the suspended slab until it breaks through below.
* Go downstairs and look to see whether there's a hole in the ceiling and note its position relative to the wall. If no hole is visible, drill another 1/4" hole at a slightly greater angle towards the room below. Repeat until a bit finally breaks through the ceiling, then back up a step and use THAT as the correct drilling angle.
* Enlarge the correct hole to 1/2". With a little luck, the drill bit mangled the drywall directly below the hole, but didn't break cleanly through. Remove the rubble from a 2" wide by 12" high area. The 1/2" hole should be (more or less) centered within it.
* Go back upstairs and drill 2 more 1/2" holes so there are ultimately 3 1/2" holes in a row that more or less line up with the drywall below's vertical plane.
* Remove the baseboards. Cut away drywall to make room for the WireTracks.
* Cut a 2" wide hole in the drywall from ceiling to floor, centered below the three holes in the ceiling.
* Cut a piece of rectangular conduit so it can run from a point just above the top of the Wiretracks conduit to the holes in the ceiling.
* Glue a 2" wide rectangular conduit in place with something like mirror mastic so the top lines up with the holes in the ceiling, and the bottom lies just above where the Wiretracks would run.
* Place the WireTracks in both rooms, leaving a gap for cables from the vertical conduit to run into the WireTracks.
* Bury the vertical flat conduit behind drywall paste, refinish the drywall surface, and repaint the wall.
With a little luck, nobody will ever realize there's a flat bundle of wires running literally down the middle of the wall behind a sanded layer of drywall compound :huh:
