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Planning for speaker cable while installing a new floor.


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I just ripped the carpet out of the place I'm moving into and while waiting for the wood flooring to come I realized it's a great opportunity to get some speaker cables down that will ultimately be (almost) completely concealed. Two option here: 1) Run the cables around the perimeter of the room, tucked up against the drywall and eventually concealed by baseboards 2) cut out 'conduit' in the 1/4" cork underlayment that will be going down before I put the wood over it and run the cables right under the floor surface.

 

Option 1 = longer cable runs (~20') but is ultimately more serviceable if I need to get to the cables at all in the future

Option 2 = short cable runs. will never get to the cables again (hopefully since this whole flooring process is a pain in the ass). I'm not even entirely sure that cables will fit within 1/4" high space (thinking I'll get BJC's)

 

Another twist is I'd like to future-prepare for different furniture layouts (speakers will always be in the same place), so may want to lay down unused cable and will need to account for somehow attractively terminating the stub-outs that come out of the baseboards/floor. Definitely don't want random bits of cable expose around.

 

Anyone have any experience with this? Am I crazy?

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I think this is a great idea, but i would definitely go the route of making it serviceable. So many people do not think of those things when doing this type of stuff. Spring for some really heavy duty coated wire too, something made for outdoors would be great since they can stand up to moisture and the like. A sleeve, like a piece of pvc, to house the wire would be nice so new wire can be fished through super easily if ever necessary, but that might up the ugliness factor. I do irrigation for a living and I've lost count of how many times builders pour concrete over pipes without thinking about the future need of being able to service it. It may be years before you need to repair any wires, but come that time it will make all the difference in the world. Like the difference of just needing a 25 cent splice for the wire over the need of new flooring in areas after ripping it up to access it lol.

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I also strongly dislike it when cables are showing, so I went through pretty much the same thought process as you when we built our house.  

 

As I wasn't entirely sure where my speakers/amp would end up later on, putting speaker cables under the wood never really was a possibility, but personally I feel as though that might just be an overkill and overthinking it.

 

I ended up have a conduit for the cables cut into the baseboards, works perfect for me, and is a pretty easy solution.  I also don't think that a cable run of 20' should pose any problem at all. If I want to switch out the cables later on, it will take less than a minute to do it. Hope this helps.

 

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Edited by mesi
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Yeah after putting more thought into it I'm definitely going the baseboard route. (Also measured and my maximum run is only like 10', so totally overestimated there.) Shouldn't be a biggie, just gotta make sure not to put any nails through the cable when installing the baseboards. Next challenge will be concealing a cable up and over the fireplace so my speakers can flank it.

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