Running network and phone wire from 2nd floor to 1st floor.. stuck

Factual Questions
1

Hi all,

Saw a post a while ago on here about a guy running network from basement through attic, back down to another room and being stuck. I seem to be in a similar situation, with a few differences.

I am running a 2-wire phone cord and 8-wire cat 5E network wire from my loft on 2nd floor down through the wall into our living room (which we converted into an office, hence no network/phone lines in there originally). My home was built in 2009 out in the Sacramento CA area. Not sure what sort of codes are required here for 2 story homes.

In my area we still have new homes going up, I was actually lucky enough to see a home model just like ours before they had walls on, and the very area I am running seemed to have 3 2x6 “headers” I think they are called at the ceiling (floor of 2nd floor) area. It was vertical beams, so once I get through the headers, it should be a straight shot down.

Now starts the problem. I cut a 12" x12" section of wall out in the loft. This happens to be an outer wall, although on the 1st floor it is part of a small 3 foot long wall that is at our entry way, and the living room is off to the right of it. So upstairs, on the other side of the wall is part of the roof of the living room. Down stairs it’s part of my office near the door entry (perpendicular to the wall the door is on).

I’ve successfully drilled down through, what appears to be 3 2x6s. I see the 2x6 on the floor of the loft where I opened up the wall (to get my drill + bit in there). From flashing a light down it looks like 2 more all together… so 3 in total, which would match what I saw in the other home with no walls. I have a 12" and 18" flexible extensions with locking bit sockets. Sadly I broke the boring drill bit that came with the kit, but have some wood boring bits that lock in to it still.

Now, after drilling through the 3 headers, I “thought” I was all the way through. I started feeding my cable/phone wires which I stuck in the chinese yo yo looking mesh thing that you use (comes with the 12" and 18" flexible extender kit and boring bit)… and started feeding it down. I thought it was going all the way down. I went downstairs, cut a small 2" x 3" where I want to put my network/phone plate… to my surprise there was a plywood behind the sheetrock that I had to cut out as well. Thankfully my Feign multi-master plunged through it without too much issue. Looking inside I couldn’t see anything. I go back up, and damn if the stupid mesh yo yo thing that was holding my two wires to fish through the wall with got stuck. I ended up cutting the two wires and letting it drop in the wall. figured at least I would hear it fall to the bottom. Nope. No such luck. It seemed to make no noise or barely drop. Sure enough, sticking the 18" extender with drill bit, I went down a good 14" or so and am hitting something.

Now, I read about the fire block and all that, but for some reason I can’t drill any more. I have enough room left on the extender sticking out of the hole, and I am pushing down on my drill. I am using a corded one at this point. It didn’t sound like metal, although sometimes I thought I might have heard a clang. But the boring wood bit I have on there now just spins. So my guess is I have hit some sort of metal. Being that this wall is not very long and sticks out form the door to give us a sort of wall surrounded entry way (there is another wall on other side just like it), I figured there wouldn’t be any air ducts, or any other metal in it. The only thing I can think of is that there is a wall outlet about 6 inches over, but it’s on the other side of a vertical stud. Also, on the door entry side there are 3 light switches, which is possible it’s in the same 16" vertical studs that I am drilling between.

At this point, I am very frustrated. Wife is screaming bloody hell at me opening up the wall and what a mess this is. Already took all the baseboards off to cut some sheetrock at the bottom to make room to run the 2 wires from the other side of the loft room where the network and phone cables currently are. I was hoping to finish all this up, and now I am freaking stuck with no idea what I might be hitting up again in this tiny wall.

To give a wee bit more detail, I took my 2 60" extenders, put them together and ran them UP from the downstairs wall where I made the 2" by 3" cutout, and they go all the way up tot he ceiling no problem. When I pull them out and see where I marked it and line it up, they are definitely going all the way up. I also use those to “tap” on the bottom of whatever is up there, and I couldn’t hear it so well from upstairs (had help with that one as I had to be up listening). As well, I’ve stuck the 18" extender from the top hole down, tapping on what sounds like wood and the sound comes through pretty loud on the door side of this wall, but I am guessing that might be because there is plywood on the office side behind the sheetrock making it absorb the sound more.

I am afraid I am either going to punch a hole out the wrong side of the wall (and up near the ceiling), or that I am drilling through something (or trying to) that is important and I shouldn’t be. I did cut the power to the room/entry way, just in case.

I’ve read about taking off part of the wall (downstairs), but I am not sure that would help. The ceiling is still there and I am pretty sure the header is there, and worse, I’d have to take a chunk of plywood out too to be able to peer in/up and see what might be there.

So… any possible ideas what I might be hitting that I can’t drill through, and any ideas how to make this work?

Thank you

2

Any reason that you can’t use wireless? That’d be my first suggestion.

Not sure what you might be hitting in your drilling. Since you found plywood behind sheetrock on the first floor that actually sounds like the seismic reinforcing work that was done on my house (which is decades older than yours) - pull down drywall, add plywood shearwall, put up new drywall. If it’s something like that you might even be hitting metal plates like Simpson strongties?

Anyhow, another option would be to drill through the floor itself, not inside the wall. This requires a little thought to make it look nice but I’ve installed several cables this way, covering them with white plastic cable conduit made for this purpose (it’s sold for hiding the cables of your home theater and so on, any big hardware store carries it). You can run the cover down close to the floor, put a little grommet in the hole to dress the edges and keep things neat (and snag-free) and do similar on the first floor to receive the wires.

3

Do you have any return ducting (for your furnace) running between the two floors? That might be your easiest pathway. At least then you can get it from one floor to the other and then run it behind the wall to where ever you want it.

Have you tried just moving over a few inches one way or the other? If you’re hitting an electrical junction box (not that there should be one hidden in the wall) or a piece of conduit or some duct work or a metal plate or a screw or bolt, moving over a few inches might get you around it.

4

Hi guys,

I have made 3 holes now, but this is the only one I have tried to go down further with. One was near a stud, so I am sure I hit a metal joint. The other I ended up hitting a nail in the first 2x6. This one I’ve made about 3/4" size now in the middle between two studs, so I had hoped there would be nothing there. Given the depth that I am getting stuck at, only thing I can think of is they used some sort of metal around the fire block?

What bugs me is that in the other house, a few days before they put up the wall, I looked in. I didn’t see any ply wood or sheet rock there. Same model too. I know tho, the the home builder now has many contractors working on them instead of the original crew that built ours.

I thought of taking out the wall in the 1st floor office, about 8 inches or so across two studs, to see if I can look up and see anything. My wife will have a heart attack tho.

There is no duct… It’s hard to explain the wall without a picture (is there a way to post a pic here?). If you can imagine walking in the front door (single door), from the door way to about 3 or 4 feet in, on the left and right are the walls. My loft extends over the entry way and to the left another 12 feet (when walking in, facing inside the house). To the right is my living room (now the new office). Above the living room/office is just a roof. In the loft, I was able to actually peer in from the sheetrock I cut out, into the “attic” area of the living room. There is no attic tho, but I can see into it where the inside of the roof is. Small cavity… thinking maybe a nice little “safe” room for my kids to hide in case there is someone in the house lol.

Anyway, on the outside of the wall by the door is a light, and a doorbell switch. On the inside by the door facing into the entry way, is a light switch. So obviously there is electrical going in there somewhere. But I can’t imagine they would have a metal plate in the middle of two studs to protect the wiring when the wall ends and no wires come out of it… and by ends I mean… as I said above it extends 3 or 4 feet in, then it was a big opening into our living room. I would think the AC outlet near the bottom of the wall had wire running near the bottom of the wall, not up and right under the fire block.

5

I don’t really understand the set up - a little bit, but I’m still missing parts.

But here is a thought that may be useful.

Have you been using a stud finder? You didn’t mention using one so I assume that you haven’t. It’s possible that the studs on the 2 floors aren’t aligned. There isn’t any structural reason why they should be. If so, you might be boring into a stud and hitting a nail or brace/bracket, etc. I think that in CA they require those sorts of structural reinforcements.

A good model will be able to sense density as well as spot nails. It should also be able to help you find the exact center of the stud.

If you’re sure that the studs are aligned, then it sounds like you are hitting metal of some kind. Unless and until you know what it is, I wouldn’t try to drill through it.

6

My money’s on seismic bracing and brackets being in your way, especially with it being new construction.

With apologies to your wife, the best plan of attack will be to open up more of that wall. This will let you directly see what’s blocking the wires and then you’ll be able to work out whatever’s needed to get around it.

7

There are also tools available to look inside the wall – basically a 3-4 foot length of fiber optic cable connected to a eyepiece or a small video screen, with a built-in light. You poke the cable down thru the hole into the wall, turn on the light, and look around. Google “fiber optic wall scope” to see more about them.

However, they cost about $150-$500. Weather it’s worth that depends on your wife, I guess. Maybe you can find a local electrician who will rent one to you for a weekend.

8

[[EMAIL=“quote=t-bonham@scc.net;13226240”]quote=t-bonham@scc.net;13226240]There are also tools available to look inside the wall – basically a 3-4 foot length of fiber optic cable connected to a eyepiece or a small video screen, with a built-in light. You poke the cable down thru the hole into the wall, turn on the light, and look around. Google “fiber optic wall scope” to see more about them.

However, they cost about $150-$500. Weather it’s worth that depends on your wife, I guess. Maybe you can find a local electrician who will rent one to you for a weekend.
[/quote]

Here’s one for only $100, but the resolution is only 320x234. It does have NTSC output though.