It’s my first house and I was hesitant to drill holes in it, but things came out okay.
Not only is the faceplate level, but it’s also pretty much level with the existing electric outlet faceplate!
I’ve done this a few times and you get props. It’s straightforward in principle but that doesn’t do much for the nervous sweats when you drill that first hole in a pristine wall!
Once you learn how to successfully plaster away your mistakes, it gets easier.
I’m always plastered, hasn’t helped with the mistakes yet but it does get easier.
You gotta get the wall plastered as well, that should help.
Where do I pour the booze into the wall?
You gotta drill a hole first.
I better measure twice, I’m too plastered to make 3 cuts.
measure once.
cut twice.
three times… you plaster.
Measure once
cut twice
measure again
cut five times
measure again
cut some more
get ten gallons of plaster
The hole in the wall wasn’t as bad as drilling through to the basement with the flexible auger. I made a pilot/test hole first at the baseboard to make sure I wasn’t drilling into electric or cooling.
That’s the smaller hole at the baseboard with a bit of weed wacker filament pushed through. The final hole was about two inches to the right.
Hey, really great work on this!
I used to run low voltage wiring professionally, and that looks pretty great. One tip for next time: You can use clues such as that nail to help connect what you see “up top” with where you’re looking down below. The wall itself will have a “bottom plate”, a 2x4 laid flat horizontally across the floor, and it’s nailed through the floor and you’ll often see nails such as that one exactly where the wall is.
There’s no 100% hard and fast rules, but you can also look for the presence of other holes for things like electrical wire, or HVAC vents as clues too. One really important thing to remember is that 95% of the time, electrical outlets will be mounted directly to a stud. You can knock on the wall or remove the cover plate and use a small flat screwdriver to probe around and determine which side of the outlet is against the stud, and which is in an open wall space. That helps you plan where to drill down below to give you the best shot at hitting your intended location. If you remember that studs are generally 16” apart, it can help you visualize that section of the wall.
Avoid running wires close to windows, doors, or corners. Studs can do some really funky things in those spaces, and you’ll have a much harder time.
That’s great advice. I would also like to add that communications cable is usually UTP or unshielded twisted pair and subject to interface. It is best to run it 24" from power cables when parallel and to cross power cables at right angles.
Totally accurate advice, but I haven’t usually seen it be terribly important in a residential setting because
- The distances are relatively short
- The cables are often overspecced (ie, simple gigabit over 50ft of cat-6)
- There’s often only really one viable path due to other constraints
They’re important considerations for sure, but I haven’t generally bumped up against them in the real world in typical houses.
Those are solid points. I don’t do any residential work and I suppose that shows.
It’s my first house and I was hesitant to drill holes in it
Being able to drill holes in it is the best thing about owning a house instead of renting!
Specifically for running Ethernet too!
I appreciate that you have all the screw heads lined up.
This is my next weekend’s project after I accidentally ordered copper clad aluminum cable the first time. Also my first house; But it’s 120 years old and been molested by plenty of people before me. So I don’t mind drilling holes.
I’m probably on some spectrum because literally every outlet in my house has the screws aligned. It helps that we painted before we moved in so all the covers had to come down in preparation.
I’m slowly realizing that this isn’t a rental and it’s okay to do permanent things like drilling holes and replacing bathroom vents.
I was going to comment that what my first house taught me that all my projects had to be up to code …eventually… in order to sell the place. However anyone who’s aligning their faceplate screws is probably dull enough to do it right the first time.
Also yay for hardwire Ethernet
It looks nice when they’re aligned though.
I would have gone with internal screwing and a caulked round faceplate though to save me the trouble of alignment. Aligning stresses me out
Nice work!
I have a relatively new house, which means wifi was ubiquitous enough that they decided to really skimp on ethernet jacks. I’ve already got the main level taken care of via the unfinished basement, now just trying to work up the motivation / figure out how to run a bundle of ethernet up to the attic and take care of the upper level rooms.
Not gonna lie that’s actually exciting 😅
For real i would be looking forward to do it after work. We are simple creatures!
Lmao I haven’t made it this far in the show. How ridiculous
Def worth continuing to watch lol
That’s an amazing level. Sleep well tonight knowing you’ve spent my money.
I love that level. It’s solid and long enough to handle most things that need leveling around the house.
Just wait till you try a leveling laser, you’ll never want to use a level again.
Small victories.
You do all the termination yourself ?
Yup, good old punch down keystones. Ended up buying a cheap $10USD cable tester to make sure I didn’t mess up any of the connections.
Get this man a book if he doesn’t already have one.
I used a vacuum laser level to get the top height right, then a small hand held level to make sure the vertical lines were plumb.
It helped using one of these low voltage drywall mounts - they have tiny holes in the corners to help cut out the exact dimensions required for mounting.
I don’t think the vacuum laser level is included on the tool list at the hall but, good work.
We usually trace out the inside square of an MPLS caddy brand ring. After the trace we cut slightly outside that line for a nice LV cutout.
Definitely worthy of, at least, an honorary union book.
That means a lot to me - I’m learning as I go here and trying my best. :)
Also, this is the level: Ryobi AirGrip (Home Depot). It’s probably not great for a daily driver level, and I’m not sure of the longevity - but it’s great for a hands free, no damage level.
Oh wow, that’s neat. I could see that being used on new construction where the drywall screws aren’t caked behind 7 layers of paint. I would be spoiled by that tool.
Thanks for showing me.
great job
unlimited power
