hi all, thanks in advance for your help.

i need to install a new circuit from the main panel in the basement to a second-floor bedroom that happens to be directly above where the panel is in the basement. easy peazy, will take less than 15 feet of romex, i imagine.

i've just never fished anything through *two* floors before. trying to think how it's possible to blindly find a little hole when you're going down from the second floor to the basement.

any tips?? i don't suppose auger bits come in 12-foot lengths...?

 

Actually they do.. Well, 3 foot. And then you put a couple 4 foot extensions on it. They're called Flex bits and Greenlee makes the ones I use. Although it's kinda expensive if you're only using it one time.

Basically short of that if it's a hollow wall with no firestops, drill through the top plate and drop a fishing weight on a beaded chain (the kind that's on a ceiling fan) until hit hits the sill plate. Use a metal-sensing studfinder to locate where it is, and then you can either cut a hole in the drywall large enough to get your (right angle preferably) drill into and then patch it later, or you can pull the baseboard and drill a small hole at a 45 degree angle down through the sill plate. Wherever that hole punches through in the basement, drill straight up into the stud cavity. Then use a piece of stiff wire bent into a hook to reach up and snag the beaded chain and pull it through. Then use that to pull your cable back up through both holes.

Now if the wall has firestops, you have no choice but to buy a flex bit

 

Usually the plumbers are sloppy with the main vent so you may be able to fish it along the main vent.

 

I just posted this in another thread which follows Ray's suggestion.

Drop some #12 jack chain, or a string with a heavy nut on the end, along the main plumbing stack. I have fished from an attic, through two floors to a basement using this method.

 

Don't even need jack chain just some strong line like masons line and and a big nut or weight of some kind works fine.
Geo

 

thanks for the replies. thinking about it more, i came up with the idea to use magnets in order to "find" the end of a wire pull rod. specifically, rare earth magnets, of which i have two pairs. you guys ever see these? each magnet is about the size of a quarter with a pulling force of 10 POUNDS. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...productDetails) pretty cool at first, then kinda scary.

anyway, my idea is this:
1) with a 3-foot flex auger on the second floor, go through a new opening in the wall (i.e. where the new outlet will go) and punch a hole through the floor plate.

2) from the basement, directly underneath the new outlet location (which again happens to be right next to my panel), punch a hole upward through the first floor plate.

3) fit one rare earth magnet to the end of 2 pull rods; feed one down from the second floor and one up from the basement. Assuming the two rods are at least within the same cavity, they will undoubtedly find each other.

4) connect romex to the other end of one of the rods and pull all the way through either end.

thoughts??

 

in fact, i bet i can forego the pull rods altogether...

just attach a magnet to the end of my romex, then lower that down into the wall from the second floor. after feeding in about 12 or so feet of romex, the end of it (with the magnet) should be right above the ceiling of the basement. then, use another magnet simply by hand to attract the romex to the hole in the basement ceiling. those magnets will easily pull at each other through 2 inches of wood...

 

Don't feed to much into the wall, it may want to bunch up. I would use a string to pull the cable after fishing the string with the magnets.

 

Doubtful. Try unrolling that much Type NM, aka Romex®, and controlling where the end of it goes even when you're out in the open. It's much harder inside a wall.

I'm not saying that it can't be done. It can. But for those of us who do this work and value our time, the chain or twine down the wall is the first thing we consider doing.