Ok I seem to be having a problem. I cut out a piece of dry wall from the top floor room above the room where I am trying to run the wire. I have found the same wall downstairs and upstairs. My problem is trying to drill a hole to be able to pass the wire through. I can get through one board, then I hit another wood board, get through that and then I seem to hit another board. These are both interior walls so no insulation. Does anyone know how much of an extension I will need to be able to drop the wire through. I have tried a drill bit and extension that is about 26 inches, but still hitting wood. I would assume that once I get through the wood, that the wire will just drop down through the bottom wall. I would think that with both walls being hollow that there would not be that much room. This is a two floor drop.

Thanks.

Any question just ask in the vent you need more clarification.

 

Go to the electrical section in your home improvement store. They sell auger bits with very long shafts on them. I forget how long but somewhere in the 48" range. They are a bit flexible as well. They are made just for the kind of stuff you are doing.

 

From what it sounds like, am I going about this the right way?

 

I just looked on home depot and lowes and the biggest I found was 17".

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find one at any of these stores.

Thanks.

 

You need to look in the electrical section of the store. There they sell specialized tools used by electricians and you will find the bit droolplug mentioned. Greenlee makes it.

Side note: By the sounds of it you may be drilling in the center of a stud. It might be easier to pull up to the attic and then down in the wall where you need the cable. The attic can be fished many times by following the main plumbing stack.

 

I have tried it from the attic and that was the reason I went down and cut a part of the wall out. I had a guy who does electric work and he was not able to do it or find another way to get it down.

 

You will be going through 4 1/2" of lumber. Two top plates and an overlay plate for the sheetrock to attach to. As Scott said, you may be drilling through the middle of a stud. But if you are sure, you can buy a 40" auger bit for electrical work (about $30). They are bendable so you can get an almost perfect vertical hole.

 

Maybe you should try a hole 3 inches to one side to make sure you aren't in a stud like others have mentioned.

 

I will give that a try. So home depot or lowes should have the bit then?

 

Yeah. I bought mine at one of them for sure. There is even a tool you can buy that helps you flex it into the wall. I tried to find it on their website and didn't find it easily. They aren't the greastest sites and hard to search sometimes.

 

Thanks for your help. This seems like it should be easy considering it is an interior wall with no insulation.

 

This is a very unlikely situation, but you may be trying to drill through a header for an abandoned door or window.

I would use a stud finder to investigate the top of the wall where the hole is supposed to be coming into.

 

A 12" long spade bit or a shorter length7/8" spade bit and an extension would be cheaper.

 

The problem with an extension is I need to drill a bigger hole then I want to.

 

So this isn't NM-b? Any reason for drilling a smaller hole? You could use a bellhanger twist drill or a regular 12" long twist drill.

 

Wait a minute. I think I haven't been understanding the problem you are having. So you have drilled through the wood. Then you tried to pass the wire down through the wall cavity but only get the wiring down 26" or so and hit something?

 

No you understand what I am trying to do. I am trying to get through wood to drop the wire. With an extension is bigget then bit I want to use so have to drill bigger hole to allow pass through of extender. A continous bit would not have this issue since the shaft is smaller and continous.

 

How old is the house?

As I understand your OP, you have removed drywall from an upstairs wall and are trying to drill a hole down through the wall's bottom plate to get to the wall cavity of the room on the floor below. Is this about right? If so, there will be a space to go through which is occupied by the floor joists of the upstairs floor before you get to the top plate of the downstairs wall.
1. Bottom plate
2. Subfloor
3. Joist cavity (or possibly a rim joist?)
4. Double top plate of wall in room below.

 

Exactly what I am trying to do. House built in 1978.

 

Ok found the tool at home depot. Some how my measurements were off and I drilled the hole, but it was in the wrong spot. Now that I know where that is, I can measure how much I missed by and then remove more sheetrock and drill again. Should be a pretty easy go now.

 

A trick: Get a wire coat hanger. Not one of these new fangled 16Ga wire with plastic around it but a 12 ga hanger. Cut the bottom wire off. Hit one end with a hammer on an anvil or a slab once. Take your nippers and cut a point by cutting each side of that flattened end This should leave a nice point and the edges of the point will cut. Drill this through near where you think you want to make a hole then unchuck it from the drill and leave the wire there for a marker. You can see where it comes through on the back side. Measure accordingly and make you hole. If the wire gets dull, nip a little more off.

 

Well I think this has turned into being a lost cause for me. I guess I will have to stick with the powerline adapters I am currently using.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

What do you mean by "powerline adapters"?

 

You plug one in an electrical outlet and attach a ethernet cable to it. Take the other one and plug it in close by where you need it then attach the ethernet cable from it to the devide. It basically uses your electric wires in your house to transmist the signal.

Here is what I am talking about

Netgear Powerline Adapters

 

Why not go wireless? Is the house too large to get a wireless signal from one part to the other?

 

I am using my xbox 360 as a cable box with uverse and it can not be wireless. Uverse will not run with a wireless signal. The powerline adapters are working without a hitch.

 

My uverse is wireless. If the things work for you that is the main thing.
That is I can go wireless to other computers if I want to.

My wife does,

 

Yes the computers and all can connect wireless. But the STB can not be wireless. They have to be connected to the RG either via coaxial or ethernet cable.

 

Have you considered surface race?

If you will explain what the final straw was that broke the camels back perhaps me or someone else can offer a suggestion.

 

I am just a plastering contractor. I know a lot about walls and ceilings, plaster and finishes and how to execute them.
I know how to use a computer and mostly keep it running.

I don't know much about how they work and even less about alphabet soup.

What is STB?

What is the range of one of these devices you are using and can the two different units be on different circuits? Can they be on opposite leads? That is half of your house wiring is on one side of the service and half on the other. Each carries 120 volts and the combination of both sides delivers 240.
And here is a thought. Can any house served by the same transformer also use these devices? Can you share your internet with your neighbor whose house is under the same transformer as yours? Time was there were intercom systems that used house wiring to carry the signal and they would work from house to house on the same transformer. That could be real handy in some cases or an invasion of privacy in others.

 

The final straw was actually being able to drill the hole in the right place. Also not really being able to see that well was another thing. Not having that much room was another. I drilled about 5 holes and could not seem to get it in the right place no matter how much I measured. I got close but never far enough.

 

I thought since you had uverse you would know STB=Set Top Box sorry. The devices have to be on the same power circuit within the house. So people next door can not use them. Even then they do not transmit a signal as a wireless signal. The rangs on the box says about 5000 feet or so.

 

I rarely try to do it buy measuring. Also flexbits can often run off course and come out in the strangest places.

Here is how I have done it and would do it. Upstairs an inch and a half out from the wall drill a 1/8" or 3/16" hole through the floor in lign with where you want the cable to go through the stud plate. Be sure you are between the studs and not over a floor joist. Then using a 24" long steel rod sharpened on one end drill through the sheet rock of the ceiling. You can reverse this technique if you are trying to line up with a specific spot down stairs. A sharpened steel rod will drill through wood or OSB floors. The 1/8' holes are easy to patch when you are through. Be sure you keep it plumb and parallel when you drill.

Now you have a hole in the ceiling downstairs and floor upstairs so you know exactly where to drill down through the stud plate or up into the stud plate. I would not recommend the flex bit for a beginner. It can move around and come out in odd places. Use a 12" long 3/4" spade bit to drill as far as you can then add an extension. I know you have reservations about drilling that big of a hole but there is no reason not to.

Lots of variations on what I suggested. You might be able to find a drill bit long enough to use instead of the steel rod for instance. Post back any questions and I will try to help.

 

Ray,

I appreciate your help, but the powerline adapters are working just fine. No need to run a wire or anything. It is something I would like to have, but after trying for a week, I just have given up. I have returned all the stuff already.

 

Glad it worked out for you.

 

Yea me too. I thought it would be easier than I though, but turned out I was wrong. I bought the powerline adapter so I would not have to run a wire. I guess it was one of those things I wanted to do so I could say I did it, but was not really necessary.

 

Even the pros have those jobs. There were a couple of times when I just wanted to get in my truck and drive away. What saves you is comming up with alternate ways.