Hello. I am renovating a house my wife, and I purchaced. (2nd month so far). I am looking for a little light on how to run speaker wire out of an "outside" wall. The ceiling is vaulted. About 14 feet at the top. There is a two foot space between the ceiling and the roof in the attic. I have installed the wires on the "inside" walls in the attic, going to the outside wall, but I need to run them down, or up the outside wall. Does anybody have an idea on to how to run the speaker wires through the wall? Thanks, Stephen.

Interesting question. I've not dropped speaker cable down inside an exterior wall before, although my "to do" list includes dropping a network cable down the exterior wall of the breakfast room. When we've dropped network cable down walls with insulation at work (couple conference rooms and the two private offices), we've had to use a fish tape to pull through the insulation, and I'm probably going to resort to that at the house (first attempt with just a plumb bob failed miserably). It's that two foot clearance you mention that worries me - can you maneuver at all in the attic space?

Of course, if you are planning to mount speakers on the outside wall and can get around in the attic enough to pull it off, there's always what I resorted to in our den: mounting the binding post plates in the ceiling. It turned out very nicely, with only one of the four surrounds that required some speaker cable running along the edge of the crown molding.

Hello. You are right. My dilema is getting past the studs at the eight foot height to the 14 foot ceiling, if you can picture that. Also, I can reach where I need to on top of the boxed out ceiling. It is a two foot space, but I can deal with that. Thanks, Stephen.

Ouch. I've seen some security system installers with long flexible drill bits that might get through the bracing at 8', but if it were me I'd probably resort to some sheetrock patching (cut a piece of wall out around the 8' mark, drill through it, and feed through to lower in the wall). It's messy, but it's the only thing I can think of without contracting it out.

Recently I had to mount two surround speakers, one of which was to be on an outside wall. I had never fished wire before, and frankly was not looking forward to it. So I bought some paintable plastic conduit strips from the Home Depot. They are approximately 1/2" in diameter, enough room inside for up to 10 gauge speaker wire. They also have an adhesive strip on them. After painting them to match my walls, they actually look like they belong there, and the wire is totally concealed.

Any way you could construct a false channel on the edge of the wall to conceal the wiring? Maybe use some molding to hide the wires under

Gonk's idea is the best way. Cutting and patching a wall is easier than it sounds. I use light weight spackle and fiberglass mesh on the seams. A big hole is as easy to patch as a small hole.
Depending on the type of siding on the outside of the house you could go this route. After the siding is replaced no one will know you did the work

Hello. Thanks for the input everyone. I am going to attempt Gonk's idea with going with a long flexible drill bit.

Stephen,

Are you able to drill from the attic down vs. from below the 8 ft. stud? If you can, after drilling keep bit in place, detach from drill and attach routing string to run wires. This method may eliminate having to cutting and patching drywall.

The obstructing blocks at 8' are fire blocks.

I would just break out a small patch of plaster/dry wall at the fire stop to drill through it. Make the hole span, so you can get fingers in above and below to guide the cable. through the hole. Then patch the hole. No one will ever know it was there.