How to drill hole from basement ceiling to floor above?

[htsource]

I bought a HAI touchscreen and it looks easy enough to install it myself. But I've never actually run any wires myself, or at least not with drilling new holes for new wires.

So the wall I'm planning to mount the touchscreen is inside wall, so it should be easy without insulation. Do I just cut out the hole and put a fish down, and when it hits the floor, have someone to hear where the sound comes from and drill a hole up from basement ceiling?

Otherwise, I'm not sure how easy to measure the wall as basement is not insluated so it might be a few inches off.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[will40]

Hold off cutting in the box in the wall until the last step.

If the wall has a baseboard try to pull it back and drill a small hole down to the basement up as tight to the wall as possible. Use a stud sensor or knock on the wall to find the center of a bay to locate and drill down.

I use a piece of 1/8" electrical snake about 8" long cut with a sharp edge in my cordless drill chuck.

Once located in the basement measure over a couple of inches to get into the center of the wall and drill up with (diameter bit for your wiring) and get into the wall bay.

Then send a fish tape up from the basement and you will feel or hear it in the wall. Only then, cut in the box.

Works for me everytime.

Good luck.

 

[CollinR]

Go get a 72" flexible drill bit and just drill down, it's cake.

(You'll want 72" as you can also go up to the attic.)

 

[SnyperBob]

If you have carpet on the floor above the basement where you want to mount the screen, you can just drill a hole thru the carpet down in the basement.

Go into the basement and find the hole you drilled above. Measure over two inches so you'll line up INSIDE the wall, and then drill your big hole there. Your drill bit will come thru in the middle of the wall.

You can then fish the wire(s) up that hole and out the hole you made in the drywall where you want to mount the screen.

I did this for nearly every run in my house (drilled up from below):

 

[TonyNo]

Be careful drilling through carpet! The bit may grab the fibers and rip a bunch out.

Something like this would be safest.

 

[slipnfall]

Also worth mentioning: you can usually easily locate the above wall footer by looking for nails protruding through the floor.

I second the flex drill bit: they're handy to have, and most come with a hook/eylet to then tie a pull string/cable to. I picked one up on eBay for $20-25 shipped IIRC.

 

[beelzerob]

Heck, holes were tough to drill down to the basement even when the walls were completely open, insofar as making sure I wasn't drilling into something I shouldn't be. I agree with drilling down from above, but you do have to be sure you're not drilling down into the top of a floor joist. What I usually did was find a landmark of some kind, typically electrical wires going through the floor, or a pipe of some kind. That gave me my bearings so I knew I wasn't drilling into a joist.

 

[htsource]

Thank you very much guys, very helpful tips, something I would have never thought! One thing I found out where I want the touchscreen, looks like the ceiling below is where they put all the ducts for furnace! Will have to look around before drilling, or someone will be mad at me

 

[beelzerob]

Thank you very much guys, very helpful tips, something I would have never thought! One thing I found out where I want the touchscreen, looks like the ceiling below is where they put all the ducts for furnace! Will have to look around before drilling, or someone will be mad at me

Is your house 2-story? Because if it is, be careful that there isn't a cold-air-return going through that wall. In our house, the only way to tell it's a cold air return is by the hole bored out in the top and bottom of the stud, and then you can follow where it goes. But if you have an AC duct directly below that stud bay, check that no HVAC pipe is actually connected there, or it could be a cold air return, which you wouldn't want to open up.

 

[pete_c]

I am still learning but have been experimenting (with good WAF). I have a two story home.

General HA wiring.

Basically have a "run" of cables which go from the basement to the attic. In order to get them to run I drilled up from the basement into the first floor. That wall near the top I have an 8" speaker which I use for HA. On the second floor near the bottom on the floor I cut a 2' X 2' access panel. This is in one of the bedrooms and I made the panel aestically pleasing. At the top of that wall I have another HA speaker. In the attic I put a 2"X4" piece of wood to the roof. My attic allows me to stand up in that the center is over 6' in height. The hardest to deal with is the run from the first floor to the second floor. It is over 12".
This run of cables has multiple CAT5 cables (different colors) used for Network (including POE), alarm, temperature sensors, serial connections, etc. It has multiple 4 wire cables used for audio, multiple RG6 used for cable, RF, satellite.

Touch screens - I use multiple setups -

#1 was an experiment. It is an all in one 12-13" screen integrated into a 2.5' wall in the living room. It looks nice but I circumventing some basic "rules" in getting it there. This wall is a plumbing combo, stack, return and supply wall being about 8 foot wide X 8 foot high X 2.5' thick.

Garage touch screen - easy because of WAF - I have an 8" touch screen here connected to a mini PC in the basement. I passed a VGA, USB, power (12VDC) and audio in a run less than 5 feet. The mini PC is a 1.4 Celeron about 8"x8"X2". It runs 24/7.

Main floor touch screens - passing same as garage using same type of PC down to basement.

2nd floor touch screens - same as above but PC's in attic.

Experimenting with 9 pin to 15 pin to Cat5 VGA cables - works and allows small holes - so use Cat5to9PinRS232 connected to a 9PINto15PIN adapter. Works.

Personally I do not watch much TV.

In the kitchen Combo TV/PC - similar but different. The Kitchen LCD is a 15" flip down (from counter), It is used for "in house video" (TIVO etc), it has its own DTV box and it recieves direct RF TV. In addition it is a VGA monitor. This is connected to same micro PC mounted in the basement with a small wireless keyboard. This run is using a "Rapid Run combo VGA/Audio 10' cable" - this allows a small .5" hole for the VGA video run. Only future clean up may be moving the DTV box away from the kitchen counter to inside lower cabinet and using an RF blaster. (already using an RF blaster for Tivo here).

Working on a second combo TV/PC for dining area of kitchen - this would be same similar setup to counter but would be a 19-21 inch LCD combo LCD mounted on the wall at kitchen dining room table height on a small angled wall which faces the table. This is a bit more difficult because it is an outside wall.

I have tended to drift from original topic and rambled a bit....

 

[beelzerob]

How do you get a VGA connector through a 1/2" hole?? <_<

I wired for 4 touchscreens. One is in the kitchen, directly above the wiring room, so I bought a 50' VGA cable so I could run it directly from the PC. (It's too long by about half, but it will work, I've already tried it). But I had to drill quite the hole to get that connector up through.

So, passing VGA signals over cat5 is a simple wiring issue? That's good to know, because in my other 3 touchscreen locations, they have cat5 runs to them, but no VGA cables (they're currently slated to get Fujitsu touchpads, so they don't need VGA).

 

[pete_c]

How do you get a VGA connector through a 1/2" hole??

You don't pass the connector. You either use CAT5

- CAT5==>RJ45-DB9 and DB9-HD15 connector - may have some noise with using only 9 wires but it works - very cheap - the DB9-RJ45 is less than $3 and teh DB9toHD15 is also less than $3.

or

use a "rapidrun" cable - just recently purchased a 10ft one with a VGA/Stereo Audio on one side with just a connector on the other side. (this is 1/2")

Pete

 

[heffneil]

rapidrun cables look really cool. Thanks for the tip!

Neil

 

[brotsten]

Garage touch screen - easy because of WAF - I have an 8" touch screen here connected to a mini PC in the basement.

Oh, you are the king!

Brian

 

[felixrosbergen]

Can somebody explain how the process works with the 72" flex drill bit from above?

How do you put pressure on it to drill through what i assume to be a 2x4 on the flat on top of the floor if the drill bit is flexibile. Maybe i'm just not understanding how this works.