Any tips...running 14/3 in tight spot.

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lonestarshack

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I was wondering if any of you DIY'ers out there have any tips for me. I have installed two new ceiling fans on my outside porch and I've got everything done except for the two runs of 14/3 to the switches. The wall where I want to put the switches is in the corner of the house and also where a vaulted ceiling corner is. Thus, when I try to get to that location to drop the 14/3, I can't even get close from the attic. I really don't want to tear out the sheetrock where the switch is to get this done and are looking for any kind of tips. This is a single story.

Thanks in advance.
 
try from the bottom up. It's a big PIA but what can you do. When I redid my bath running wire for the switch took as long as the plumbing
 
I have actually removed a bit of roofing, cut an access through the decking and worked wire down a wall from there. Another PITA, but if you brace the splice when you reinstall the roofing, no one will ever know:)
 
I hate working in the attic...it's always too hot or too cold, not to mention dusty and a little dangerous.

In my kitchen remodel, I have had to run several new circuits from the basement. The hardest part is finding the bottom plate of the wall in which you want the circuit run. Once you find that, you just drill a hole coming up through the basement ceiling and fish the wire up. It helps to have another person waiting at the switch location to grab the cable as you push it up.

Much easier than going through the attic...but if you have a finished basement, you have no choice but to break drywall or roof.
 
Welcome Lonestarshack:
Do you have access to the porch attic? Could you drill through the outside of the wall only from the attic? Maybe the studs are not enclosed at all in the porch attic and you could run the wire down from there. Square Eye taught me to bend a hook in the end of the wire and use a stiff wire (single #9) with a hook in the end of it to catch the wire you are fishing through.
You have a wire running to the fans and all a switch does is break the power wire; maybe you need to reconsider the location of the switch. You have my sympathy and blessing on this one.
Glenn
 
You cut out a hole in the sheetrock for an old work box and use a Greenlee 5' long drill. It has a hole in the end of the drill to attach what looks like one of those Chineese hand cuffs, you drill the hole from the hole where the switch goes when it gose through the top plate stop. attach the wire puller then slip the wire into it. Go back down and just pull the drill back out with the wire attached.
http://www.google.com/products/cata...og_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEcQ8wIwBg#
 
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Unless there is a texture on the wall , drywall patching is easy.
 
Joe, did you happen to notice the date of the post you are replying to?
 
Looked only at the last entry(today) not the original post.
 
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