How To Run Wire Through Walls Without Cutting Drywall

A decent stud finder is a must have for every wire fishing job but don t throw it back in your pouch after you ve located the studs.

How to run wire through walls without cutting drywall.

Roll out the cable through the basement or attic space to the next box location. The true focus of the task should be the electrical wiring not rough carpentry and demolition work. When adding or replacing wiring in finished walls most electricians will attempt to make the horizontal portion of the cable run in the unfinished attic or basement crawlspace areas looping the cable down or up through the wall cavity across the floor or ceiling joists then vertically through another stud cavity to the next wall box opening. Running electrical wire through closed walls is a project that few do it yourselfers enjoy.

If you don t want to remove drywall then you ll be running most of the wires through the attic or the crawl space. Cutting into drywall is little more than collateral damage that needs to be minimized. Prepare for that by moving insulation away from the walls through which you need to pass the wires and marking the existing wires you need to remove. If the wall above runs parallel to the attic or basement joist this cable will be attached across the side of a joist.

Cut the cable leaving plenty of slack and feed the cut end into the wall cavity and out through the wall hole as you did with the first box. You don t want to find out the hard way that you should have fished your wire one stud cavity to the left or right. Use your stud finder to check the whole wall cavity for obstacles like blocking and abandoned headers.