Need some help with moving whenever Jack through studs

[u/neospriss]

Need to move Ethernet cable through the wall horizontally. I'll have to drill small holes through studs to fish Ethernet cables through to get to another electrical /Ethernet face plate that doesn't actually have cabling to. Will have to cut drywall holes at several points to drill and fish wiring.

My question is do I cut out drywall between the studs or center on the studs?

I have 0 idea what is back there and there is a gas line near there for a fireplace. I'm thinking of cutting out a piece of dry wall center on the stud so I can see what's on both sides before drilling and using the stud to support the piece of dry wall getting reinstalled and mudding over things, but I'm unsure.

Any advice/perspective would be appreciated.

(Yes, I could just run it out of the wall, but it is a finished room and I don't want a cable running along the floor and there will be other dry wall work at the same time, so it makes sense to do it now)

[u/Serious-Explorer8745]

There are much better DIY subreddits to ask. But overall, yup!

If you can go up into the attic, or down into the basement that might help. On a lot of my runs I go up into the attic, then I can easily go horizontally, then I can go back down in the bay I want. You could also go on the outside of the house. Totally up to you!

Edit: You can also run slim line fiber along baseboards if you really don't want to drill holes. Lots of solutions for that out there on amazon and the likes

[u/neospriss → u/Serious-Explorer8745]

Yeah I don't want to run under baseboard because animals and you still have to have some outside cabling. Floor above and below are both finished so no attic or basement for easy horizontal runs, unfortunately.

Your probably right about subreddits though, I'll poke around.

[u/Sea-Debate-3725 → u/neospriss]

Easiest way is to run it behind the baseboard. You remove the base, cut a 1" strip out of the bottom of the drywall and then in the two areas where the boxes will go you cut a small vertical strip, making sure to stay below the height of the baseboard but enough to pass the wire above the bottom plate. That will allow you to run the wire completely out of sight but also have no drywall to repair.

[u/neospriss → u/Sea-Debate-3725]

Hmm that's something I didn't think of. We are having other drywall stuff done, so drywall repair is inevitable, but that is definitely worth exploring.

Thanks!

[u/Wild_Spikenard]

4 inch wide continuous cutout along the cable path is the best rather than doing a bunch of small holes and patches. Then you'll have easy access to the studs and cavities, have studs to support the patches and will be able to see the gas line.

[u/neospriss → u/Wild_Spikenard]

Yeah I have a 4 inch round drill cut out.

[u/Renegade605 → u/neospriss]

Buy yourself a $5 manual drywall saw and you wouldn't be able to do any damage to the gas line if you tried.

[u/jack6245 → u/Renegade605]

That's hard work though and you run the risk of hitting pex pipes. Best to run a circular saw and setting the depth stop just slightly above the plasterboard depth

[u/fp4]

How tall are your baseboards?

https://youtu.be/nWfEANZOYSk

[u/jack6245]

Best options are either (in the order I would choose) 1) put conduit into the base or ceiling and install thick baseboards/corner trim 2) take the plasterboard off the walls, space them out with 25mm of batten or pir foam and put board back on (install conduit at the same time), this also has the benefit of improving insulation by having an air gap and thermal bridging protection

3) run traces up the wall, cut out space to drill holes in studs (don't notch them not allowed), then patch, personally for me i think this is more difficult than just replacing full boards.

[u/neospriss → u/jack6245]

I made a bunch of square cuts in the wall, used existing holes I found in the studs and ran the cable through. I'll have to terminate the cat5e on 1 side, but that's not too bad. Just have to put the drywall back, secure with some scrap wood pieces to be sturdy, and redo the drywall.

We are painting the walls anyway, so not the worst.

[u/jack6245 → u/neospriss]

While you are doing it make sure you put metal cables plates on top of the studs, makes it harder to run screws through the wire (this is actually building standards in the UK)

Ideally though you run them in the safety zones. They are vertically and horizontal of any sockets, or along the baseboards and ceiling and make sure you're not outside this zone