How To Hide Your TV Wires in 30 Minutes - DIY

Hello, my name is Nils from DIYNils.com. And in this video, I'm going to be showing you how to get rid of these unsightly wires and add an outlet behind your wall-mounted TV in a professional and code compliant way, all in about an hour. Before we get started with today's project, I want to thank our sponsor Datacom Electronics. Datacom is the maker of high quality audio video components, a couple of which you're going to see in the video here, not only their 4k HDMI cable, but specifically their organizer kit that's going to make this whole thing possible and easy to do. You can find links to this product as well as their website in the description below. Just a quick caveat before we get too far along, the type of project we're doing today is for drywall with timber framing like this, where you've got 16 inch studs on center with some bays in between them. That's kind of a requirement for what we're doing here today. If you have solid walls like brick, concrete, stone, anything like that, I recommend you use some cable channeling or a different way to do this. That's not going to work for the project that we're doing today. To get started with this project, the first thing we need to do is take down the TV and remove all of the existing wiring, the plugs, everything that we can to get a clean surface to work with. With the TV removed and the cabling and wires and everything gone as well, we're ready to go ahead and check the area to find out where it is that we're going to want to put our top plate and our bottom plate. First we're going to check the studs, see where they are and we're also going to check for fire blocks to see if there's anything in our way. So I'm just using this stud finder here. And we see there's one right there and then there should be another one 16 inches away. Now, one easy way to quickly determine about where your studs are going to be. If you look at the receptacles that you've already got outlets or cable boxes, anything like that, they're almost always going to be attached to a stud. And in this case, it looks like each of these is on the right side of a stud. So there should be a stud right to the left of either of these. So there's not one there. And then there's one right here next to it. And then same thing over this direction, one right there next to it. So we can use that and figure out where the bay is. So this is all open in here. And then I'm also going to run the stud finder up. What I'm checking for is what are called fire blocks, which are horizontal pieces of two by four that run in between. And they're usually about halfway up the wall. So we want to make sure there aren't any of those that we have to work around. If you do have those and you can still do this project, it's a little more complicated because you have to cut the drywall drill through it and then feed your wires through it, patch your drywall. So it's a little bit more work, but definitely can be done and shouldn't stop you from doing it. With our studs marked, we're going to go ahead and use the templates that come with the kit to mark where the top receptacle and bottom receptacle are going to go. One thing to keep in mind is the receptacles do have little wings that are used to hold them on in the drywall. These are not mounted to the stud itself like an outlet would be, for example. So you don't want to put your templates or your receptacles right up against the stud here, because that's going to get in the way. So I'm going to move it out just a little bit. Another thing to keep in mind is that on the bottom section, there's going to be an extension cord. So I can actually put my, my template over here. If I wanted it to be over here and have the one above it, that's fine. I can just run an extension cord. If I wanted it over here, I could do that and just run the extension cord. What really is important is that the top receptacle and bottom receptacle are in the same bay. They're in between the same two studs. I'm going to put one right about here. I've got a stud right here. So I'm going to put one just a couple inches away from it. Now the stud finder I'm using actually has a level built into it. So I'm just going to use that to make sure that the template is nice and level right there. I'm just going to use that to help me out and get this nice and straight. And then I'll just follow along the template, do the same thing on the bottom. When it comes to cutting out the actual pieces, there's a couple of things to make this really easy. First I'm going to use a screw and drive it into the middle of this. Any kind of screw will do. And that's just going to act as a handle to make sure that when I cut out the piece, it doesn't drop back into the wall. Then I'm going to use a jab saw, which is basically a little saw with a point on it. That's meant for cutting drywall to cut out the square. If you don't have a jab saw, you can definitely use a box cutter or a utility knife to score around here and just make several passes until you get all the way through. And that'll work just fine too. But since I have a jab saw, I'm going to go ahead and use it. Now on this last piece, I'm going to hold onto the handle just so I can keep a grip on it as I cut it free. And out it comes. Now, in my case, you can see that it's totally hollow back here. This is an interior wall, which is not insulated. Sometimes interior walls are insulated or you might be mounting the TV onto an exterior wall when it's facing the outside. In either case, if you have some insulation in here, then you just want to make sure to do shallow cuts so that you don't get the tip of the saw snagged on there. You can definitely still do this installation if you have insulated walls as well. It's a little bit more tricky to work around it, but it works just fine. Toward the end of this video, I'll show you an installation in an insulated wall. Now this next part I'm going to show you is completely optional is not required for this project, but I think it's going to make this a little bit better. So I'm going to go ahead and do this. If you're worried at all about bugs or insects or anything like that, this is the way to go. Now, the wires that I'm going to feed through here, there's going to be an opening from here to there. And if I want to seal that off, then I'm going to use this pipe to do it. I picked this up at the hardware store. It's called a six foot bilge and pump discharge hose cost about $8. The nice thing about this versus the audio video hoses that you can find is that it's completely sealed. It's not cut down the side or perforated or anything like that. And it's got these sections every foot or so that allow you to cut it to size. So I can take something like this and I can see that if I cut one right here, then that's about all I need, but about four feet of this, it looks like. So I'm just going to take some scissors and this is soft enough that even a regular pair of scissors will cut right through it. Okay. And now I've got myself a channel that I'm going to run my audio video wires through my low voltage wiring through, and that will run them from the top to the bottom. Another reason you might want to use a hose like this or some sort of channel is because if there's some new technology that comes along, for example, something after HDMI then I can actually just run that through. Or if I need to add additional cables, remove cables, I can just feed them through here and it won't be any trouble to find them from here to there, even after the plates are already installed. Now with my low voltage pipe cut to size, I'm ready to actually connect it to my top receptacle. So what I'm going to do for that, and again, this is optional, but I think it just makes life a little easier later. So I'm going to set it up so where I squeeze it and it fits right in there. And I've got a nice little place for my AV cables to drop through. I just happen to have some white electrical tape that I purchased to fix some of my, my Mac wires that are getting a little, a little iffy. So I'm going to take a length of this, just kind of tape this in place, tape my tube in place onto the back of the receptacle here. I'm going to run this around several times. All right, now it's all sealed up again, an optional step, but just something to keep in mind if you're worried about pests or critters, or if you just want to make sure that this pipe is going to stay in place so that you can feed other wires more easily, even after the kit is installed. Next, I'm going to make sure my tabs are in just like this. So if the wings are out like that, then it's not going to fit in the hole properly. So I'm just going to make sure these tabs are all in, and then I'm going to drop first my electrical wire down. Again, this is rated for use in a wall, so this is up to code and ready to go. And then I'm going to drop in my AV tube, push them both down in there. I'm going to put this in bottom first, check all the little tabs or wings, make sure they're in good. Okay. It's going to be a little tight because of this tube, but it'll swing in. Okay. Catching on that. Okay, there we go. Push that in. Once you've got that, then we're going to use a screwdriver and we're going to make sure to do this part by hand. You don't want to use a power drill, for example, and over tighten these wings. I'm going to push it flush up against there. And as soon as I twist it to the right, it's going to flip the wings down so they can start to grab onto the drywall and you'll feel it kind of snug up. There we go. When it's ready and now it's staying in place the same with the other three as well. Now with the top piece installed, we're ready to pull the bottom pieces through. Mine are just sitting right there. Okay. I've got plenty of extra on the electrical cable and then I should have just a little bit extra there. And this is flexible, so I can pull on this just a little bit, but I've got my pipe ready and my electrical wire ready. So now we're going to do a little bit of prep work on our bottom receptacle to get it all hooked up. I went ahead and coiled up some of this excess wire that I've got here. If you want to, you can optionally cut this and re-splice the wires or re-strip the wires. These are all stripped already, which makes this really convenient. So I'm going to just going to remove these labels. They basically say white to white, black to black. And this bare one goes to your, to your ground, the green one. So in the first thing I need to do is push them through this little box that I've got. This is just our little receptacle box for pushing the wires through and this will keep everything contained. Okay. Once I've got it in there, then I'm just going to connect them. So for this next part, I'm just going to use these little push in connectors, which are really convenient. So you can see there's two holes. One's already got a wire in it and the other one's ready to receive one. So I'm just going to push the matching wires into the receptacles, into the little push in connectors. So we'll push the white into the white and you'll feel it kind of give in, there you go. It'll just kind of sink in there like that. We'll do the ground for the bare wire and then we'll do the black and then they go. Okay. So those three are now connected and ready to go. And next up, we're just going to push these gently into the box here. And then we've got some screws that came with this so that we can fasten this all down. So it should end up looking like that before we do the screws. And then I'm going to take these screws out and tighten them all in and we'll be ready to go. All right. So now that's on there nice and tight. Our electricity is all set here. As far as this bottom receptacle, the last thing I'm going to do is take my pipe and then attach it just like I did with the top one onto this bottom one here with some tape. So our pipe is in there now, as you can see and I've kind of sealed off this area with some white electrical tape. So now we're going to do the same thing. We're going to push our box and everything that we need in. I'm going to put the electrical side in first, like so. Okay. Make sure all of our wings are in, just feeling along the bottom. So I want to, on this bottom piece, I need to make sure to push the left side all the way in and that'll, that's what will make the right side fit nicely. Okay. So that looks good. Same as before. We're just going to tighten it down with a screwdriver instead of a drill. Okay. So this is really secure. It's on there nice and tight. Now I can drop my AV cables down and this thing will be just about ready to go. All right. We're almost all set here. So the last part is we're going to drop our AV cables down our tube and they should come out right here. And then I'm going to plug power into my outlet. Now, one pro tip here, you're going to find that there is a little spot where the hose, the pipe here tends to get a little jammed when you're trying to fish wires through. So what I found that makes this a hundred times easier is when you're trying to feed wires through here, if you just loosen these screws, you can pop this out again. And it's this little spot back here that kind of gets squished and kind of imagine that that getting squished in the wall like that. So if you just pop this out, let me show you how much easier it makes it. So I'm going to take this, this flimsy wire here, which has no real rigidity to it at all. This is not a Datacom wire. This is just a really flimsy one that I got for cheap. So I'm going to take it and I'll even take the, uh, the non taped upside and feed it through down there. But there's, it's not going to meet any resistance because I've basically giving it a straight shot all the way down. You can see it feeds through really simply and we should see it either pop out or at least get to the end there where I can pull it out. Okay. I think we're yep. I see it. And there we go. So that's how easy it is. If you actually just pop this guy out to feed your wires, you shouldn't necessarily have to do that depending on the wires you've got. But if you do experience any difficulty in pulling the wires through, then that's going to make it a whole lot easier. Then we just put that back in place. We've got our AB cables there, tighten this up again, and we're good to go. Now for our last installation step, as far as hooking up the wiring, we just need some electricity. So we're going to take the little extension cord that came with this. One thing I really like about it is it's got the flat and completely twistable end piece on it. So I can actually plug this in and then rotate it in any direction. In my case, not far to travel. So I'm not even going to bother to undo the zip tie on here, but I'll just plug this in, make sure that's in all the way. And then I'm going to twist this around to where it fits the way I need it. And you go. So I now have power up to the top and I've got my AV cables down here and I'm cooking. Datacom also provides a single outlet power solution kit. And I went to a friend's house to do an install in their insulated walls. So I wanted to show you what that looks like. Right around four minutes in, I realized that I didn't have my tape measure. So I had to take a few minutes. So skip ahead 20 minutes on the timer on the bottom, right? And then you'll see, I grab a tape measure, feed it in from the bottom to the top. And then as you watch here, I'll tape all of my AV cords to it and then pull it through the wall. The rest of the installation is pretty standard, just like you saw in the video before. But with the exception that this time we're just using a single outlet kit. So if you have an insulated wall, then this project can be done pretty much just as easily just by using a tape measure to fish your wires through the wall total time for this installation minus 20 minutes of searching for tape measure 29 minutes. All right, we've got the TV put back up. We've got all of our devices hooked up down below in the coffee table here and no wires. We've got a nice clean look, looks professionally installed. It's up to code and it works beautifully. If you've got any questions, if you want to see any of the products that we showed in this video, including the Datacom electronics products, we showed check out the links in the description below. They'll take you directly to where you can purchase them on Amazon. I've also got links to all of the products that I used in this video, the tools, anything else that you might need. If you're a DIYer or want to become one, be sure to head on over to my website, DIYNils.com where you can get links to projects like this. You can read articles, you can learn more about different things you can do around the house to make your home a little bit nicer. I'm Nils. Thanks for watching. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you're not already subscribing to my channel, I would love for you to do so. Give me a thumbs up in the video if you liked it and by subscribing, whenever I come out with a new video, go straight to your inbox. Thanks for watching and we'll see you on the next video.