From Mess to Success: Routing Your Coax Cable Like a Pro

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Multiple times over the years I found poorly routed coax cables coming through the floor or drilled straight through a wall with the cable hanging out. This is not the best method and actually can be fixed easily by most DIY homeowners. Also, if you have the cable company coming over to do a new installation ask that they use the Coax wall plate or Coax outlet as opposed to just popping the Coax through the wall or floor.
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[@paulh6591]

Our home was built in 2003 and the builder ran two CAT5e Ethernet cables and one coax to every room of the house, and they all run up to the attic, where there is a massive switchboard. I use the coax only to drop an attic omnidirectional antenna feed to a tvon the bottom floor, but the ethernet cables are super useful. I used them to connect two hard-wired 5e lines from the office to both a wifi unit under the eaves (for outdoor wifi), and dropped another to my son's gaming computer.

[@aaron74]

PRO TIP: For a _perfect_ alignment of one-gang boxes side-by-side, you want to line up vertically the _screw holes_ of the device box or low-voltage ring-that is, the holes that either the device (receptacle/switch) or plate (low-voltage) screw into. This entails taking the cover off the existing box or device and using your torpedo level to make a level horizontal line on the wall at the same elevation of the top and bottom screws of the existing device across to the new neighboring device. Then situauate either the new device box or low voltage ring such that those screw holes line up with the marks you made. Then you can trace the box or low-voltage ring according to how it should be traced. This method above ensures that whatever kind of box you use (plastic, metal, new construction or retrofit) the finished product with the plate screwed on will all be at precisely the same elevation. I have seen so many low-voltage rings added to walls where they don't line up with existing receptacles, and it looks non-professional. This is the procedure to use to ensure you do it correctly the first time!

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Good stuff and thanks for sharing 👍

[@TomCee53]

And rather than marking directly on the wall, I use masking tape. Measure twice, mark once, cut once, repair less. 😂

[@Dave-ld3dr]

Useful video for running electrical or any other cables.Same basic principle.

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Very true 👍

[@EvanDerickson]

Great video! Another option, if someone prefers the look of 1 2-gang plate rather than 2 1-gang plates: Carlon makes a low-voltage bracket that snaps onto the side of a junction box. You could enlarge the hole for the existing outlet (away from the stud), snap on the low-voltage bracket, and swap out the plate.

[@elfchild9]

This is super helpful. One of my place's previous owners ran a cable that pops out of the carpet - it's not even tucked next to the trim. I've been scratching my head over how to hide it properly.

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Yeah, I have seen that many, many times in the past.

[@larryz24]

Hey Scott, great video, thanks. I am not sure if you have any videos that will show installing cable with a slab home. I want to rum stuff from the attic but not sure how to locate a cavity from the top. Thanks again for all you do.

[@TomCee53]

I appreciate that you are careful to recognize when you are making assumptions even on simple things like watching for the wire you pushed into the wall cavity. Of course I usually cut the hole in the wall first, but I’m still careful in case there are other wires or pipes in the wall.

[@What1zTyme]

Nicely done!

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Thanks!

[@maxforce]

Just a little Tip. I've seen many cable companies installing Modem/Routers beside Windows because its easier and they don't want to route wires, Basically Laziness. Your Modem/Router is supposed to be installed in the Middle of the House so the Signal can be Spread out evenly. If Your router is installed Next to a Window 50% of your signal is literally wasted outside.

[@joshuawilson7201]

Love your videos.

[@CAl51]

Very good information, thank you

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

You bet!

[@TOOL_TECHNICAL]

friendly tip, those pesky leviton cover plate screws have those plastic coatings for aesthetics however they're so sensitive! Besides going slower when drawing them in, use a 1/4" slotted instead of that 3/16". more surface area = less chance of that little bit wanting to dig it's way into the finish. Keep up the good work! also be sure to tell your tenants when they're having such utilities installed, have the "professionals" route the cables through the wall and not through or around those base boards/shoes otherwise you're stuck doing it over. - Work Smart

[@georgequalls5043]

Moving a remote whole house speaker volume control gave me some issues. I had to relocate it about a foot laterally because of some renovation. After putzing with it I eventually figured out how to do it.

[@JVC679]

I remember Cable on floor with hole in the living room at old home

[@carmentate37]

This is good information, but most homes do not have a basement to easily install the cable. My home is a slab home and this is helpful, but if I ever do buy a home with a basement, I'll reference this video.

[@heatherjennings145]

As always, another great and timely video! Hey Scott, could you do a video about testing ethernet ports? We have ports in all rooms that lead down to our basement but some don't work?? And nothing was labeled when we moved in--ugh!

[@Guyver02USA]

- 5:26 , personally if I have so much slack , i’d coil up 1 small round before the turns / each joist to prevent tension due to possible ground movement . In addition, they would provide some spare length in the event of a core breakage somewhere in between and you need to splice the cables together again .

[@s_m_v]

2:38 Thickness of the trim + half the width of the 2x4 *+ the thickness of the drywall!!*

[@alexanderlulev6006]

A 2-gang box/wallplate would look better than two 1-gang side-by-side boxes

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

That would be a good option, just remember to get a box where you can place the divider between the high and low voltage sides.

[@thatdecade]

Any suggestions how do this on an old work box? Extend the existing box to a dual gang ? I did a quick search on old work gangable/extender and didn’t find a solution that would allow you to add onto the existing box and use a dual gang wall plate.

[@alexanderlulev6006]

@@thatdecade If your existing box doesn't support low voltage divider you should replace it with a new one. Try to google "old work box with low voltage divider"

[@demontekdigital1704]

Nice, clean work, Scott. However, you should change the title because most "pros" don't do as nice a job as you did, lol. I don't know if it matters, but I was told by our cable installer, less coax equals better signal. We are in a situation where the live coax is in my wife's craft room, and I had to be hard-wired in due to my PC's motherboard had no wifi. When I asked him which was preferable he said a longer cat 6 was better than longer coax. Whether this is true, or not I don't know, but that's the way I did it. I've since gotten a wifi card for my rig, so now I don't have to worry about it unless my card dies, and I gotta wire-in again.

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Thanks for the feedback. That is correct that you will start to weaken the signal strength depending on the length of coax, number of splitters, and quality of the installed coax ends. I will shorten this one in a video this week showing on to crimp on a new end in a separate video 👍

[@thatdecade]

A couple of extra feet won’t matter. The signal strength at the beginning of the cable is the major determining factor. Like if you start with a weak antenna signal from the roof, you may need an amplifier so that weak signal makes it through the 30 feet of coax. Or like your installer suggested is what I do. Antenna on the roof, goes straight to a hdhomerun and then a long length of ethernet runs to the basement.

[@erichsh58]

@@EverydayHomeRepairs Then no need for my comment! I was going to ask you how to do that, and what tools I need. I'll wait for your video.

[@dzitzels]

@EverydayHomeRepairs - one thing I would point out in this video is that you really don’t want to have excessive cable coiled up somewhere. In the video, I saw it on both sides of your connection. A professional installer should never do that. There is a practical max cable length which is usually about 500m. However, you never know how far it came to get to your house. When it goes too far, signal and data quality degrade. Your home may be in a relatively rural area but I’ve seen even city areas have problems with cables being too long. The distance the cable travels “wire miles” is what matters - not distance back to the box or office “road miles”. That’s not always easy to tell so best practice is to not let the cable be longer than necessary.

[@yoelperezmartinez412]

Wow, just this weekend I cut off all the cables I had around my house and the only one that is in service I ended up running it through the attic and down one of the walls. It gives me peace ✌🏻 😂.

[@stargazer2504]

I can't believe the cable installer had an opening to the wall but still just drilled through the floor- what a hack. I'm also surprised you have that giant coil of extra coax sitting above your duct....

[@davidgeorge2486]

scott have you ever tried the waluby x ray stud finder? whats your take on it THANKS

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

I have not, looks fancy. To be honest the magnetic stud finders do a good job as long as you don't have thick plaster walls.

[@KameraShy]

Cable company installers (that includes YOU, Comcast) do the quickest, sloppiest job they can. The ones I have dealt with seem to have been independent contractors - guys working on their own. The only way to get a decent installation is to know exactly what you want, where you want it and to supervise the full time. My last installer was a young kid who mostly did an ok job, but would have done it all wrong if I wasn't there to "guide" him. OTOH, the house next door had cable installed and the result was horrific. Ran all the wire along the outside, on the roof and long runs along the brick walls.

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

I had very similar experiences with Comcast over the years 💯

[@wantonjr1]

What do you do if the basement was drywall end can’t get to the wire

[@NelsonClick]

OMG! Incredible coincidence. I was just thinking about this today as I'm trying to talk my housemates into eliminating cable and going with an attic antenna. Cable is dead and cable companies are awful. Antenna is a one-time purchase and one time install and BOOM 💥 no cable bill or cable companies.

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

A lot of people are just switching to a good internet connection and KZbin. Then maybe a streaming service for some videos.

[@kenovryn]

Yikes. How exactly do you think tvs are connected to the ota antemna?

[@joaograca4657]

Yes and you can used existing coaxial in the house, hook it up to any tv then hit search for over the air channels and any tvs throughout the house will get channels, did this 12 years ago and never looked back

[@KenR1800]

How would you do that on an outside wall when you have the sill of the house to deal with?

[@tomfoodery]

I'm in the same situation with an exterior wall. I have a crawl space, so not as much space to work. My electrical comes from the attic down.

[@bb55555555]

a little slack is always appreciated but that's a bit much. Cut it and save it for another run.

[@StemanLaJoy]

Thumbnail for shortening coax is missing from video and I can’t find it on your page.

[@StemanLaJoy]

Just saw in one of your replies that the video is forthcoming. 👍🏼

[@ncooty]

@2:26: + half inch for the drywall

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Good point 👍

[@suekotchevar2765]

Cable companies always do sloppy work if they do install a coax cover plate the height is usually within 3-4 inches of existing wall plates normal situation

[@Zeric1]

Only a minority of homes being built today have a basement, and hardly any in the southwestern US ever had them. The video title should clarify this. "...Routing Coax from Your Basement Like a Pro"

[@jmcguire56]

Try doing that in a 100 year old house and going from the basement to the 2nd floor. Now we're talking.

[@Wegetsignal]

Do people other than nerds or geeks run ethernet because we aren't fans of wifi?

[@michaeljavert4635]

I'd use a metal box and ground it. So I'd need to be close to a stud. Just too much plastic and putting steel workers out of work. Granite City needs to open that steel plant and have jobs for people. Then use a clamp strain relief and mount the box into the wall, then cinch it all up. But that's just me and my "extra" and OCD.

[@rogerIndianKing]

The best way is not to have a coax cable.

[@Boshi_]

Imagine still using coax in 2024

[@meffffy]

Lmfao best comment

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

🤷‍♂️ still super common in my area and the most common method of getting reasonable speeds for your internet.

[@readyplayer2]

Even if you're a cord cutter for TV, many still only have the option of a cable company for (relatively) high speed internet access. Coax can also be a decent backhaul for mesh networking (using MoCA) if you live in a house with stucco or concrete walls that wipe out WiFi signals, but is already wired for Coax due to an older cable TV installation. Depending on your house construction, and if you're renting or own, wiring a home for ethernet might not be practical or affordable. Powerline networking is an alternative for WiFi deadspots, but it's typically more prone to interference and significantly slower than MoCA 2.5. Long way of saying, knowing how to relocate and improve coax runs is still useful in 2024.

[@Boshi_]

@@EverydayHomeRepairs That's totally fair. I'm just spoiled with having access to a reasonably priced all fiber connection. I'm all for telecoms actually investing in their communities with modern multi-gig capable all fiber networks and ditching coax.

[@DonaldZiems]

MoCA is legitimate for getting wired Internet through a house. CAT5 isn't always easy to retrofit, but a ton of houses have coax through the rooms.

[@mytube30005]

Are you still using coax cable? You should consider streaming instead. KZbin TV offers live and local channels for far less than cable TV.

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

This is for cable internet. Very common in my area.

[@Mr.PoopyDoobertPants]

Find yourself someone who looks at you the way Scott looks at a nice fit and finish

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

😂

[@ig_foobar]

Coaxial cable? Who uses that anymore?

[@EverydayHomeRepairs]

Hahaha, a few people had said that but in my area coax for internet is the most popular option.

[@flyer7694]

Not sure why this comment keeps coming up. There are large parts of the country with only one cable company with coax as the only choice for high speed internet, so it’s not an uncommon thing. There are plenty of areas that don’t even have coax as an option, and it’s satellite but still using coax cable. I would say majority of Americans do not use fiber optic because it isn’t available to them.

[@ig_foobar]

@@flyer7694 Coaxial cable is used to connect televisions to cable television service, which is basically a toxic sewer main emptying into your living room. All commercial television is. Most of what's on streaming is crap as well. If your Internet provider delivers service on coaxial cable then you put the modem at the service entrance. You wouldn't run fiber to your living room either.