Fancy Baseboard Molding & Wire Routing ?

[dman]

Short Story:
Anyone seen any cool ways of hiding wires and protecting them, that are to be run along a baseboard?

Long Story:
I was at a store in the mall last year, @ some fancy (=overpriced) electronics store (Bang & Olufsen), and they had their Home Theater wires run in this spiffy baseboard molding. Imagine a hollow baseboard heater ... or imagine a right triangle shape with the perpendicular sides touching the floor and wall and the diaganol part covers the wires. The molding was maple laminate or solid wood (can't recall which) but was nice looking. It was also freestanding so you could move it around if you wanted to,but, heavy enough that it wasn't going anywhere from daily abuse. I asked if it they sold it and they said no, so, their contractor built it for them when they designed the store.

So, I was wondering if anyone has seen this offered for sale anywhere? In a cheaper material than wood, like a PVC material / plastic of some sort? I guess I could do it easilly enough with some lengths of 2x6, a table saw, some stain/poly, sandpaper, and some patience but the table saw is the holdup at this time.

---

RANT: Whilelooking for the name of the store (Bang & Olufsen) I went to the mall website. To get the directory it said I had to install FLASH6. Argh. So, I decide I'll go ahead and install it since I keep getting hammered to anyway. Afterwards, there's a link on the flash enabled site which says I can go to the old site to see the non-flash directory. It was NOT there on the non-flash site.

 

[dman]

Started to search google while waiting and found this and this

Not fancy looking but, not expensive and a possibility. Will keep searching...

found a bunch more here, some the same as above but a bit cheaper. Not sure how much for shipping a 6' length would be.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Run the moulding along a router to generate the groove you desire for the wire.

 

[Ornery]

You over a crawl space or basement? Run it under the floor. Only involves punching holes which can be filled later.

 

[dman]

There is a subfloor in this room but covered by carpet and really wouldn't be easy to push/pull the wires through there with all the other crap they have in there.

Looking for something that is portable (to an extent) and moreso, doesn't require removal of existing molding... the routing solution is otherwise not a bad solution. If I had a router.

Looks like another name for what I'm looking for is a 'raceway'.

 

[Ornery]

I don't mean under the floor covering, I mean under the floor! Run the wires through the crawl space or basement, if you have either.

 

[dman]

Sure, I know what you meant, just it's not really practical (for me). Wires are in the same room, I just want to hide them--but it doesn't have to be permanent--and preferably not. I may want to add/remove/move stuff around at a later date so even if I was able to run through the subfloor space it'd be a pain again later. Anyway, I have some links above that I've added in, they'll do what I'm looking for. If anyone knows of any other sources for those things, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Ornery
I don't mean under the floor covering, I mean under the floor! Run the wires through the crawl space or basement, if you have either.

Yep, piece of cake to do, and you can punch a hole right where the floor meets the the molding. If it's carpeted, when you want to remove the wires you'll never know they were there.

 

[MichaelD]

I run CAT5 and regular phone wire under the existing baseboard. The carpet slides under there too. There's about 1/4"of space there and it's pretty easy to push the wire under there w/my bare fingers.

The only thing to watch out for are the nail-strips that hold the carpet down along the edges. :Q Bloody, battered fingers is what you'll have after running any wires. But, it's FREE and the wires are hidden. I have CAT5, telephone wire and speaker wire run everywhere this way. Also the RG58 from the cable jack to the TV. (Jack is on THIS side of the room, TV is on THAT side)

 

[MaxDepth]

el cheapo way - take pvc pipe (smallest you can get your hands on) paint it to match the carpet and lay it next to the existing moulding

time consuming way - remove the existing baseboard or moulding, run a router on the backside of it to create a channel, lay your wires in the channel taping them in to stay, and reattach

exciting and costly way (well, maybe not too costly) -
1) go to hardware store and buy copper flashing (for rain-proofing gutters on roof).
2) cut flashing (lengthwise) into 5.5" strips - use straight edge and tin snips for straight cuts
3) fold a 2" line, then a 1" line, then fold the rest over the 2" fold with the rest (about 1/4") ove again - so you have a right triangle with 1", 2" and 2 1/4" sides
4)paint it if you want - or clear coat it with a nonconductive gloss or poly
5) run the cables through the triangular tube (or folding the triangle of the cables first) and place against the basedboard

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I run CAT5 and regular phone wire under the existing baseboard. The carpet slides under there too. There's about 1/4"of space there and it's pretty easy to push the wire under there w/my bare fingers.

The only thing to watch out for are the nail-strips that hold the carpet down along the edges. :Q Bloody, battered fingers is what you'll have after running any wires. But, it's FREE and the wires are hidden. I have CAT5, telephone wire and speaker wire run everywhere this way. Also the RG58 from the cable jack to the TV. (Jack is on THIS side of the room, TV is on THAT side)

Another good option for some folks. For us, they installed the molding before carpet. So, you could lift the carpet up but the molding goes pretty damn close to the wood floor beneath... not enough room to slide the cable under. If I removed the molding, there would be enough room under the bottom edge of the drywall, but, I really don't want to pull the carpet out, remove the molding, and run the wires and put it all back. It'd be easier to run the wires up the wall, through the attic, and back down the other side. Until I add a new set of surround speakers or move the fax to a different location, or something, then i'd have to do it again.

el cheapo way - take pvc pipe (smallest you can get your hands on) paint it to match the carpet and lay it next to the existing moulding

Actually had already thought of that option, sort of a last resort. The painting part wasn't appealing but I was considering it. The links above will work out a little better.

exciting and costly way (well, maybe not too costly) -
1) go to hardware store and buy copper flashing (for rain-proofing gutters on roof).
2) cut flashing (lengthwise) into 5.5" strips - use straight edge and tin snips for straight cuts
3) fold a 2" line, then a 1" line, then fold the rest over the 2" fold with the rest (about 1/4") ove again - so you have a right triangle with 1", 2" and 2 1/4" sides
4)paint it if you want - or clear coat it with a nonconductive gloss or poly
5) run the cables through the triangular tube (or folding the triangle of the cables first) and place against the basedboard

Well, that avoids the router and tablesaw stuff! Probably would look cool too. Too much work though.

 

[MaxDepth]

Originally posted by: dman6666

Well, that avoids the router and tablesaw stuff! Probably would look cool too. Too much work though.

lazy b@stard...

 

[MaxDepth]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I run CAT5 and regular phone wire under the existing baseboard. The carpet slides under there too. There's about 1/4"of space there and it's pretty easy to push the wire under there w/my bare fingers.

The only thing to watch out for are the nail-strips that hold the carpet down along the edges. :Q Bloody, battered fingers is what you'll have after running any wires. But, it's FREE and the wires are hidden. I have CAT5, telephone wire and speaker wire run everywhere this way. Also the RG58 from the cable jack to the TV. (Jack is on THIS side of the room, TV is on THAT side)

Amen to that, my brother! I had a town home where the cable jack was THERE but the only place for the TV cabinet was HERE and I ran the cable under the baseboard, too. Bloody fingertips, hell yeah! I used my drywall putty knife to work the cable into the tighter spaces between the carpet and baseboard.

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: MaxDepth

Originally posted by: dman6666

Well, that avoids the router and tablesaw stuff! Probably would look cool too. Too much work though.

lazy b@stard...

Damn Straight! Well, not to mention how I picture it and how it would actually come out are probably two different things -- I say that because I'm not sure how you could get a clean fold (2 folds actually) over a 3-4+' length without some heavy duty help (Some kind of 'press' I'm thinking). Could be wrong, Maybe the flashing is thin enough that it's not that bad, I may be able to better understand this method the next time I'm at Home Depot and look at it closer.

 

[teckmaster]

Wiremold

Best products made. I use them and do the same thing you are talking about all the time

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Ornery
I don't mean under the floor covering, I mean under the floor! Run the wires through the crawl space or basement, if you have either.

Yep, piece of cake to do, and you can punch a hole right where the floor meets the the molding. If it's carpeted, when you want to remove the wires you'll never know they were there.

I drill right through the base shoe molding, since it's painted. It can be filled with spackle and painted, so nobody would ever know the holes were there.

The cost to drill a few holes is zero. The time it takes to slide them under the house is minutes. To change it later is no worse. The holes can easily be patched. Here's an example.