Fishing one network cable in wall?

In general, you should be able to drop a wire in from the top of the wall (may have to cut a hole in the sheetrock above the suspended ceiling), and cut out a box further down the wall. Usually, it's drywall and stud construction, though the studs may be metal. Electricians do this all the time, it's not rocket science, though experience counts for a lot.

If it's standard office type construction, it's just drywall over studs. Depending on the metal studs used, there may already be holes in it, for feeding cables through. If not, it's not difficult to punch a hole through. Then cut a hole in the drywall, below the hole in the top plate and use a fish, to pull the cable through. If the desk is away from the wall, you may want to consider a pole for bringing the cable down. There are many types available. Another method of coming down the wall, is conduit, that sticks to the wall, over the cable. Lots of options, depending on the situation.

First you start by drilling a small hole above the ceiling. You need to find out if the wall is insulated. If it's hollow, fishing is a piece of cake :-) Fishing line, a sinker, a chain, or any other gravity fed device will work.

If there happens to be an existing outlet for telephones, you can remove the cover and trace the route of that cable, it's a simple matter to hook a cable to the existing one and pull two cables down.

If the wall is insulated, you have a bigger problem. Locate the stud. You want to drill a hole as close to the stud as possible, because you want to make your fishtape, green sticks, tent poles or whatever hug the stud as it goes down the wall. It's usually easier to fish from top to bottom, because you have a 2x4 inch hole to work with below and you don't want to make a big exit hole at the top.

HTH

Carl Navarro

Carl's suggestion from way back, of using #12 jack chain attached to the end of the cable works well in a "typical" situation with no insulation. Standard 4-pair CAT5e cable fits through the links on the chain, so you don't need anything else to attach the cable to the chain. If there is insulation, I use a 8-10' section of 3/4" tape measure. Get it between the drywall and the insulation and push it down... it will continue to hug the wall. Use the markings on the tape to know when you've gone far enough. You may need to hunt for the tape at the bottom a bit, but it works well.

All good suggestions.

But I still need to know if fire blocking will be an issue in most offices. I know in homes, blocking between studs is common. If it is also in an office, it'd be a real pain to get a cable around it, I'd think.

What's your experience?

I've seen a lot of office drywall put up on steel studs and don't recall much in the way of things blocking cables. Walls between units might be another matter.

However, as I mentioned in another note, if you can't go through the wall, you can always use surface mount conduit.

He's talking about firestops, which are usually in the form of a piece of

And now you want an answer that requires thought?

No, it is not an issue in most offices. Geeze, what are they going to block it with? Buy yourself an "old work box" and a tube of fire caulk if ti makes you feel more comfortable.

Carl

And the answer is still the same. NO.

I ran into a situation like that once. The cross piece was a metal stud and realistically I could not drill through it due to the toughness of the metal along with the placement of the stud. We just ran the cable down the wall in a stick-on conduit. Sometimes you have to sacrifice aesthetics for getting the job done. It was a commercial installation and all the other drops were in the wall, we just explained to them that this one was going to be different due to circumstances.

Joe

J. Clarke wrote:

Make sure you wrap tape around the "hook" end of the tape measure to minimize it's chances of getting snagged on something as you pull it back up.

I'm fairly certain that after 4 and 1/2 months he has already run the cable.