Run Wire Behind Siding to Install Exterior Speakers
Last Thursday I told you about our good experience with Klipsch Outdoor Speakers. I want to follow-up that article with some tips for installing exterior speakers that should be helpful to those of you looking to do the same at your house.
To bring you up to speed, here’s a picture of the two speakers installed about 8 feet above our deck, 20 feet apart on our aluminum siding:
Anchoring Exterior Speakers into Siding
As I said in my initial review of the speakers, they are simply too heavy to be anchored into the siding alone. You must anchor them into a joist or a stud.
Since our house has a second floor, the easiest mounting point is on the rim joist of the second floor, since there’s a solid 2×8 joist that runs the full length of the back of the house. This joist is pretty easy to find, as it sits between the ceiling of the first floor and the subfloor of the second floor.
It would be difficult to mount the speakers to a single stud, unless you’re happy with a vertical mount, which would have eliminated our ability to angle the speakers downwards.
If you don’t have a second story rim joist, you could also mount them on a header above a window, which is usually at least 6 inches of dimensional lumber stacked and spanning the window length.
We chose to install the speaker up close under one of the siding runs to reduce the likelihood of leaks from the installation.
Fishing Wire Behind Siding
Probably the most challenging part of a speaker installation is what to do with the wiring. We decided to install the receiver for these speakers in our master bedroom closet. This required drilling through the siding into the closet using a 1/2″ drill bit.
We drilled out the siding just below one of the runs, again to avoid leakage behind the siding. We ran two wires through this hole (one for each speaker). The first wire connects right to the speaker shown in the picture above. The second one runs behind the aluminum siding to the other speaker.
To accomplish the run, we used a fish tape….
We punched a hole in the siding at the start and finish of the run, and then sent the fish tape starting from the target end down to the start end. We attached the speaker wire to the fish tape and then fished it.
Warning! This process can be very frustrating… You cannot see what’s running behind the siding. That said, there is usually a gap between the siding and the house, especially in the middle of two pieces of siding (most sidings runs are installed in double-heights, such that only every other run is fastened tightly to the house).
Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the actual fishing to share with you, but here’s one of the hole with the wire coming through… Notice that we worked to hide the hole behind the speaker itself.
After fishing the wire, it’s a good idea to caulk around the wire where it goes into and out of the siding.
Inside Audio Setup
The inside setup of the system is perhaps the simplest part of the installation. I won’t go into all the details again here, as you can read about our setup in this article on setting up multi-room audio in your home.
What do you think? Feel free to weigh in with your own tips on setting up exterior audio. We’d love to hear them!
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4 Responses to Run Wire Behind Siding to Install Exterior Speakers
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March 29th, 2010 7:12 am
Fred,
Cool idea with the fish tape. I thought I’d share some other ideas as well.
1. Instead of trying to attach to a rim joist or stud you could also use a siding mounting block similar to ones used for light fixtures, railing posts, etc.
2. Instead of fishing behind the siding you could actually undo the lower hem of the siding with a siding tool, install the wire behind the siding panel, then re-attach the lower hem. This method is probably much quicker and much less frustrating unless you can’t find a siding tool.
March 31st, 2010 7:41 am
Todd, great tips, especially with the siding tool. I have not used or seen one of these. No problem using it on aluminum siding? And, there’s no risk of damage? You are also right about the block mounting plates. We considered these but they would have added extra depth and an extra installation step.
March 31st, 2010 4:15 pm
Fred,
Ya know….I’m not sure if it works on aluminum or not…..you might be onto something! We never see any new aluminum siding up here and haven’t done any rehab on old aluminum…typically take it off and start new.
Strike my previous comment…..it’s probably only valid for vinyl siding.
March 31st, 2010 7:47 pm
We were just planning to install speakers this summer so this has been very helpful! We got an inground pool and wanted some music, but I was terrified about installing the speakers. Great tips