Found a weird trick for fishing wire through insulated walls

Last Tuesday I was stuck on a job in an old house near downtown, trying to get coax through a wall that was packed with that blown-in cellulose insulation. After fighting with the fish tape for like 20 minutes and getting nowhere, I grabbed a shop vac and taped a piece of PVC pipe to the hose. I shoved the hose into the wall cavity through a small hole and let it run for a minute to clear out the insulation. Then my fish tape slid right through like butter. Saved me from having to cut into the drywall and patch it later. Any of you guys ever tried something like that for tricky runs?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlies378d ago

Had a buddy try this on a fiberglass insulated wall. Worked great until the PVC popped off the shop vac hose and disappeared into the wall cavity.

sarahpark8d ago

Did he ever fish it out or is it just living in there forever now?

fiona_hunt718d ago

Yeah I saw a guy on a construction forum swear by this same method for attics. He said it worked perfect until the hose got too hot from the vac motor and melted the tape loose. Then he had a PVC pipe rattling around in his ceiling. Took him an extra hour to fish that thing out with a magnet on a string. Seemed like a solid trick if you can keep everything secure though.