You know the quick and easy isn't when....

You take your time to measure and cut out the perfect spot for your in wall center speaker. You remove the drywall to find that there is a water pipe running strait down the cavity blocking your plan.



If you are stubborn enough like me you will spend hours to make that darn speaker fit just where you darn well please.



I did insulate the pipe and the wall cavity before installing the center speaker so I would avoid any unwanted vibrations.

It is now installed just where I wanted it.

haha. OK I will answer a few of those.

The wall is at the peak of vaulted ceiling so most of the studs are 6" on center. I was lucky enough that where the center of the room was had a standard 16" gap. On the other side of the living room is the kitchen so the water pipe is for the ice maker line on the fridge. Basicly I had no alternative to install the speaker than where I wanted it anyway.

The wall is ininsulated 2 x 4 and I don't have an anti burn matt so I wiped down the sheetrock before and after soldering the joints with a wet towel. The one joint that did leak was one I had pre soldered before placing it all in the wall that I had to re solder giving it the larger burn mark. It's all good. It just looks ugly. The pipe isn't leaking so all should be good.

The black stuff on the stud is roofing felt. I'm guessing that the builder used it to fill a gap when installing the drywall but I can't be sure I just left it in place. The staples are just that. I used them to keep the Romex as far back as I could away from the water pipe. The old stud is hard as concrete so I just hammered them in about 1/4" and stopped there. They aren't going anywhere.

I agree I need a new keyhole saw. In the later pic I just cut a rough hole opening to get the job done. I did clean it up with a box cutting tool before replacing the drywall. I will post an update once I tape, mud, texture coat and repaint the walls.

OK this doesn't help much but it shows where I added foam to the 1/2" pipe and insulation into the wall before replacing the drywall and installing the center speaker.

Will do. I got busy on other things today so next week I plan on pulling out the speakers so I can tape and mud the whole thing then texture spray the walls and repaint. I am getting tired of the red and now Kills has latex paint that can be colored and cover that red in one coat. I tried it and it works.



Oh yea, I also had fun notching the three 2x4s on each corner of the post to fit the right surround speaker.


Besides the speakers I also ran the speaker cables, moved the coax for the sat tv, ran shielded RCA cables for the subs as well as a CAT-5 and phone line. All the speaker wirees are on one 7.2 wall plate with banana plugs and RCA jacks for the subs. The best part is I no longer have any wires running along the walls.

haha my wife loved it when she got home shortly after I took my skill saw and notched the beam in the pic above. It hit some drywall and completely covered everything in a nice layer of dust.

drvnbysound: I am so attempted to buy that right now. I can think of so many uses for it, good and bad.

EDIT: OK I ordered one. Can't have too many toys er tools.

That's true but they built it to stay. It even has a 2x2" steel post sticking out of the cement foundation for support.

I texture sprayed the walls and painted two of them so far. I will post some pics this weekend after the other walls get painted to match.

My wife and I painted until 11:30 last night. I spent much of the day just putting things back in their place. I'm happy with it. I still have to go back and paint the floorboards but that's another weekend project.





I was planning on painting the speakers to match but the wife said leave them white. You might as well show off all your hard work and not hide it.

It's a 61" Samsung. Great TV.

I need to take some updated pics since the wife decorated the room. It looks much nicer now. I was too busy last week installing new ceiling fans and paintings on the wall to take some new pics.