Finishing Up the Flat Screen TV

Posted on February 5, 2013 by John

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So it’s been around a month or so since we started setting up our sitting room. We added a couch and finished hiding the HDMI cable now we’ve just finished up the work on the power cables for our flat screen TV. We really enjoy the space so far. It’s nice to have a place to hang out upstairs without being in bed.

Last time we left off on this project, I had run a power cable to the new outlet location.

Since then, I’ve had my work inspected and was cleared to device out the box. Instead of installing a typical outlet, I added a receptacle designed to accommodate the TV plug.

The recessed outlet permits the plug end to avoid hitting the back of the TV. Here’s what the wall looks like now..

Once the TV was back on the mount, I used a simple zip tie to keep the long TV power cord up and out of the way.

All done.

Before I started this little cable hiding project, I thought I could pull it off for around $30 as compared to the Powerbridge install we did at a neighbor’s house for $90.

Here are the rough material costs. I didn’t keep receipts.

HDMI Cable boxes (the orange ones in the wall) $8
HDMI Cover plate $14
Outlet box $4
Recessed outlet $13

That’s a total of about $39. Close. Now I didn’t include any tools or cable since I already owned them nor did I include the permit cost. The permit for the dining room outlet was only about $20. For some reason, the township charged me $60 for this one. I was expecting to pay $20. So, all told, I spent about as much as the Powerbridge. Oh well. In any case, this dual box approach is a little more flexible for smaller TVs compared to the one larger Powerbridge box.

So now we have to add some furniture. More on that next time

Hiding a Flat Screen TV Power Cable

Posted on January 21, 2013 by John

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Hey everybody! Hope you all had a great weekend. Lisa and I had a fairly busy couple days. We picked a paint for our daughter’s bedroom and I started cutting it in. We love the color. I’m not sold on how it looks with the carpet quite yet, but we’ll see how it looks once the room is all setup and staged.

In other news, our permit to add an additional outlet behind our sitting room’s flat screen TV has been approved and I’m ready for our rough-in inspection. In case you were wondering what the general process is for pulling an electrical permit..

1. Plan work and come up with a rough estimate for the cost of the material.
2. Apply for electrical permit at local township office.
3. Receive go-ahead from local township or a call back for more info.
4. Do the rough-in work without adding any devices (switches, receptacles, etc)
5. Have rough-in inspected.
6. Device out (add outlet, switches)
7. Have finish work inspected.

We’re at step 4. Here’s how it went.

Last time we posted, we cut the hole for the outlet behind the TV.

To my delight, this interior wall happens to have studs that are 24″ on center (oc).

I was able to find the stud locations by tapping on the wall and using a stud finder. I also popped off the phone jack and peaked into the wall space with a flashlight and a small mirror. So, since there are no studs between the lower power outlet and the new outlet, I won’t have to remove any additional drywall. I can simply “snake” the new cables from the lower box to the upper hole.

***ALWAYS DO ELECTRICAL WORK WITH THE POWER OFF AT THE BREAKER OR FUSE PANEL***

I remove the bottom outlet and snake the push the wire through the bottom box and up the wall. The wire I’m using is stiff enough to get pushed fairly easily.

The top hole will receive an electrical box specifically designed for renovation type work or walls that you don’t want to open up.

The box pushes into the wall and two screws are tightened, which flip tabs up that grab and squeeze the drywall. Before the box is inserted however, the wire is run through the box.

With the box firmly in the wall and the wire pulled through, the excess slack is cut off, leaving about 6″-7″ of wire hanging out of the box.

The new wire is then spliced into the bottom box’s wiring. I’m not going to show that part. You can find a how-to on that part on YouTube.

So now we’re all set for the rough-in inspection! Can’t wait to knock this out so I can get on with the sitting room furniture.

Time of the Light

Posted on October 21, 2012 by John

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Hey guys! Hope you’re all doing well. We had another not so productive weekend, only got a couple small things done. Small steps though, right? This week, I’m hoping to get to fix some cancerous rust on my Jeep and maybe get some more work on the garage shoe rack. Yesterday I installed a light switch timer for our outside garage lights. We discussed these very lights a few months ago when we replaced the regular filament bulbs with LEDs.

I bought this timer switch from one of the home improvement stores MONTHS ago… maybe even a year ago. As part of the effort to clean this garage mess up, I finally installed it. It took about 30 minutes. If you’ve never done electrical work before, I don’t recommend you start with this one. It’s not overly difficult, it’s just a little different than most single pole switches or outlets that you may already have in your home.

It’s also a little more difficult to work on boxes that have two switches in it. The wires can get kinda crowded. It went in okay though. No major problems. The switch cost around $20-$30 and can probably be installed by a licensed electrician for maybe $150 more.

If you haven’t noticed, these switches are programmable. Once the power was back on at the breaker, I set the time and then entered the schedule for the lights to turn on and off automatically. No more leaving it on all the time and no more having to go out into the garage and turn it on and off. The best part about these switches is its added security. Even if you’re not home, the lights will activate, making it look like you’re home. Plus, this particular model has a “random” mode that will turn the lights on and off occasionally. That’s perfect if you’re going to be away for a few days or weeks. Even though they’re programmed, you can still tap its pad and control it manually.

It’s a small project, but I’m happy to have finally wrapped it up.

Any small projects hanging over your head at the moment?

Wainscoting Painted

Posted on August 13, 2012 by John

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I was originally thinking about skipping all the posts on our dining room wainscoting until we were completely finished with it. Staged and all. However, it may be another week until it’s all buttoned back up, so I think I’ll just get on with it and show everyone where we’re at.

The last couple weeks we’ve been painting. A lot. We finally finished painting the wainscoting and this past weekend we finished painting the walls. We had hoped to avoid repainting all the accessible beige, but the touch ups were pretty visible, so we ended up repainting ALL of it.

One tip I learned from painting the large panels of the wainscoting is definitely worth sharing. I was getting some major streaking or flashing with the semi-gloss on some panels. You can see the brush strokes. For some reason it just wasn’t going on evenly. It was driving me mad.

To remedy this problem, I just used a small roller and applied a nice even coat just to the MDF panels and then used a dry brush to flatten it out. Worked like a charm.

Yesterday, I started adding the outlets. Since they are situated in the MDF panel part of the wall, the boxes need to be extended by 3/4.”

I was able to find outlet extenders at Home Depot. They come in varying sizes (1/4″, 1/2″, etc) and can be screwed right onto the existing boxes.

When installed, it brings the receptacle flush to the wall.

Here’s some shots of the room. We still have to finish up a few more outlets and add the oak quarter rounds to tie the walls to the floors. Then we’ll need to clean up and bring everything back in.

Can’t wait to be done with this already!! Late last week we were in DC for a couple days, which is why we skipped out on posting. We’ll be sharing some of our experiences with that trip later this week.

Do any painting this weekend? What are you looking forward to finishing?

Hiding Flat Screen TV Cables

Posted on July 31, 2012 by John

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So on Monday we shared our experience mounting a flat screen TV to a wall. Today, we’re going to show you how to hide the TV’s cables to get a totally sleek look. This is the second TV we’ve done this procedure to at Mike and Dana’s house and this version seemed to work better than the first, which used a slightly different product. In my opinion, this modification isn’t very difficult to do and can probably be done by anyone with a little bit of DIY experience.

We last left off with the TV hanging on the wall to test the bracket out. It had to come down in order to hide the wires. To hide these cables, Mike bought a Powerbridge from Best Buy. This device consists of two plastic boxes that get inserted into the wall. One will be located behind the TV and the other will go behind the TV stand. Between the two, the wires will be run in the wall for the power and whatever audio or visual cables are required.

In order to install these two Powerbridge boxes so you don’t see them, we need to make sure we’re putting it behind the footprint of the TV. Before we took the TV off the wall, we marked the perimeter of the TV with a couple of post-it notes. The boxes will need to stay within that area AND since the Powerbridge box is fairly large, it will need to sit roughly in the middle of the area between two wall studs.

We used those magnetic wall stud locators we discussed in our last post and then marked our wall with the wall template that was provided with the Powerbridge. We needed to mark the wall for both the top box and the bottom. The bottom was pretty much directly below the top box and low enough to be out of view behind the TV stand.

With the templates marked, Mike used a drywall saw to cut the openings for the boxes. You need to be careful whenever cutting into a wall so you don’t actually cut into a gas line or a power cable.

After the holes were cut, Mike inserted the top Powerbridge cable and fished it through the wall. This was apparently an exciting moment for him. The boxes stay in place by pop out wings that are tightened with screws. Very simple. Before we connected the bottom box, Mike pulled through a couple HDMI cables.

The power cable that comes with the Powerbridge is connected with a unique click together fastener. We actually needed to fix it before we made that connection as one of the wires was visibly detached, but that wasn’t very hard. After you snap the connector together, the cable slack gets stuffed into the wall and the bottom plate gets tightened to the drywall.

The photo above shows it all completed. The Powerbridge comes with an additional cable to plug into a nearby outlet that gets run to the bottom box.

All told, it took a little over an hour to get this project done. Mike and Dana really like the new look and Lisa and I are considering it for our family room at some point.

Any upgrades coming to your TV? Cut any holes in your walls lately?

***Full disclosure: Lisa and I are members of Amazon.com associates. If you purchase a Powerbridge, we get a small kickback. If you’re interested in joining Amazon Associates, go to Affiliate-Program.Amazon.com ***

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Category Archives: Electrical

Finishing Up the Flat Screen TV

Hiding a Flat Screen TV Power Cable

Time of the Light

Wainscoting Painted

Hiding Flat Screen TV Cables