How to Drop a Wire From the Attic

When installing a new home computer network, cable and home theater system or even wiring a ceiling fan, you can drop one or more wires from the attic, through the ceiling and into a specific room. This allows you to add a wall-mounted telephone, hook up cable to a new big-screen television or power a new desktop with all its peripherals, minimizing the amount of exposed wire around your new electronics.

Stool or ladder
Stud finder
Scratch awl
Rubber mallet
Drill bit
Drill

Instructions

- 1
  Place a stool or ladder in the room where you want to drop the wire in from the attic.
- 2
  Hold a stud finder against the ceiling to select a location away from or between roof trusses -- you want to avoid these large ceiling studs.
- 3
  Hold a scratch awl at a 90-degree angle against the ceiling and strike it with a rubber mallet, penetrating the ceiling and driving the shaft into the attic. For best results, punch the hole in a corner so you can conceal it behind wall trim or in back of furniture.
- 4
  Turn on the lights in the room so light shines through the hole you punched in the ceiling.
- 5
  Go into the attic and walk or crawl over the room in which you are dropping the wire. Stand on the trusses and do not walk on the drywall or plaster ceiling as you may fall through. Look for a beam of light coming up from the room you were just inside.
- 6
  Load your drill with a bit that is a bit larger than the diameter of the wire you're dropping from the attic.
- 7
  Drill a hole through the ceiling, then feed the wire or cable from the attic into the hole and push it down through the hole at least 3 to 4 feet to be able to reach it when you go back inside the room.
- 8
  Return to the room and pull the wire down as much as needed, then connect it to finish.

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