DIY Life

When my wife and I decided to mount our LCD TV to the wall instead of having it on its stand, we were faced with the problem of hiding all the cables and wires. There were the component video cables, power cable, RCA wires to connect the VCR, and the cable connection. That was gong to be a lot of ugly spaghetti to have hanging from the bottom of the flat screen.

I decided to use surface mounted wire moldings to hide them. After installing them I painted them to match the wall. While this does neaten things up, you can still see the two runs of molding that I had to use to contain all the cords.

I had considered putting them inside the wall, but seeing as the electrical panel for our town home was directly on the other side of the wall, I decided that it was going to be nothing but heartache to try to do it that way. The other draw back was going to be the extra cutting, patching, pulling, and painting that was going to be required to do it properly.

Now I have discovered a newer, easier, and cleaner way to accomplish this goal of a hidden installation. FlatWire Is the answer that I was looking for.

FlatWire is between 8/1000 (paper thickness) and 13/1000 (business card thickness) thick. FlatWire can be used to clean up audio, video, data, and (if the testing goes well) 120v wiring. It is applied to the wall with a spray adhesive, and is flexible enough to make 90°+ bends so that you can customize the installation to fit your specific needs. The wire is also paint-able and wallpaper-able as well.

For the cleanest installation you can feather joint compound out, using standard techniques, to make it completely disappear after sanding, texturing, and painting. If the wire gets the UL approval the company wants, you will even be able to wire your ceiling fan or sconce without cutting into the ceiling/wall or having to pull wire. Just shave a path through your acoustic ceiling, install the wire, and then patch the ceiling with standard spray patch. No one will ever be able to tell that it wasn't installed conventionally.

For audio applications it can replace speaker wire from 18g to 12g, and the sub-woofer connection as well. Just make sure that your speaker can either take a banana plug or RCA connection, and then buy the wire and the correct terminals.

Video applications include CATV cable, component, and S-Video connections. The wires are pathed to make sure that you get at least as good a signal as you would with conventional cables. Again, just make sure you get the correct terminal kit for your needs.

Data applications let you run the cable connection for your cable modem with out having the big fat cable running across the landscape. After you hook up your modem you can then run the CAT5 emulation wire to make your RJ45 connections for your network. It all installs cleanly and invisibly with very little fuss or muss for such a great looking installation.

Once the company gets its UL approval for the 120v applications, installing new wall and ceiling fixtures where and when you want will become as easy as applying a new coat of paint. They are also looking into making an outdoor approved product as well.

The wire is a little pricey when compared straight across to conventional wire, but once you factor in the labor costs if you decide to have a conventional installation, the FlatWire product is way cheaper. Even if you plan to DIY a conventional installation, the time savings of just having to use spray adhesive and paint to install is huge!

All in all I would have rather found out about this product BEFORE I did it my way. I just pray my wife doesn't get wind of it or I WILL be re-wiring our TV system on a weekend when I least expect it!