**Drilling Holes Through a Framed Wall: Tips and Techniques**

When it comes to running cables through walls, one of the most challenging tasks is drilling holes through framed walls. However, with the right tools and techniques, this job can be made much easier. In this article, we will discuss some tips and tricks for drilling holes through framed walls, including how to deal with tight corners and offset holes.

**The Importance of Height**

One of the key factors to consider when drilling holes through a framed wall is height. Having all of your holes drilled at the same height makes it much easier to pull cables through. This allows you to avoid twisting and tangling, which can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. By keeping all of your holes at the same height, you can also avoid having to deal with multiple wires or cables getting tangled together.

**Using Extensions**

When dealing with tight corners or offset holes, extensions can be a game-changer. Rather than trying to force a wire through a small hole, you can use an extension to create more space and make it easier to pull the cable through. By stacking extensions on top of each other, you can create a makeshift drill bit that allows you to reach into tight spaces.

**Using Wire as a Drill Bit**

When dealing with corners or offset holes, sometimes it's necessary to use wire itself as a drill bit. In this case, you can take a single piece of wire and curve it to fit through the hole. By using wire in this way, you can create a makeshift drill bit that allows you to reach into tight spaces without having to force a traditional drill bit.

**Drilling Through Corners**

One of the most challenging tasks when drilling holes through framed walls is dealing with corners. When two studs meet at a corner, it can be difficult to fit a wire or cable through both holes at once. To overcome this challenge, you can use the technique of pushing wire into a corner by bending it against the back wall of the sheetrock. By using this method, you can create a curved shape in the wire that allows it to fit snugly through both holes.

**Pulling Cables**

Once all of your holes are drilled, it's time to start pulling cables through. This is where having all of your holes at the same height really pays off. With all of your holes lined up, you can simply slide the cable through and pull it out the other side. To make this process even easier, try using a fish tape or similar tool to guide the cable through tight spaces.

**Code Issues**

When running multiple cables, there are often code issues that need to be considered. One of these issues is clearance from the edge of the wall. In order to comply with building codes, it's often necessary to leave at least an inch and a quarter of clearance from the edge of the wall. However, in some cases, this clearance may not be possible. To overcome this challenge, you can use a nail plate to cover up any gaps or spaces between the studs.

**Conclusion**

Drilling holes through framed walls can be a challenging task, but with the right tools and techniques, it's definitely doable. By following these tips and tricks, including using extensions, wire as a drill bit, and pulling cables, you'll be well on your way to becoming a pro at this job. Whether you're running multiple cables or just need to make a few small holes, with the right approach, you can get the job done quickly and efficiently.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso today I want to talk about the proper tools and techniques that you're going to need when you're drilling holes in your home for running electrical wires now I know it probably sounds fairly easy to drill a hole as long as you have a good drill sharp bits you can drill an easy hole but when you're running electrical wires through them there are some codes we want to follow as an example why if we drill too close you can run into an issue like this you don't want to damage the wires so when it comes to drilling out holes in a new home or an addition when you have the wood studs there are typically two types of drill bits that I'm going to use one might be the augur bit and this is going to go into a drill like this that's meant to drill a lot more holes the advantage to this is it has a self-feeding bit on the top stays sharper longer Meant to hit a couple of nails which you're probably going to run into in some of those studs and just holds up and makes the holes much easier lasts much longer if I have to drill a hole for adding a receptacle or trying to fish a line in and I only need to drill one or two holes I'm going to use a spade bit the spade bit this particular one does have a cell feed bit some don't it's up to you uh it's meant for drilling a couple of clean holes and smaller tighter locations and I'm going to use this drill now when it comes to making these holes a straight bit isn't always going to be the right answer sometimes you have to work around a corner or a tighter space and that's where some of our accessories come in in those cases we can use an assortment of extensions a right angle adapter even some Oddball flexible bits that can help you get around some of the corners that you can't get to easily eily and finally in some of the tighter areas if we have blocking in a wall that you can see or some tighter areas to get into we're going to use something like this we have these long flexible drill bits that let us snake up walls that you normally wouldn't have access to without damaging the wall all right so let's go over one of the biggest rules that we have when it comes to drilling holes for wires and that's the clearance from the edge of a stud so for us the code minimum is an inch and a quarter we want to be an inch and a quarter away from any of these edges so as an example when we have a 2X for like this we want to be an inch and a quarter in here and we have to be an inch and a quarter away from this Edge and as you can see that's the spot we have to drill now in theory that should be exactly an inch but the studs are slightly different and I'm not good enough to drill exactly in the center every single time with a one-inch bit so the best practice is to step that bit size down maybe drop down to a 3/4 inch bit that can go through those that way you don't have to sit there and measure every single stud each time to find the exact center and get close enough with your eyeball but when it comes to a 2x6 stud like this we can still use that same bit maybe go up to a 1 in bit and we know roughly where The Middle's going to be we have plenty of clearance with this it's easier to drill so let's go ahead and show you if we use an augur bit how we do this now for me we know we have our inch and a quarter minimum clearance but I also like to keep everything the same height it makes it easier for a point of reference if you need to cut anything in if someone's drilling something outside through a wall you know where the wires roughly run and the quickest and easiest way I found for me it's right about here on your leg it's a good point to be at it makes a good point to kind of guide this through if you're having a tough time if it's older Lumber and it's not as easy to drill and it just gets you in about that right spot so I'm just going to put the glasses on let's go ahead and drill a couple holes now when we go to the corner you can see that we can't quite swear up the drill because the bay is not full-sized all right so let's take a look at some of the options that we have so for this drill they do make larger bits and they do make extensions we could use something like this or a different bit but you can see even if we put this on with that smaller bit we still may have a hard time getting into that spot it's great for some applications not for everything so we have some other options the next option what I tend to use in some of these Corners I'm going to go to this drill I'm going to use the spade bit that we spoke about earlier so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the right angle adapter put it into this and this is how I'm going to fit into that bay comfortably when it's a little too tight now you can see that this angle fit in this Bay pretty well that's not always going to be the case sometimes the stud's going to be a little further over and you're not going to have room for this to fit in that's when the other accessories come into play that's when we start using things like the extensions you don't have to use them one at a time you can stack them together so a good little trick to do if you have something in the way is you can always put it through the existing hole ahead of time that way you can square right up to that stud and drill it nice and cleanly so for the final hole in this corner we have plenty of room to fit a conventional drill and spade bit in there now that we have all of our holes drilled it's time to go ahead and pull the wire and this is where having them all the same height really helps us out makes it much easier to pull everything through nothing's getting twisted up nothing's getting tangled it's a much better job so let's go ahead and take a piece we're just going to roll this out and I'm going to go ahead and start pulling it through this side nice clean Hol simple enough and then we get to the corner and this where it gets tricky sometimes now in this case it's not too too bad because we have a 2x6 on this side and a 2x4 on that side giving us a fairly large Bay but let me show you how this actually works since we can't bend the wire inside here we're going to bend it by pushing it against this back wall so when I go through this hole here's what's going to happen I'm actually going to push it all the way in I'm going to push it up against the back of the sheetrock and just gently wiggle it till I feel it's starting to get a curve and what's going to happen it's going to get a curve like this and because it's wire it's going to hold its shape so when it's inside that bay has that curve I pull it back and our holes are lined up it makes it very easy to line up here I can just slide my finger right here touch the end of it with a little bit of pressure pushing forward and pulling back I'll pull it right through that hole so let me show you and straighten that back out gonna go ahead and put it right here just push it forward a couple times to give it a little curve and just like that comes right through and as you can see we pulled it all the way through very simply now let's say you had a corner that was much tighter a couple of 2x4s or the holes weren't perfectly lined up and you had an offset there's another trick to get around that as well so we have this sitting back here we can't quite make the corner I'll take a single piece of that wire about this big and what I'll do is I'll put a little curve in it just to get it started and I'm going to use this like a fish and I'm going to start in here and just try and make that corner and as you can see that goes through a lot easier than an entire wire you'd simply tape that on and pull that through and that would get you through so these are some of the tips and techniques showing you how to drill holes through a framed wall to pull a single cable and how to deal with some of these Corners you might run into now if you're going to be running multiple cables you can increase the size of the hole to a certain point But realize you are limited by certain factors such as your clearance from The Edge and how many cables are going to pull through there you're only allowed to pull so many so make sure you check with your local inspector to see what you are allowed to do with that being said and we're talking about some of the code issues you may not always be able to get that clearance of an inch and a quarter from The Edge that you want to get and there is a solution for that worst case scenario you can always throw up a nail plate to cover that space and keep that protected okay and that'll solve that situation and that'll keep us from having a straight nail or screw go through there and potentially hit that wire and just remember for making these jobs easier it's always great to have the right tool and sharp drill bits to help you move along thanks for watching this old house has got a video for just about every Home Improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the Subscribe button make sure that you get our newest videos right in your feedso today I want to talk about the proper tools and techniques that you're going to need when you're drilling holes in your home for running electrical wires now I know it probably sounds fairly easy to drill a hole as long as you have a good drill sharp bits you can drill an easy hole but when you're running electrical wires through them there are some codes we want to follow as an example why if we drill too close you can run into an issue like this you don't want to damage the wires so when it comes to drilling out holes in a new home or an addition when you have the wood studs there are typically two types of drill bits that I'm going to use one might be the augur bit and this is going to go into a drill like this that's meant to drill a lot more holes the advantage to this is it has a self-feeding bit on the top stays sharper longer Meant to hit a couple of nails which you're probably going to run into in some of those studs and just holds up and makes the holes much easier lasts much longer if I have to drill a hole for adding a receptacle or trying to fish a line in and I only need to drill one or two holes I'm going to use a spade bit the spade bit this particular one does have a cell feed bit some don't it's up to you uh it's meant for drilling a couple of clean holes and smaller tighter locations and I'm going to use this drill now when it comes to making these holes a straight bit isn't always going to be the right answer sometimes you have to work around a corner or a tighter space and that's where some of our accessories come in in those cases we can use an assortment of extensions a right angle adapter even some Oddball flexible bits that can help you get around some of the corners that you can't get to easily eily and finally in some of the tighter areas if we have blocking in a wall that you can see or some tighter areas to get into we're going to use something like this we have these long flexible drill bits that let us snake up walls that you normally wouldn't have access to without damaging the wall all right so let's go over one of the biggest rules that we have when it comes to drilling holes for wires and that's the clearance from the edge of a stud so for us the code minimum is an inch and a quarter we want to be an inch and a quarter away from any of these edges so as an example when we have a 2X for like this we want to be an inch and a quarter in here and we have to be an inch and a quarter away from this Edge and as you can see that's the spot we have to drill now in theory that should be exactly an inch but the studs are slightly different and I'm not good enough to drill exactly in the center every single time with a one-inch bit so the best practice is to step that bit size down maybe drop down to a 3/4 inch bit that can go through those that way you don't have to sit there and measure every single stud each time to find the exact center and get close enough with your eyeball but when it comes to a 2x6 stud like this we can still use that same bit maybe go up to a 1 in bit and we know roughly where The Middle's going to be we have plenty of clearance with this it's easier to drill so let's go ahead and show you if we use an augur bit how we do this now for me we know we have our inch and a quarter minimum clearance but I also like to keep everything the same height it makes it easier for a point of reference if you need to cut anything in if someone's drilling something outside through a wall you know where the wires roughly run and the quickest and easiest way I found for me it's right about here on your leg it's a good point to be at it makes a good point to kind of guide this through if you're having a tough time if it's older Lumber and it's not as easy to drill and it just gets you in about that right spot so I'm just going to put the glasses on let's go ahead and drill a couple holes now when we go to the corner you can see that we can't quite swear up the drill because the bay is not full-sized all right so let's take a look at some of the options that we have so for this drill they do make larger bits and they do make extensions we could use something like this or a different bit but you can see even if we put this on with that smaller bit we still may have a hard time getting into that spot it's great for some applications not for everything so we have some other options the next option what I tend to use in some of these Corners I'm going to go to this drill I'm going to use the spade bit that we spoke about earlier so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the right angle adapter put it into this and this is how I'm going to fit into that bay comfortably when it's a little too tight now you can see that this angle fit in this Bay pretty well that's not always going to be the case sometimes the stud's going to be a little further over and you're not going to have room for this to fit in that's when the other accessories come into play that's when we start using things like the extensions you don't have to use them one at a time you can stack them together so a good little trick to do if you have something in the way is you can always put it through the existing hole ahead of time that way you can square right up to that stud and drill it nice and cleanly so for the final hole in this corner we have plenty of room to fit a conventional drill and spade bit in there now that we have all of our holes drilled it's time to go ahead and pull the wire and this is where having them all the same height really helps us out makes it much easier to pull everything through nothing's getting twisted up nothing's getting tangled it's a much better job so let's go ahead and take a piece we're just going to roll this out and I'm going to go ahead and start pulling it through this side nice clean Hol simple enough and then we get to the corner and this where it gets tricky sometimes now in this case it's not too too bad because we have a 2x6 on this side and a 2x4 on that side giving us a fairly large Bay but let me show you how this actually works since we can't bend the wire inside here we're going to bend it by pushing it against this back wall so when I go through this hole here's what's going to happen I'm actually going to push it all the way in I'm going to push it up against the back of the sheetrock and just gently wiggle it till I feel it's starting to get a curve and what's going to happen it's going to get a curve like this and because it's wire it's going to hold its shape so when it's inside that bay has that curve I pull it back and our holes are lined up it makes it very easy to line up here I can just slide my finger right here touch the end of it with a little bit of pressure pushing forward and pulling back I'll pull it right through that hole so let me show you and straighten that back out gonna go ahead and put it right here just push it forward a couple times to give it a little curve and just like that comes right through and as you can see we pulled it all the way through very simply now let's say you had a corner that was much tighter a couple of 2x4s or the holes weren't perfectly lined up and you had an offset there's another trick to get around that as well so we have this sitting back here we can't quite make the corner I'll take a single piece of that wire about this big and what I'll do is I'll put a little curve in it just to get it started and I'm going to use this like a fish and I'm going to start in here and just try and make that corner and as you can see that goes through a lot easier than an entire wire you'd simply tape that on and pull that through and that would get you through so these are some of the tips and techniques showing you how to drill holes through a framed wall to pull a single cable and how to deal with some of these Corners you might run into now if you're going to be running multiple cables you can increase the size of the hole to a certain point But realize you are limited by certain factors such as your clearance from The Edge and how many cables are going to pull through there you're only allowed to pull so many so make sure you check with your local inspector to see what you are allowed to do with that being said and we're talking about some of the code issues you may not always be able to get that clearance of an inch and a quarter from The Edge that you want to get and there is a solution for that worst case scenario you can always throw up a nail plate to cover that space and keep that protected okay and that'll solve that situation and that'll keep us from having a straight nail or screw go through there and potentially hit that wire and just remember for making these jobs easier it's always great to have the right tool and sharp drill bits to help you move along thanks for watching this old house has got a video for just about every Home Improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the Subscribe button make sure that you get our newest videos right in your feed\n"