The Manufactured Housing Forums

Greetings,

We recently purchased a 1998 Champion Infinity and now I want to run speaker wire, in the walls, from my speakers to my receiver. In my previous home, I did this by running the wire under the house and through the walls. Yesterday, I got underneath the MH and was suprised to find what looks like black plastic covering the underside of the home. What is this stuff and is it safe to cut it in order to access the floor? Thanks in advance.

John

That black plastic is covering the insulation, some plumbing, and possibly wiring. You can cut into it, just make sure you tape it back up with a high quality tape.

Making sure all holes are patched will help insure you keep more "critters" out as well.. Mice tend to find the holes where plumbing drops through the floor and you may not even notice you have new friends living under your base cabinets

Most places that carry manufactured home parts have patch in different sizes that you simply cut, remove the sticky backing and apply over the hole.


-Tracy

Is there anyway to safely route the wiring between the insulation and the floor, ie. using a fish? And how would you reccommend doing so? ie, cutting through the belly wrap? Thanks again.

I have a 5' long drill bit that you can get from home depot, its made by Greenlee and runs about 30 dollars. you drill through the floor. then turn the bit upside down and poke thru the belly of the house( the thick black plastic that holds your insulation). the hole made by the back side of the bit makes a minimal hole in the belly and the bit has a hole at either end to put the wire your pulling thru. kinda like threading a needle.

Yes, you can try the long drill bit technique, but despite your best efforts to be careful, unless you know exactly what lies between the plastic underbelly and the floor where you plan to drill, you run the risk of running your drill bit thru heating ducts, plumbing or electrical lines. I had a professional come to my stick built to install an alarm system and he proceeded to drill into one of my electrical circuits under the floor and short out one complete circuit. A safer way might be to run/hide your speaker wire inside along the floor / wall intersection under the baseboard if you have one. Then on the walls, simply drill a small hole at the bottom of the wall, also one at the top where you want it to come out and fish the speaker wire vertically in behind the wall between the holes. Just be sure you know where the stud spacing is at and be careful of the insulation in any outside walls. It took some time, but it worked well for me. Good Luck.