Shoutout to the tech who showed me a better way to run wire in a 1920s house

I was working on a retrofit in an old brick home in Cincinnati, and my usual method of fishing wire through the plaster walls was taking forever. The lead tech on site, Mike, showed me how to use the existing gas line chases from the old fixtures. We got the main floor sensors done in under two hours instead of the whole day I had planned. Has anyone else found a good trick for these pre-war builds?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenmorgan2mo ago

Read a forum post once where a guy talked about using the old chimney flues for cable runs in houses like that. I mean, if the chimney isn't being used anymore, it's basically a giant empty tube going through the floors. Idk, seems like it could be a huge time saver if the layout works. Your gas line trick sounds way smarter than fighting with plaster and lath all day.

anthony1292mo agoMost Upvoted

Sounds like a great way to get a face full of soot though lol.

tylerj222mo ago

Appreciate that kind of old-house wisdom. Anthony129 has a point about the mess, but finding those old paths is a total game changer for saving time.