The time I used a bent coat hanger to fish a sensor wire through a finished ceiling

I was finishing a retrofit in a 1920s house, and the last motion sensor needed a wire run across a finished ceiling with zero attic access. After an hour of trying every fish tape and rod I had, I was stuck. In a moment of pure frustration, I grabbed a wire coat hanger from the customer's closet, straightened it mostly, and bent a tiny hook on the end. I fed it through a tiny hole near a light fixture and, by some miracle, managed to hook the sensor wire and pull it across the 8-foot gap on the third try. The homeowner just stared and said, 'Well, that's one way to do it.' Has anyone else pulled off a ridiculous MacGyver fix that actually saved the day?

3 comments

3 Comments

felix_black2mo agoTop Commenter

Honestly, that coat hanger trick is pure genius. I've been in that exact spot where the fancy tools fail and you just start looking around the room for anything long and skinny. Once used a fiberglass tent pole from my truck to get a wire down a wall. The best fixes are always the janky ones that just work.

drew552mo ago

The tent pole move is next level. My best "tool" was a spaghetti spoon when I dropped a bolt behind a dryer. Bent the handle into a weird hook and fished it out. I felt like a genius, but really I was just a guy who really didn't want to move an appliance.

jamie_carter872mo ago

The fiberglass tent pole is a solid choice... flexible but still has some backbone. What was the wire for, just a regular outlet or something more complicated? I always wonder if those janky fixes hold up long term or if you have to go back later and do it right.