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Drilling a Hole from 2nd floor to 1st floor ceiling to run ethernet cable - Advice Requested

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Member
Jan 15, 2010
207 posts
55 upvotes
Mississauga

Drilling a Hole from 2nd floor to 1st floor ceiling to run ethernet cable - Advice Requested

I am in a 20 year old 2 storey house and I wish to mount a TPLink EAP 245 Access Point on the 1st floor ceiling almost directly below the router that is in 2nd floor room above; I would have to run an ethernet cable through a 12 inch floor to connect the router to the Access Point.

Are there any issues/tips to drill a such a hole? There are no outlets/switches in this area but there's a light fixture about a metre from where I want to mount the AP and no plumbing nearby; the floor is hardwood and the ceiling below it is popcorn.

Or is this something best handled by an electrician or some other pro?

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9 replies
Deal Addict
Dec 27, 2007
4867 posts
2067 upvotes
Edmonton
Pretty simple. But you will need to do a little mudding and taping after.

I would make a cutout for a 1 gang box on the second floor so it looks professional and run the wire from there down. Drill down through the wall (in between the studs) so your not damaging your hardwood flooring. Patch up once done.

If the position straight under the wall is not acceptable, drill from first floor at where you want it and use the fish tape
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Deal Fanatic
Jan 21, 2018
9652 posts
10924 upvotes
Vancouver
I've done something like this, but rather than installing an access point I ran ethernet all the way using various tricks to keep the cable out of sight (e.g., following a pipe, tucked under baseboard trim), and put in wall jacks at each end.

You might want to invest in a stud/live-wire finder to be sure you are positioned correctly and not hitting anything. https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mast ... 4657p.html

Also, you might want to think twice about your placement. If the AP is 12" under the router, is there anything in your floor that would make the signal reception substantially different than it is at the router? Maybe you don't need to drill through the floor - or maybe your AP should be elsewhere.
Sr. Member
Aug 22, 2012
836 posts
903 upvotes
Mark Town
popcorn ceiling is difficult to patch, and it will become an eyesore if done badly. In my house I put two WAPs in the closet and they cover the whole house.
Deal Fanatic
Mar 21, 2010
6737 posts
3998 upvotes
Toronto
Scote64 wrote: Also, you might want to think twice about your placement. If the AP is 12" under the router, is there anything in your floor that would make the signal reception substantially different than it is at the router? Maybe you don't need to drill through the floor - or maybe your AP should be elsewhere.
This is a good point. If the only thing you're 'saving' is the impact of one floor on a wifi signal - that's nothing to any decent modern wifi system.
Deal Addict
Dec 27, 2007
4867 posts
2067 upvotes
Edmonton
sherwoodRFD wrote: popcorn ceiling is difficult to patch, and it will become an eyesore if done badly. In my house I put two WAPs in the closet and they cover the whole house.
First off, I never said anything about patching the ceiling, will need to patch the wall as he will have to cut out some piece to be able to drill, put the gang box etc.

Second, whats so hard about patching the ceiling? Scrape off the area and go lightly on the trigger? use some piece of cardboard to shoot at to adjust the setting before you shoot, use a regulator to adjust the pressure and proper compound.
I did it first time (california knockdown texture, which is more difficult than popcorn) and it came out perfect. And it was white on blue, so extremely visible (not the typical white on white which mistakes are easy to hide).
warming up the earth 1 gas fill-up at a time...
You only live once, get a v8
Deal Addict
Apr 26, 2003
2761 posts
1830 upvotes
GTA
As Scote64, said if the AP is already 12" above where you want it go to, that really shouldn't make that much of a difference if it's hanging on the ceiling or just above that point. I can't tell from your picture, but you might have a metal support beam spanning the house that might provide structure to your house, so that might be the cause of the interference. I'm totally speculating there, but from your picture, it looks like an open 2 floor area there.

You may want to check other things like channel saturation from your neighbours and possibly change channels if yours is overlapping.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 4, 2009
9335 posts
5638 upvotes
Curious, why do you even need to do this?
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Lucky
Deal Fanatic
Jan 5, 2003
5068 posts
5010 upvotes
Toronto
Scote64 wrote: Also, you might want to think twice about your placement. If the AP is 12" under the router, is there anything in your floor that would make the signal reception substantially different than it is at the router? Maybe you don't need to drill through the floor - or maybe your AP should be elsewhere.
+1

It's very easy to test. Try it with the AP in that room with the router and check at the signal in the farthest room and basement, then have someone hold it against the ceiling (or on a tall stepladder close to the ceiling, or use ducttape, etc.) with a long-enough ethernet cable to simulate mounting it on the ceiling and check signal in the farthest room and basement again. The ceiling mounting would likely provide better signal in the basement compared to that room, but look at real world results (e.g. speedtest a device in the basement) and you may see that the ceiling mount might not provide more speed in practice and placing it in the room is good enough and eliminates all that drilling/fishing work (and would be cosmetically better).

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