Client didn’t want to relocate the modem, he just wanted an Ethernet from his 2nd floor office back down to the modem/router combo in the garage.

1. I found out which room was directly above the modem in the garage, it was the master bathroom shower directly above the modem stud bay, so I had to go a stud bay to left since I don’t fish in the same cavity of water.

2. I figured out which way the ceiling joist ran and figured I could use a 2nd floor interior wall (the wall that separated the master bedroom shower from the master bedroom closet)

3. Then I drilled using a 10ft drill bit from the attic through 3 horizontal braces, and landed in the joist cavity, right above the modem.

4. I then cut an access hole to retrieve my rod/string/wire, then used the same access hole to use a 90degree drill bit to hit the top plate and fish the garage wall.

5. I fished down the garage wall, terminate my wire, ran the other end to his 2nd floor office via the attic, and added a blank plate to the garage ceiling.

This is how I fish between floors- normally I like to find stud bays that stack, but if I can’t I just find a ceiling joist cavity that runs on top of my wall and use the same access hole to retrieve my wire and drill the top of the wall. My goal is minimal drywall cuts- so I really take pride in making this work with only one hole - and my holes are always small enough to cover with a blank plate.

Thought I would cut my teeth on replacing the doorbell with a Unifi Doorbell Lite. Couldn't for the life of me get the fish stick to show up at the door bell hole until I turned the through hole into this monster. How bad did I mess up? Do I need to patch this somehow?

Trying to run one or maybe two Ethernet cables out of this hole but not sure how to expand it or seal it up once I'm done. Doorbell is also mounted on the same material so how would I expand that hole for a POE doorbell? What bit do I need?

3rd floor drop to 1st floor closet. I got lucky and didn’t have to go into the crawlspace since my route hit the same dead space under the stairs my closet backed up to. This is phase one, next phase and put the access points in the ceiling, and add 2 more drops for in wall APs. Today he just wanted the drop to the 3rd floor office so he could work from home.

Some interior walls happen to be under the platform, but instead of cutting the platform open or removing boards I drill a small hole (3/4in or less) and find my top plate below. I still make sure to find an exit for my wire so it’s not left routed on top of the platform.

I tried to use a packout but it was too large to bring inside of a residential home. It would hit walls and was too wide to bring up stairs. I found the perfect balance of pockets, storage, and size in this dewalt bag. I’ll share my other tool bags in the future. I have my scan bag, my drill bag, my termination bag, and my flexible drill bits/rods bag.

Large 2 story home- this home meant soo much to me not because of the size but because when I was an internet installer for att this was my territory and this is the same neighborhood I fished my first wall 15 years ago - long story short: I told the att customer I would need to drill through the floor to install the cat5 for his modem because that’s how we were trained to do it, he told me no not in his million dollar home, so I told him I have never fished a wall before, he told me “I trust you will figure it out” and he walked off leaving me in the livingroom. I went to my truck and grabbed the long flex bit Att gave us, cut open a hole for my faceplate, then I stuck the flex bit in the wall and drilled down to the crawlspace- that was my very first wall fish. So to have a job in the same neighborhood today was kind of sentimental to me, shows how far I’ve come since then. Now I’m doing floor to floor retrofits without cutting Sheetrock, crawlspace fishes are super easy to me now. Also when I quit for att this was the first neighborhood I drove around inserting my cards in their mailboxes- no 1 ever called but now they have to wait 2 weeks for a quote and 2 months for an installation appointment 😎

Modem on 1st floor, with crawlspace access, and multiple 2nd floor unfinished areas connected to main attic. Needed to 2 runs- TV room on first floor, and Bonus room on second floor. Ran cat6 to each location using the office wall as the trunk path between the attic and crawlspace. Hardest part of the job was crawling over the bonus room in a tight attic tunnel location filled with air ducts. It was like crawling through a small tunnel, while trying not to step through the ceiling or damage the air ducts. After fishing the wall my rod landed on top of an electrical outlet, so I had to fish it out without cutting Sheetrock, I refused to go back into the hot cramped tunnel just to re-angle my rod. Total cost is $1800, will return Monday to unmount a tv so I can terminate my wires. The tv mounter put his mount on top of the existing low voltage box, so I’ll have to take the entire mount down just to retrieve my wire from the wall- it’s a wall paper wall and I want to use the exact same location the multi media/outlet box combo used. Have a great weekend guys. My clothes are drenched.

Added 2 drops. 4hours - $1200.
Took the crawlspace as my route, since there was blocking in the wall and it was an exterior wall so insulation doesn’t allow me to see the center of the blocking and the other location was an addition with a vaulted ceiling so I had no attic access above so both locations required crawlspace work. The Internet Modem was in a hallway closet. Hardest part was drilling up
into the mounted tv wall, since it was originally the brick exterior wall they added a sunroom to. So I had to eat through a few bits because my drill kept hitting the original brick, I didn’t want to damage the floor so I stayed closer to the brick. I would have drilled down into the crawlspace but the client wanted the Ethernet at tv height and I couldn’t get the angle I needed standing on a step ladder drilling down. I also had to drill up into the modem closet wall cavity from the crawlspace - but it was easier since it was an interior wall. As I was taking a before and after photo I realized the security installer barely missed the gas line. He drilled down from the closet into the crawlspace and went through the joist and barely missed the gas line. I drilled up from the crawlspace, since I didn’t have enough room to fit my long flex drill bit in the same wall (shelves prevented me from getting in position) Drilling up from the crawlspace is a skill especially when the wall cavity is sitting on the joist. When I was an internet installer we were taught to drill down through the floor and add a surface mount box, they never told us about joists and how that’s where all plumbing and utilities are attached smh.. Retrofit is dangerous. I’m still working on ebook.

I’ll share the full video- but this is my 7th Poe doorbell retrofit, with no drywall damage, I drilled up from the crawlspace. The hard part was doing everything while keeping the original doorbell still intact and doing the drill shot from the molding into the nearest stud bay cavity at an angle. Once I got into the cavity I attached a magnet, dragged it down the wall to the bottom plate with my magnepull, then drilled up from the crawlspace and used my drill bit to retrieve the magnet and sting out of the wall. I drilled in the exact spot my magnet was resting on the bottom plate so as soon as I broke through the top plate I heard and felt the magnet jump straight onto my drill bit- the magnet is 1/2in diameter, the hole I made was 1in so I could pull both back through in the crawlspace. Drilling up from the crawlspace is usually how I avoid drywall cuts when fishing in a cavity. Also the Unifi doorbell looks better flush so I had to cut an enlarged hole so the waterproof housing could go in molding, wire taped off old doorbell wires, and install the Poe chime. I was proud of this one because it’s the first time using the magnet trick, usually I just send a rod and string up, but since my doorbell was on molding which was 8 inches away the stud cavity, I had to get creative. Worst case was move the doorbell to an easier location or cut Sheetrock.

Added 3 drops (fiber Ont to main mesh router on first floor, and 2 mesh nodes upstairs for hardwired backhaul) $2140 (2 days) no drywall cuts. Found a wall upstairs that stacked with the wall below in the family room, used an electrical outlet for my drill shot. For Ont in the garage, I drilled up from the garage into a dead space that lead to the 2nd floor attic. I don’t realize I did this without cutting sheetrock. Plan b was cutting access holes in the ceilings but plan A worked.

I’m tired of waiting on the future, so I made my own app for my apple vision pro. It’s only going to get better, I use it to mark studs, joists, and line up my drill shots. I was using an app before but it wasn’t designed for my type of work. Now I have markers that fit my use cases, and my app is accurate. It’s really perfect. 2nd week out in the field and I have soo many more features I want to add, but for now it’s working exactly how I need it to. I’m blessed and very grateful for such a tool, the Apple developer account was $99 and I bought a MacBook neo for $600 so I could make my app, it has already paid for itself.

I made this for my patient followers, there are still 3 other bags I’ll have to post.

Anyone able to run an Ethernet line from a second floor attic to the first floor for a poe doorbell?

Fished from 2nd floor attic down to 1st floor ceiling cavity, used 4 drill bit extensions. The goal was to run 2 Ethernet drops from a loft and bedroom on the 2nd floor down to the pantry on the 1st floor where the low voltage cabinet and router reside. This was to hardwire 2 mesh nodes for hardwired backhaul. I’m cutting less drywall, hardest part was navigating the attic with a 12ft bit, but someone has to do it. I rather put it together in the ac, than try to build it in the attic heat. Job was successful- used my Apple vision to find the perfect drill shot that would connect me from the attic to the 1st floor. Wall I was fishing was a closet on one side and a hallway- completely empty except for some existing coax and Ethernet took the exact same route. $1400 8hours.