I am putting new carpet down and want to run my rear 5.1 speaker wire under the carpet. I know that I will want to replace it once a year (I am weird like that), so I thought I'd get a few of these:
The idea is that I could keep the wire as short as possible. It should be easy to replace the wire, too. My idea is to take some very long string, tie something metalic to it that will fit through the channel in the cord protector, then take a magnet to the metal object and drag the string through to the other side. I would then tie my speaker wire to the end of the string and pull it through.
Does this sound like a workable approach? The above-linked cord protector looks reasonably thin, so I don't think it'd be too noticeable if stepped on through the new thick padding and thick carpet I will soon be getting.
Best Answer
You'll end up with two lumps in the carpet that can't be easily removed. You'll also have holes in your carpet at each side for the wire. So unless you're going for the college dorm look, I'd recommend against this. If you do it anyway, the only way to get the wire through this is to attach it to the existing wire and use that to pull it through. I doubt the magnet idea would ever work, and trying to push the wire through would just fold on itself since it's not rigid enough.
As for the way I would do it, the easy way is to pick up a box of nail clips and tack the wire down around the baseboard. With these, you can pull the nail slightly and spin the clip 180 degrees to easily add or remove a wire behind it. After enough time and especially enough furniture, you tend to forget they are even there. You can also have a nicer look with some wall mounted conduit.
The excessive option is to open up the floor or below ceiling and run flexible conduit through the floor, preferably with the ends in the wall behind a modular plate with the appropriate connectors installed. If you happen to already have a wall and/or ceiling exposed, running conduit would be a great idea, I only consider it excessive if you're pulling down an existing wall to install it.