You’ve seen it. A beautiful TV on the wall, and a fistful of black spaghetti hanging down to the outlet below it. All that work, undone by six cables.
Wire concealment is the part of a TV install that separates “mounted a TV” from “finished the job.” The good news is that most of it isn’t hard — it just has to be done in the right order, with cable that’s actually rated for where you’re putting it. Here’s how we do it, and how you can do it yourself.
Key takeaways
- A TV’s factory power cord can’t legally go inside your wall. Moulded cords aren’t rated for in-wall use. Use a UL/cUL-listed recessed in-wall power kit instead.
- Low-voltage cable inside a wall needs an in-wall rating — CL2 or CL3 for most homes, CMP (plenum) if the space handles building air.
- Keep signal cable away from AC power. Run them apart where you can, and cross at 90° where you can’t.
- Surface solutions beat in-wall ones in rentals and concrete. Paintable raceway costs less, needs no permit and comes off cleanly.
- Passive HDMI gets unreliable on long runs. Past roughly 25 ft at 4K, switch to active optical HDMI.
Understand The Importance Of Wire Concealment
Concealing wires isn’t only about the look of the room, though that’s most of why people call us. It also removes a few genuine hazards.
Improve Safety
- Fewer things to trip on. A cable crossing any walking route is a fall risk, and it’s the easiest one in your house to eliminate.
- Less cable damage. Cords that get stepped on, pinched behind furniture or bent hard at the connector fail from the inside where you can’t see it. Damaged insulation is what turns a cable into an ignition source.
- Less strain on the connector. A cable hanging unsupported pulls down on the TV’s HDMI port all day. Take the weight off it and the port lasts.
- Nothing for kids or pets to pull. A dangling cord is a handle, and there’s a TV on the other end of it.
The one rule people break
The power cord that came with your TV is not rated to be run inside a wall, and hiding it in there isn’t compliant work — regardless of how tidy it looks afterward. In Ontario, electrical work falls under the Canadian Electrical Code as adopted by the Ontario Electrical Safety Code and enforced by the Electrical Safety Authority.
The compliant fix is inexpensive and takes about an hour: a listed recessed in-wall power kit. It puts a proper receptacle behind the TV and a second one down at the original outlet, joined by cable that is rated for in-wall use. Your TV then plugs into a normal outlet that just happens to be hidden behind the screen.
Choose The Right Cable For Where It’s Going
This is the part that gets skipped, and it’s the part that matters. Cable jackets carry a rating that tells you which spaces they’re allowed to occupy.
| Rating | Where it’s used | Typical job |
|---|---|---|
| CL2 / CL3 | General in-wall low-voltage runs inside a residence | HDMI, speaker wire, network cable behind drywall |
| CMR (riser) | Vertical runs passing between floors | Basement-to-upstairs cable runs |
| CMP (plenum) | Spaces that handle building air, such as an open return above a drop ceiling | Commercial and some condo installs |
| Unrated (standard patch cable) | Surface use only — never inside a wall or ceiling | Device to wall plate, outside the finished surface |
If a cable’s jacket doesn’t have a rating printed on it, treat it as unrated. Manufacturers print it every few feet precisely so an inspector — or you — can read it after installation.
Plan Your Wire Concealment Strategy
Ten minutes of planning saves you from cutting a second hole. Work out the route before the drill comes out.
Assess Your Space
- Find the studs and note the spacing. Most North American homes frame at 16” on centre, some at 24”. Your mount has to hit studs; your cable route has to live in the cavity between them.
- Identify the wall type before you commit. Drywall over wood studs is the easy case. Plaster and lath, concrete, brick and steel studs each change the tools, the anchors and sometimes the whole approach.
- Locate what else is in the wall. Electrical runs, plumbing and ducting all share that cavity. A cheap stud finder with AC detection is worth the few minutes it takes to sweep the area.
- Check for fire blocking. Horizontal blocking between studs stops a drop cable dead halfway down. Better to find it now than with a fish tape.
- Measure the run, then add slack. Measure the actual path, not the straight line, and add extra at both ends. Cable is cheap; a run that’s two inches short is not.
- Decide in-wall or on-wall. Renting, or working with concrete or a party wall? Go surface-mounted. You’ll get a clean result without opening anything up.
Keep Signal Away From Power
AC power running alongside unshielded signal cable can induce interference — usually hum in audio, occasionally handshake trouble on HDMI. The fix costs nothing:
- Give power and signal separate paths through the cavity where the space allows it.
- Where they have to meet, cross them at 90° rather than letting them run together.
- Don’t bundle signal cable tightly to a power cord for the length of a run.
Use Cable Management Accessories
Not every job needs to go inside the wall. Surface accessories handle a surprising amount, and they undo cleanly — which matters if you don’t own the wall.
Paintable Raceway
What it does: A rigid channel that adheres or screws to the wall and takes paint, so it disappears into the surface behind the TV.
Where it wins: Rentals, condos, concrete and brick, and any wall you’d rather not open. It’s the single most useful item on this list — a painted raceway reads as trim, not as cable management.
Cable Sleeves
What it does: A flexible fabric or plastic wrap that gathers loose cables into one tidy trunk.
Where it wins: Behind media units and desks, where several cables travel together and you just need them to stop looking like a nest.
Cable Clips And Ties
What it does: Fixes cable to a surface so it follows an edge instead of hanging in space.
Where it wins: Along baseboards and furniture edges. Use hook-and-loop straps rather than zip ties — they’re reusable, and they won’t crush a cable’s jacket if you overtighten.
Don’t over-tighten
Every cable has a minimum bend radius, and coaxial and fibre-optic HDMI are the fussiest about it. Cinching a bundle hard with a zip tie or forcing a tight loop behind the TV can deform the conductor and cost you signal. Snug, not strangled.
Conceal Wires In Walls
In-wall is the cleanest possible result: nothing visible between the TV and the wall. Here’s the standard approach on a drywall-over-wood-stud wall.
The Two-Bracket Drop
- Cut the two openings. One behind the TV, one near the existing outlet, both in the same stud cavity. Check the cavity is clear before you cut the second one.
- Fit old-work low-voltage brackets. These mud rings clamp to the drywall and give the wall plate something to screw into — no stud required.
- Drop a fish tape or glow rod. From the top opening down to the bottom. If it stops short, you’ve found fire blocking and the route needs to change.
- Tape the cable on and pull it through. Tape the joint smoothly so it doesn’t catch, and pull steadily rather than yanking.
- Fit the plates and dress the ends. Brush-style plates let cable pass through and still look finished. Leave a service loop at both ends so a future swap doesn’t mean a new pull.
- Test everything before the TV goes on. Every input, at the resolution you actually plan to use. Finding a bad cable now is a five-minute problem; finding it later means taking the TV back off the wall.
Running Behind Baseboards
Where a wall cavity isn’t available — concrete, or a wall you can’t open — the gap behind a removed baseboard is often enough to hide a low-voltage run along the floor. It’s slower than a straight drop, but it leaves the wall intact.
Leverage Technology Solutions
The tidiest cable is the one you never had to run.
Cut Cable Count At The Source
- Use the TV’s apps. A smart TV running its own streaming apps needs no external box, and therefore no HDMI run and no second power cord.
- Use HDMI-ARC or eARC for the soundbar. One HDMI cable carries audio back from the TV to the bar, which removes a dedicated audio run entirely.
- Go wireless where it doesn’t cost you quality. Wi-Fi instead of a network drop, Bluetooth for peripherals. Keep the wire for anything where latency or bandwidth matters.
Know The Limits
Wireless HDMI kits exist, and they’re genuinely useful in a wall you can’t open. Just go in knowing they add a little latency and depend on a clear path between transmitter and receiver — which makes them a poor fit for gaming and a reasonable one for a fireplace wall.
The same applies to long cable runs. Passive copper HDMI gets unreliable somewhere around 25 ft at 4K, and the failure looks like sparkle, dropouts or a picture that won’t come up at all. For anything longer, use active optical HDMI and check it’s certified for the bandwidth your TV actually needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can TV wires be hidden inside the wall?
Yes, provided you use cable that carries an in-wall rating. CL2 or CL3 covers most low-voltage runs in a home, CMR for vertical runs between floors, and CMP where the space handles building air.
The one thing that can't go in the wall is the TV's own power cord. For that you need a listed recessed in-wall power kit, which puts a proper receptacle behind the screen.
Can you hide TV wires on concrete?
Not inside it, in most cases — a poured concrete or concrete-block wall has no cavity to run cable through, and chasing a channel into it is major work.
The standard answer is paintable surface raceway. It fixes to the concrete, takes the same paint as the wall and reads as trim once it's finished. It's what we use on most condo installs across the GTA.
Can you hide TV wires on brick?
Same approach as concrete: run the cable in a surface raceway rather than trying to open the wall. Painted to match the brick or the trim, it disappears.
If the brick is a veneer over a framed wall there may be a cavity behind it, but that's worth confirming before anyone starts drilling.
Do TV installers hide wires?
Most do, and it's usually quoted as a separate line rather than being included by default. Ask specifically whether the price covers in-wall concealment, a surface raceway, or neither.
We handle both, including fitting a recessed power kit where the TV needs power behind the screen.
Where should the Samsung One Connect Box go?
Somewhere ventilated and reachable — inside a media unit, on a shelf below the screen, or in an adjacent cabinet. It needs airflow and you'll want access to its inputs.
The single cable from the box to the panel is what makes a Frame TV look clean, so plan the box's home before mounting rather than after. See our Frame TV installation page for how we handle it.
How do you hide the Samsung One Connect Box and its cable?
The One Connect cable is thin and can be run in-wall to a low-voltage plate behind the screen, with the box itself concealed in a cabinet or a recessed enclosure below.
Because it's a proprietary cable, plan the route and length before you pull anything — replacing a run that's two inches short means opening the wall again.
Do I need a recessed box for a Frame TV?
For the cleanest result, yes. A recessed outlet box lets the power lead and the One Connect cable bend inside the wall cavity instead of behind the panel, which is what stops the screen standing proud of the wall.
It's inexpensive at install time and awkward to add afterwards, so decide before the TV goes up. We fit them as part of our Frame TV installation work.
Does the Samsung Frame TV sit flush against the wall?
It's designed to, using the slim no-gap wall mount supplied with or sold for the set rather than a standard bracket.
Getting it truly flush also depends on what's behind it — a recessed outlet box stops the plug pushing the panel off the wall, which is the usual reason a Frame ends up sitting proud.
What cable rating do I need for an in-wall HDMI or speaker run?
CL2 or CL3 covers most in-wall low-voltage runs in a home. Use CMR for vertical runs between floors, and CMP (plenum) where the space handles building air — common in commercial jobs and some condos. The rating is printed along the jacket; if it isn't there, the cable doesn't belong in a wall.
Why does my picture drop out on a long HDMI run?
Passive copper HDMI loses signal integrity as the run gets longer, and 4K makes it worse because there's more data to carry. Around 25 ft is where passive cable typically starts to get unreliable.
Switch to an active optical HDMI cable rated for the bandwidth you need, and check it's installed the right way round — optical cables are directional, with a source end and a display end.
Should I hire someone or hide the wires myself?
A surface raceway on drywall is a genuinely doable afternoon. Where it's worth calling someone is concrete and brick, plaster and lath, a fireplace wall, anything above a mantel, or a run that needs new power behind the TV.
That's the work we do every day across the GTA, and we carry a one year material and workmanship warranty on it.