Had a chat with a plumber that changed how I think about wall fish jobs

I was working a rewire in a 1920s house in Portland and got stuck trying to drop a line down a plaster wall. The plumber on site saw me struggling and said, 'You guys always try to force it. We use a magnet on a string to find our pipes first, saves hours.' He showed me his setup, a simple $5 magnet tied to some braided fishing line. I tried it, found the old metal lath behind the plaster in minutes. Has anyone else picked up a trick from another trade that made your job easier?

3 comments

3 Comments

jadew6311d ago

Honestly that magnet trick sounds great for old houses with metal lath. Tbh though, in a lot of the remodels I see now, that method wouldn't work at all. So many walls are just packed with insulation or have plastic pipes. Ngl, you can waste just as much time trying to get a magnet to catch on nothing. Sometimes the old school fish tape and a lot of patience is still the only way.

kelly_nelson9511d ago

My 1980s split-level was a total nightmare for fishing wire. I tried the magnet trick for a solid hour after reading about it online, and @jadew63 is spot on, it just doesn't work in newer walls. What finally saved me was a cheap borescope camera from the hardware store. I drilled a tiny hole in the drywall, snaked the camera in, and could actually SEE where the block was. Still needed the fish tape, but at least I wasn't just guessing. That camera was a game changer for modern walls packed with junk.

simon71711d ago

Oh man, @jadew63, you are so right. I tried that magnet trick in my own place, a newer build, and it was a total bust. The magnet just slid right down the wall cavity, stuck on nothing but a lonely nail. I spent twenty minutes just listening to it clink against plastic pipe. You really do end up back at the fish tape, feeding it slow and hoping for the best. It feels like the walls are just built different now.