Wire paint disaster

Senatov

Honorable
Jun 8, 2013
13
0
10,560
Hello,

I am finishing my basement to have a game room and a home theater. I got all top of the line equipment waiting to be installed, and just had the space plastered. It is being painted now. I just walked through to do a little inspection and to my horror, the wires I painstakingly ran through the wall are covered in plaster and paint! Basically, one end (behind the screen) has a bundle of cables sticking out that I wrapped and taped to protect from such things. The other end I did the same but somehow it came loose during construction. There are several HDMI cables, an optical cable, USB 3.0, component, composite, surround wires, etc. As far as I can tell, the very ends of the wires (connectors) are okay, although some have globs of plaster on them.

How can I wash the paint and plaster off without damaging wires?

Any ideas?

SOS

 

Quixit

Estimable
Dec 22, 2014
62
0
4,610
If it's latex paint use water and scrubbing, as long as the wires dry entirely before you use them it will be fine. If it's oil based paint, maybe isopropyl alcohol (it's unlikely to damage the cables), but I'm not sure if that's strong enough to put though oil-based paint, I always use latex.
 

JamesSneed

Distinguished
Oct 26, 2009
146
0
18,660
Good ole cheap bottle of rubbing/Isopropyl alcohol from Walmart or the likes is what I would use. Probably can buy a few bottles for a couple dollars(In the medicine section). I would just get a bowl and soak the cables for an hour or longer until it started to cause the paint to peal and plaster to get mushy. The optical cable is the only one that might be damaged but im sure the others will all be fine. The rubbing alcohol bath wont hurt the wires but depending on the paint it may not do a great job at removing but its cheap as hell to try out.

Water would work fine as well. I tend to stick to Isopropyl on anything electronic since it evaporates nicely. Water can tend to end up in places longer than one might imagine.