Yep.

But there are some tricks to minimizing the damage. Understanding what the structure looks like behind the drywall can help to find the optimal route and determining if there will be any obstructions in the way will also help (eg. HVAC ducts, plumbing, etc).

Sometimes the shortest wire route may not be the one that minimizes the damage. Wire is cheap so taking a longer route may be advantageous.

If you have big baseboards or crown moulding, then pulling that off and boring the holes through the studs to move the wire horizontally on the wall, then re-attaching the moulding can help minimize the plaster/drywall repair.

But ultimately, drywall repair is pretty easy unless you have a texture. So just punching holes and fixing them isn't that big a deal.

A few houses ago we were able to go from the basement to the 2nd floor up through a closet. The conduit was left exposed in the closet. If you can use that strategy to get cable from teh basement to the attic you can then come down from the attic anywhere you need to. I have also removed carpeting and pad, cut into the subfloor to expose the joists, drilled through joists and then come up where I needed to. Good luck

I was able to use the area around the main sewer vent stack to get full access from basement to attic. I had to drill holes at in the attic and basement, and also removed some sheetrock to cut out around the area where 1st met the 2nd floor. (which was on the stair landing).

Then I ran four new 12/3 cables from the basement to the attic. I used one 12/3 for smoke alarms and one 12/3 for an attic A/C handler, and split out the other two cables as MWBC's and got four new circuits in the attic. Those circuits were used for bathroom GFCI receptacles, 1500 watt bath heater, and two wall receptacle circuits for the bedrooms.

Bruce