Hey Everyone,
Quick question? My husband and I just finished up the rough electrical on our house but we still haven’t run the cable or the phone wiring throughout the house yet.
We plan on having cable access in the study, the family room, the living room, and all the bedrooms (3). Do we run a single cable all the way from some home location (where the cable will come into the house) and then to each room or is there some way to “splice” the cables to get access to separate/nearby rooms? Any info would be appreciated!
As for the phone lines, we currently only use cell phones but we know we should have the hard lines installed just in case and for resale (not that we ever plan on selling but who knows!). How does that typically work. Is it the same as for the cable?
Thanks for any help you could offer!
-Kacy
Replies
For the cable, I think you'd benefit from a distribution box, be/c it helps to avoid a degraded signal. http://www.smarthome.com/distribution.html gives you some ideas. You wire from the street to the box and from the box to each room. Uses more wire, but really, really convenient for phone, cable, computer networking, etc.
Use RG6 cable.
You can run it from entry to first use to second use to 3rd use and install splitters at each point so that you only run one cable, but that isn't the best way to do it in terms of signal strength.
Better to run from entry to some central point where you can install a distribution amplifier (a small box the size of a clock radio), then run short cables from there to each point of use. In a large house you can have two or three "central points" as needed.
Also, if you ever intend to have a satellite dish, you should install separate cables for that.
I just got done with our upstairs "gut" job...Prior to rocking we placed blue plastic boxes and ran smurf tubing from the boxes to the attic where we have a Structured Media Center (Leviton)...
This way we can run any type of cable we want (CAT5/6; cable T.V.; internet cable; stereo wire, etc) to any location where we have a box. All the main wires goes to a central location and then using "star" routing, can be dropped to any location in any room. Makes life easy once installed.
in this day and age, running home runs from each location back to the main panel is standard for cable, phone and data lines.
yes, they can be spliced ( as they are in all homes built more than 10 years ago ) but it is a time saver that isn't worth it.
moving large volumes of data has become common these days over these wires, and splices cause problems that are hellish to troubleshoot.
here are some cable tools which I use for coax work:
http://www.hometech.com/tools/coax.html#EC-300091
I use the Ideal 30-603 to install F-type connectors at the end of every wire
I use the Ideal 45-165 to strip the coax ends
the wire:
http://www.hometech.com/techwire/coax.html#SNS6QS
RG-6 Quad or Double
the F-type connectors:
http://www.hometech.com/techwire/coaxconn.html#ID-89054
lots of different brands, I have always used Ideal for no apparent reason
I didn't pay the prices listed for the tools. I paid less at Home Depot on a Sunday afternoon. Yes they are pricey, but once you go to an F connector, you never go back to a crimp-on connector. Simply awesome.
As far as the phone and data wire, use Cat5e, which is readily available everywhere.
You can use the previously mentioned patch panel to terminate and organize it all in the basement, but, if you have even thought about splicing within your walls, you don't need to spend that kind of money on a patch panel. At least not for starters. It can always be added later. Be sure to leave excess wire in the basement on each homerun.
carpenter in transition
I ran a 3/4 pvc to the attic behind eah wall of each room, I glue a box on each line. took a picture of each wall before sheet rock. The boxes are behind the rock not cut. If I need a new location I run a coax down that line and cut the rock. In the attic are lines head to the attic stairs under the insulation. so to thread the line I can stand on the stairs intead of getting in the attic. a common point. PVC is cheap