RE: newbie question - how to get cat5 cabling into walls?

[Paul S. Gale]

I retro-wired my house about a year ago, it's about 5 years old. The one
thing I
learned is that it seems the builders had used every type of wall
construction
possible!!!



I ran around 120 Cat5e cable runs back to Node0 in an upstairs bedroom
double
wardrobe. If you can do something similar I'd recommend it as I'm
constantly
needing to access it (and going into the loft would be a real pain every
time).
It's also more comfortable - I couldn't imagine having to spend any length
of
time in the loft in the Summer! I think having a Node0 of this type is also
easier to control temperatures with extract fans/ducting than in the loft.
I
have 3 PCs, amps and 2 Sky boxes (which generate loads of heat) and loads
of
other kit in Node0. A few weeks ago before the heat wave, Node0 ambient
temps
reached 40 Deg! Not good for kit. I then installed an extract fan, simply
venting into the loft and this reduced temperatures by 10 deg or so :-)



I found retro fitting a complete structured wiring system to be quite a
difficult job (definitely need two people) and due to the construction of
the
walls, ended up sawing up large areas of upstairs floorboards to run cables
which would then run down the downstairs walls between the plasterboard and
blockwork. I also did this with minimal disruption to the plasterboard,
only
cutting a few access holes. This made the job really difficult, fishing
with
bits of string and wire coat hangers etc but the job of making good was
easy.



Upstairs was much easier as most walls were hollow stud. BUT, the builders
had
used some kind of pre-fab sections that had metal edges that I had to drill
through from the loft to run cables. I definitely know the structure of my
house
inside out now though ;)



I also totally re-wired all the lighting circuits in the house at the same
time
for din rail mounted X10 lighting control + put in a new alarm system,
whole
house audio with ceiling speaker everywhere and microphones for voice
control.
Running the extra cables was little extra effort.



I'd suggest surveying all the walls, floors etc before you start on a flood
wire
scheme, even if you need to drill a few small holes (which aren't difficult
to
patch up).



I've got a few pics of Node0 etc at:

<a href="http://www.siliconpixel.com/gallery/HomeAutomation";>http://www.siliconpixel.com/gallery/HomeAutomation</a>

Are you a UKHA_D yahoo group member as well? You might also want to look at
the
video I produced of the UKHA 2003 meet (and which our very own Keith stars
in!):


<a href="http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/article.php3?story_id=1221";>http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/article.php3?story_id=1221</a>

Just a few wild ramblings, but I hope it helps a little.

Paul.



-----Original Message-----
From: gyre [mailto:<a
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Sent: 14 August 2003 23:13
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Subject: Re: [KAT5] newbie question - how to get cat5 cabling into walls?



Thanks Keith and Kevin.

Excellent replies, and a great way to cope with a newbie.

I had thought of doing something fairly naive as I have concrete floors
downstairs.

I was going to put node 0 in the loft, as I have lots of space.

Then make 2 batches of cat5 cable drops somehow down the cavities in the
walls from the loft down to the lounge and office.

Several problems/questions with that approach.

Firstly, I don't know how accessible cavities are in general from lofts.

Secondly, I don't know whether there are a nice clean drops, without ties
or
things in the way. Heck, I don't even know if there are any cavities.
However, I'm guessing as the house is only 4 years old, that this is the
case.

Thirdly, I don't know if I'm violating 100s of building regs by using the
cavity for cat5 cable. Should I be sending down trunking as well inside the
cavity or just the wire? Am I in danger of making a bridge between inside
and outside wall that will cause damp inside?

Fourthly, I suspect that trying to get the dangling wire visible from a
suitable hole drilled in the wall might be trying to find a needle in a
haystack.

Fifthly, are the distances involved going to cause any problems with AV
signals with KAT5?

Options, abuse, etc, very welcome :)

-- gyre --