atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information What cables are expected in a new home today?

CATV and a CAT5 for internet, right? Are there others I should place before wall cavities are foamed?

Thanks,
Scott

Scott:

Have you thought about voice, A.K.A. phone wiring?

Internet service is brought to the CATV or DSL modem. From there, it becomes LAN (Local Area Network) wiring that offers much more than just Internet access. Running CAT5E from each room to where the modem will be located is an excellent idea. Don't run it to the outside where the phone line comes in, or to a location where the modem won't be; that serves little purpose whatsoever.

You will need to install an appropriate wiring network for voice. Yes, yes, the current rage is voice over the Internet or cell phones, but in many residential applications, it is already failing miserably.

Don't build a house, especially with foam insulation that isn't equipped for "real" voice wiring. If you really want to do it right, use flexible conduit from each outlet to an accessible area, such as an attic, basement or crawlspace. Make sure that there is also conduit between these locations. In doing this, you will be set for the future.

And Please, Please, Please, do NOT daisy-chain the cable or the cat5 or the voice wiring! (Ed, can't believe you didn't mention that!) Each location has it's own wire, cable, CAT5, Fibre even. Each one runs to a common location, typically the attached garage, or the basement if the house is so equipped. At least a closet area inside the house, with a service conduit to an outside wall for the cable, phone, and whatever else later wants to use the home infrastructure! And it would be a good idea to have a power outlet, on it's own breaker, if possible, at that same location. Cable tv modem, router, fibre converter, and who knows what is down the road, 'just out of sight'. Now is your chance to come out looking like the genius we all know you really are, show it to the customer, or the wife, whichever. You didn't say if this is a contract job or your place. And the conduit to attic, crawl space or basement, is really how I would do my house! Too bad I'll never get to spec mine. I'm leaving the little 3 X 3 X 6 decision to my heirs! they deserve it for what they've put me thru John C. (Not Garand)

Alarm,sound,security,tv,video camera links and maybe doorbell.Just in case.Wire is cheap compared to labor, drilling,fishing and patching. Good luck---John

Thank you Ed and John C. and Jacktel It's a 1840's Victorian white elephant that we live in and all wires are being pulled after fishing through finished plaster/lath walls, later they'll be injected with a non adhesive foam insulation. I plan to run single dedicated wires to each room with a common starting point in the attic near where power is attached to the home. Is this avoiding the daisy-chain you mention John? Here I should have an outlet with a dedicated circuit breaker? From this common point in the attic I should then install conduit out to the corner of the home and down the sidewall alongside the main electrical supply to the meters? It's a 2 family so I should expect to do the same on the 1st floor and use the basement to each wall entry point.

Jacktel mentions "Alarm,sound,security,tv,video camera links". What wire/cable will do double duty here? I plan to buy 1000' each of Cat5 and CATV-will either work for alarm, security or camera links? Sound must require plain speaker wires? And no matter how well this comes out my wife already knows I'm not a genius but I'm aiming for a smart installation!

Thanks,
Scott

Scott--While being very, VERY, difficult to plan and have everything come out perfect when it comes to wiring everything in advance, it IS a good idea to do your best to do this. If you are not familiar with how it should all be done, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a licenced and KNOWLEDGABLE ( get references ) low voltage contractor come in and map out a wiring sceme for you. A few hundred bucks spent now could save you many times that down the road.
Good luck with the project.

If your house is as old as you say you should have baloon partitions- no header of footer as in modern construction and no insulation. With baloon all walls are open at the top into the attic and many times the bottom into the basement.

Because of the foamed in place insulation I cannot stress more that you should install a flexible conduit from the attic or basement to each jack location. With baloon and no insulation this should be a piece of cake. If you don't there is no way you are going to fish those walls if you ever have to run something new or make changes.

-Hal

It still amazes me how even today a lot of people here make no allowance for phone, TV, or anything else other than power in new homes and major refurbishments.

I've taken notes about what's needed for lighting, general-purpose outlets, and so on where the owner has considered every possibility, but then when I mention telephones there's a blank look followed by the sudden realization: "Oh yeah, never thought about that!"

Up until about 25 years ago all residential phone wiring was strictly the responsibility of the GPO/BT, so the neglect was perhaps understandable. But after 20+ years now of the homeowner/builder being responsible for everything after the demarcation point, you'd think people would pay more attention, especially as so many folks now demand phones just about everywhere in the house, not to mention the growing use of DSL, satellite/cable TV, etc.

Yet these things all still seem to be neglected in the planning stages.

It's a plank constructed home-vertical 2x12 continuous from mudsill to 5x8 top plate on which rafters bear. A similar horizontal beam is nailed onto the 2x12's to support the 2nd floor. There are 2x2's on the first floor and 2x3's on the 2nd applied to the interior side of the 2x12's and the plaster/lath is nailed to these vertical furring strips. There's enough wood here for 2 homes! But no open channels for flexible conduit. It's a 2 family so we planned on having a service and utilities room in the attic and a second one on the first floor. I've picked up 1000' of Cat5e and RG6U and phone. Service entry points for cable and phone are on opposite sides of the home so with an eye to the future should I run direct "home run" lines from each room to both these entry points? We use DSL now but may use cable one day. Of course Clearwire and similar outfits are now working with Sprint to turn entire cities into a WiFi hotspot. https://www.clearwire.com/wireless-broadband/overview.php

But for my remote region that's years away! Thanks for the replies-I had neglected this but I've really started to think this through now just as I'd done in deciding on type of foam and installers .

Now I really feel for you! My last house was a 3 story, fully finished Prairie-4-square in Salina, KS. Built in 1925. Previous owners had done some AC upgrades, but the phone had never been anything but 3-conductor around the outside of the house to 1 location each, 1st and 2nd floor. Cable ditto, only on the 1st floor. I probably shoudn't admit it, but I finally got to the 2nd floor using 'ductwork' and teflon insulated cable. 1 run up each duct. Funny thing how the Phone and CATV wound up in a common old-work box, other side of the stud from a heating register. John C. (Not Garand)