Originally posted by surdel:
One thing I have not done in telecom is doing residential installs. What tool would best be used to fish/drill from a second story attic to a outlet on the first floor?
Unless you are dealing with a
VERY old house that was built using "balloon" framing, where outside wall studs run the full height of the building, you'll likely never fish from the attic to the first floor.
Today's framing standards pretty much require that a house is built one floor at a time. The second floor rests atop the first floor as a completely separate structure. Top plates on walls effectively provide horizontal blocking in stud bays. With outside walls, fire stopping blocks between studs also tighten the strength of the wall by minimizing flexing of the studs.
The bottom line is that you need to learn to utilize surface wiring methods using the inside face walls of closets and tucking wire under baseboards in residential work. Houses weren't (and still aren't ) built to allow upgrades of any technology without wall damage. Unlike office buildings that are generally ceiling-accessible, finding dropped-tile ceilings in a residence is a true rarity.
Residential work is twice as hard as commercial; not for rookies for sure. I avoid it as much as I can and charge extra when I have no choice.
