Wiring my to-be-built house

Dave Stewart · 03-22-2005, 03:49 PM

Hey all, (I hope this isn't in the wrong forum.)

I'm about to start building a house any day now, and I'm going to network/HT up the house while it is framed. This is the first time I have done it in this situation with free reign to do what I want, so I need a little bit of advice and have a few questions:

Email me for the floor plan. I'm not allowed to post URLs yet.

1. On the first floor there is a closet beneath the stairs that is almost in the middle of the house. I plan on having my 'control' center there. That way the cables can go up into the second floor, which will reduce the amount of cable used. This is for the network, but I'm not sure if I'm going to put HT stuff in there or not. Thoughts?

2. I plan on using conduit as much as possible, so I can upgrade and replace easily. I also plan on using CAT6 so that I have gigabit available in the future.

3. Here is where my questions begin. I was thinking about making it easy and just use wall plates in the closet, have my router in there and then plug in whichever rooms need a connection. So is this the easiest way, or should I use a 'control box' instead? My main concern is the footprint. I don't want it to be too intrusive, even though it is in a closet.

4. Does anyone have any favorite website they like to order their stuff from? I've done some searches, but am having trouble finding what I really want.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

Adam Gregorich · 03-23-2005, 10:39 AM

Check out http://www.openhousesystems.com and http://www.onqhome.com I think this is what you mean by a "control box", and yes I would recommend using one. If you are running the wire yourself, or having the electrician do it use cat 5e. Cat 6 isn't forgiving if it isn't installed just right. As to conduit, if you have a crawl space, run a conduit from the box to it, and from the box to the attic. The only other place you really need it is to a projector location. I would separate the ht gear from the network gear, only because you want access to some of the gear to load videos, DVDs, and to be able to check the front panels of the gear. Look over the this web page http://www.levitonvoicedata.com/learning/default.asp and make sure you download and read the Wiring Strategies Installation Guide.

Wayne A. Pflughaupt · 03-23-2005, 09:58 PM

Welcome to the Forum, Dave!

Quote:

This is for the network, but I'm not sure if I'm going to put HT stuff in there or not. Thoughts?

If you do go with the HT gear in there, you’ll need all sorts of wiring – coaxial for DSS or cable TV, video lines to the TV, speaker wiring from the amps, dedicated electrical, etc. If your system is small – receiver, DVD player and perhaps a DSS or cable box – I think I’d just put it all in an entertainment center in the room.

Either way, make sure you have enough electrical outlets in the closet to do what you need. That will minimize the use of power strips.

Quote:

I plan on using conduit as much as possible, so I can upgrade and replace easily.

You can’t just go willy-nilly routing conduit all over the place. The problem is once you have more than one 90, it gets difficult to pull cables through it. If you use wide, sweeping turns you can probably get away with a couple of 90s, but more than that is asking for trouble. In commercial applications they have access points for most 90s, but that’s hard to accomplish in a residential setting – so are the wide, sweeping turns. So plan your conduit carefully.

Quote:

Here is where my questions begin. I was thinking about making it easy and just use wall plates in the closet, have my router in there and then plug in whichever rooms need a connection.

That’s what I did, only I put the connection panel in my office. I think it’s a dandy system: Wire-in all the locations you potentially want to service, then activate them as needed.

Quote:

4. Does anyone have any favorite website they like to order their stuff from?

Parts Express is pretty popular around here.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

James Gumbart · 03-24-2005, 12:35 AM

My suggestions for networking:

Use cat5e, it's significantly cheaper, the jacks are cheaper, and it does support gigabit.

Run more than you ever think you'll need. Run it everywhere you have coax going (use dual port wall plates). Run it for phones, run it in pairs, etc. It's dirt cheap and you can never have too much.

If you can, try to test it before walls go up. I had a couple lines end up with a few bad wires; you only need four out of eight for 10/100 Mb so it was okay but it prevents me from doing gigabit on those.

Terminate it with a patch panel in the closet, then run from those jacks to a switch (24-48 ports). Then plug your router into that.

Dave Stewart · 03-24-2005, 08:23 AM

Thanks for the suggestions all. Especially the conduit.

I think I'll leave the HT stuff out of there and just leeave it for ethernet. Looks like I'll go with Cat5e instead.

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