I hope this is appropriate here. I figured it fits the general theme of things considering if we’re self hosting there’s gotta be some hardware involved.
I’ve got a house built in the 1960s US. I’m working on upgrading my security infrastructure to a PoE system as my previous choice of wireless system was a poor decision on my part. I have all my ‘gear’ if you will in the basement but I don’t have any convenient drops from the attic to my basement. I need to do a total of 8 drops from attic to basement. I’m not too versed in wiring things through a home (ie. minimal damage to walls and such) I’ve done long runs in warehouses but that was essential all open space.
My main questions are:
- is there any specific conduit I should be looking at to pull the runs through the walls?
- Is there any specific tools that I need to know about to make this job easier? I assume one of those line pullers would be handy in this case ( the hell are they actually called?
- Any other tips and tricks from those of you who have done something similar?
I live in a single-level house in the US, also built in the 1960s. I don’t have a basement, but I do have a crawlspace under the house. I had never ran cables before but I found it pretty straightforward to run cables through the crawlspace. My attic is very very small and nothing runs through it - all the electrical cabling and HVAC ducting is under the house.
I’ll leave you with some miscellaneous tips.
Use CMR-rated pure copper CAT6 cables. Don’t use CCA (copper clad aluminium). I’ve had good experience with trueCABLE on Amazon; both their CMR-rated cable and their outdoor / direct burial CMX-rated cable. I use the latter for outdoor security cameras.
You’ll want some low-voltage old work brackets (I bought these ones from Home Depot, ~$2.50 each), some faceplates (I usually use Legrand On-Q ones for ~$0.80-$1 each), some Keystone jacks (I used TRENDnet ones, ~$30 for 25 of them). Try to use keystone jacks where possible - only use RJ45 connectors if you really need to. With the jacks I linked to, you don’t need a punchdown tool; they’re tool-less.
The low voltage brackets have little holes in each corner. Place the flat part against the wall, ensure it’s level, around the same height as the power outlets, and NOT over a stud. Stick a pencil in each little hole and wiggle it a bit to mark the corners. Cut a hole in the wall with a drywall knife (I usually create a few starter holes with a drill) and install the bracket. In my case, I used a long drill bit inserted into the hole to drill through the floor/subfloor into the crawlspace and ran the wire through there. I didn’t use conduit.
Secure the cables. I use these multi-cable staples to secure them in the crawlspace. If you’re running cables through the crawlspace, don’t be lazy and just leave them sitting on the ground :D
Use spray foam to fill holes to ensure drafts and bugs don’t go through it. I use this fireblock one.
Get a cheap Ethernet cable tester with a screen. I’ve got this one that cost $35. Apparently it’s no longer sold, however it looks like there’s clones of it. If there’s an issue with any of the wires in the cable, it shows you which wires are wrong and if they’re crossed (connected to the wrong pin) or not connected at all.
Don’t bother with CAT6a. CAT6 is easier to deal with and supports 10Gbps with cable runs up to 55 meters, which is more than enough for residential unless you live in a giant mansion. The cable I linked to can go a bit longer an still maintain 10Gbps speeds.
I will always disagree with the old work brackets. They cost 3x as much and never hold as well as just drilling an new work box into a stud. just cut off the wings/nails on the new work box so it fits in the drywall hole.
We’ve used trueCABLE here at work as well with good results, thanks for the specifics as I generally do most of the grunt work and am removed from the more technical aspects of the ordering so the details here are greatly appreciated.
The other thing I forgot to mention is that in my house at least, there’s horizontal wood between the studs about half way up the wall. I guess as a fire block, like this: https://www.oneprojectcloser.com/fire-stops-fire-blocking-in-studs but thicker. That would have made it a lot harder for me to run cables to the attic, since I’d have to drill a hole through it. That and the fact that my attic isn’t very tall (some parts of it are only a few feet tall) made the crawlspace the obvious choice.
I was also a bit scared drilling through the floor into the crawlspace and was worried I was doing something wrong since it was taking a while, but it turns out the subfloor is just very thick and so it takes a while to drill through it.