"Little Knot Here" - 8,600 Ft Prewire

[zero-degrees]

In the words of Clark Griswold "Little Knot Here"

This is only 1/3 of the overall cable that has been temp centrally located to a mid point in a basement prior to final pull to server rack that will house all networking, automation, home audio/video equipment. All the speaker wire, majority of coax, and most of the cameras have not been pulled from there drop points here yet. It took 2 people and 4 days to get everything run from attic, upstairs, main floor dropped into the basement where organization and clean up could start.

8,600 Ft of prewire includes - Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, 16/4 speaker wire, RG6, 22/2 and 22/4 alarm wire. Majority of everything was color coded - Red (Wireless AP's), White (Ethernet for HDMI), Orange (Audio from TV to Touch control panel), Purple (In ceiling Amazon Alexa), Blue (Security Cameras), Yellow (BT Receivers for whole home audio), Gray (Audio Touch Panels & Regular Cat5 outlets), White RG6 (HD Antenna), Black RG6 (Cable/Sat Feed), Yellow 22/4 (Alarm Key Pads & Siren), Green 22/2 (Alarm Door Sensors & Motion), White 16/4 (Speaker Wire) - I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

• 30 Speakers
• 12 In Wall Touch Audio Controls (Cat5)
• 16 Security Cameras (Cat6)
• 4 In Ceiling Echo's/Alexa
• 4 Cat6A Runs for HDMI over Ethernet via Blackbird for Security camera display to 4 tv's via dedicated input
• Dedicated HD antenna outlet behind all TV's & Dedicated Cable/Sat input behind every TV
• 3 UI Nano HD AP's
• Numerous Cat5/Cat6/RG6 "spare" outlets in each room

Time to make sure my toner and label maker have plenty of batteries - majority are "rough" labeled with marker - once to the rack system everything will be cut to length and properly labeled.

 

[zero-degrees]

Electrician put in close to 5,500' ft of wire and 2x 200amp main panels with a 100amp sub panel in the basement - said he doesn't do many homes where the low voltage out runs his wire

Insulation company only broke two of the speaker pre wire rings - both were in the garage and while I was standing there - couldn't believe it.... Hard to find decent help now a days apparently

 

[Fastb]

All that wiring required lots of planning, including planning for the future.
As Mat200 says, if you think you need qty n cables, pull n+1, to be prepared for the future unknowns.
20+ yrs ago, I pulled cables, mainly for what I needed back then throughout the house. That included POTS phone lines, coax for cable, wired intercoms into the kids bedrooms - Even a VGA cable from kitch table to wall mount TV. And Cat 5 and 5E.

Well, long came Cat6. And stereo equipment that needed internet. I pulled new wire.

And what I wondered: Instead of burying wire in the walls, why didn't I bury flexible conduit. Pulling wire in the future would be much easier. Esp a conduit from the crawlspace to the attic. Or attic to garage, or a 2nd floor closet.

Zero-degrees, did you consider installing some empty conduit? It's so hard to predict what the future will bring. eg: Fiber in the home? Ethernet drops to furnace, car charger, smart walls, tint-on-command windows, etc? Sure those devices could be wireless, but wired is so dependable and preserves wireless bandwidth....

Just thinking... Good luck with your project!
Fastb

 

[zero-degrees]

Zero-degrees, did you consider installing some empty conduit? It's so hard to predict what the future will bring. eg: Fiber in the home? Ethernet drops to furnace, car charger, smart walls, tint-on-command windows, etc? Sure those devices could be wireless, but wired is so dependable and preserves wireless bandwidth....

I would like to think I over planned this project, but as you point out - things change over time. The house obviously has a basement and two stories. There is an attic space over about 20% of the main level and there is attic space over about 75% of the second story. With that said there is 1.5" PVC from the basement to the 1st floor attic space and 1" PVC from the basement to the attic over the second story. Also both attics also have a small chase that connects them. Should I ever need something in the future upstairs or on the main level I have my fingers crossed that I could get cable there some how leveraging the chase or PVC conduit. I also have 2 extra coax and ethernet cables pulled into both the upper and lower attic "just in case". Also, there is two PEX water lines from the basement up to the loft for a possible wet bar down the road that could also act as a cable chase in an emergency and if I was willing to sacrifice the wet bar for whatever that cable pull would be. Also you note about "wireless" - I couldn't agree more! There is a reason there is so much cable in this house - bottom line, if it has an ethernet jack on it, I want it plugged in!!! Sure there will be UI AP's, but honestly, I run very few things on wireless because there is just to much random interference anymore or over saturation from neighbors etc.