Planning ahead: Pulling 4 or more cables through the wall

[mat200]

What's the difference between this one and the one that @mat200 posted? I have seen some videos where they drill up. I imagine I'll still have to go into the attic and double check if it's within the center block. Drilling up might be easier, but I suspect that because this is a wall that is also an exterior-side wall, it will have insulation.

Hi Neuro

The bit dudemaar posted ( Klein tools 3/4" ) is a wider bit with a stiffer shaft. It is a really nice bit, but not as flexible. I really like that bit for drilling straight down. The other bit that I posted has more flex and smaller bit thus not as good for pulling more cables ( again do a test hole on some scrap wood before attempting to pull cables in wall ). Home Depot also typically has a Klein one which is similar to that one I posted. Sometimes you can find it in a kit with a "L" shaped tool to help guide the flex bit behind the wall. Definitely worth it if you're doing this and like tools. The 3/4" will handle nails you hit better. Plan to have a powerful drill for this work.

 

[pete_c]

Yes the Ranch style home with a crawl space and small attic can be a bit difficult.

It still can be done.

For my brother-in-laws house I just crawled in the attic space and feed cable to the TV area from the home office area. That said the crawl space had one light and I used a flashlight. It was all gravel down there. I did purchase long drill bits of various sizes (4-6 foot length) and a wire fishing fiber glass section pole.

One outside wall cut small sections of drywall at the top, middle and bottom to fish a wire. Then repaired the small holes. I did have paint to match.

I also used WAF as she wanted to redecorate rooms such that I ran the low voltage wire, painted the room afterwards.

And another house hired a security low voltage wire puller. He did good.

If you do not want to do this hire an alarm company low voltage cable puller. These guys are very good at what they do and typically have all of the tools necessary.

 

[Arjun]

Another option if you don't want to drill a big hole is to use a PoE Extender like this OdiySurveil(TM) 4-Port 10/100M IEEE802.3at (Power-in) to IEEE802.3af (Power-Out) PoE Extender for Ethernet/PoE Power

Amazon.com: OdiySurveil(TM) 4-Port 10/100M IEEE802.3at (Power-in) to IEEE802.3af (Power-Out) PoE Extender for Ethernet/PoE Power : Electronics

Amazon.com: OdiySurveil(TM) 4-Port 10/100M IEEE802.3at (Power-in) to IEEE802.3af (Power-Out) PoE Extender for Ethernet/PoE Power : Electronics

www.amazon.com

 

[pete_c]

Many folks just use wireless for everything; music (Sonos), TV, automation.

Personally here have always used sure bet wiring rather that wireless. Hate Sonos here and use a wired 12 zoned Russound AMP. My KODI boxes are STBs connected to 4K sources of video today over 1Gb managed networks and it works great. In the early days of Satellite used a satellite card in a computer to distribute video on the LAN.

Very first wireless CCTV camera has been the Hikvision OEM doorbell. Here CCTV started in the 80's with analog cameras and then slowly went to IP POE cameras always wired.

Today though the home LAN (multiple LANs) and WAP (Ruckus) is using multiple SSIDs and autonomous networks.

Yes and you can utilize Powerline networking stuff and today it is way better than in the early 2000's.

I am an old fashioned curmgeon when it comes to this stuff. That and I am not tethered to my cell phones and typically they are off and I do not utilize them for automation; but that is me.

 

[ctgoldwing]

I know it doesn't help anyone with an existing house but fwiw when we built this house I put an 1-1/2" PVC pipe running from the basement to the attic. There is an amazing amount of room in a pipe that big!