Pre-Wire Options for new home

sebastiantombs

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I used two different techniques when hitting areas like a trussed span.

A simple sling shot with a spin casting reel mounted on it. If there was a relatively level floor type surface I'd use a remote control 4X4 toy truck. Eventually that lead to a tank for the tracked ability getting over obstacles. I added LEDs, one red and one green, so I could tell which way it was going and how to turn.
 
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TonyR

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hmm...slingshot, marble, pull string. I could easily fling through those warehouse red irons!
Sounds a lot like a Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote episode from the late 60's....but Wile E. accidentally had his back foot in the coil of string when he lit the BIG Roman candle tied to it. :lol:

wile-e_catapult.gif
 

sebastiantombs

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I used lead fishing weights. Less tendency to ricochet and bounce around than a marble. Typically could get 50 feet on a shot, depending of the specific conditions. The tank worked great in a building that had a raised floor, throughout. Ran 100's of feet at a time. The real limit was the range of the remote control.
 

Podagrower

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Wow--- 30 drops! That would be AWESOME.
I hope this kind of info helps the OP see how important it is to run as many lines as he can now--- but to ALSO plan a way to expand easily. Not too many people in 1999 ever thought networking would be such a big deal-- my electrician thought I was crazy running cat5 in the very limited way I did. LOL.
Even as an electrician who wired his own house in 2005, I did not see the point to running network cabling (everything will be WiFi). I spent Thanksgiving weekend last year running network cabling in the attic. It's a lot easier to do it right the first time.
 

mat200

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Wow--- 30 drops! That would be AWESOME.
I built in '99 and absolutely did NOT see how I might need network drops all over. While all my walls and ceilings now are closed, I need to do a bunch of expansion to my network. I can get from my switch area in the basement up into the attic, but there, part of the house is a scissor-truss vaulted ceiling that stretches over 20 feet to the garage (where I want to add runs. How the hell do I span that distance?? I have a fiberglass fish rod set-- but it just flexes and gets hung up on the blown-in insulation or the next rafter.
Do I need something to "shoot" a string from the garage side to the middle of the house? If not that---What Tool do I buy??

Here are those vaulted ceiling trusses, looking towards the garage.... I took a lot of video when I built that is helpful now.View attachment 61902

The 1st floor uses a truss system too-- this is mostly blocked now by ductwork that runs left to right going across this view... Same issue--- no simple access from underneath (sheetrock ceiling), and I need to go diagonally about 30 feet to where my home entertainment system sits today.
View attachment 61903

EDIT-- view of the floor trusses from the ceiling of my switch area / utility room now... Heat/AC ductwork blocking ...
View attachment 61905


I hope this kind of info helps the OP see how important it is to run as many lines as he can now--- but to ALSO plan a way to expand easily. Not too many people in 1999 ever thought networking would be such a big deal-- my electrician thought I was crazy running cat5 in the very limited way I did. LOL.
I had a 20 foot span with a similar problem. I used PVC pipe to go the distance and fished through it.

If you don't want the Cat5e in the pipe, fish a cord through it and once secured on the other side, pull the PVC back.
@sdkid I used 3/4" Grey Schedule 40 PVC in sections and pushed it to the corners I needed to each. Cut a section of ceiling drywall so I could grab the PVC and secure it, and then pulled a few cat5e/6 via an electrical fish line. Worked very well. Highly recommend when you have a clear push through.

I will probably use this technique again as it worked so well and the 3/4" PVC was very reasonable in price and flexible enough to bend to get through the small attic access door I had.
 
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could go cheap that is all cheap plastic shooting plastic dart attached to fishing line (is what I have which can easily shoot out a good 15'-25' depending on what could be in the way):
71t-jhvkhZL._AC_SX355_.jpg

or super fancy to impress the neighbors but probably still accomplishes the same thing (I stand corrected. uses CO2 cartridges to shoot a dart upto 120'. could use this going fishing!)
21010-9-V2-2.jpg
 
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saltwater

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OP, I am currently going through a house build at the moment and last week we laid all the Cat cabling to all rooms, including opposite walls of family rooms. I also accounted for numerous camera locations and in the short term can not see myself installing cameras to each point, but at least the wiring's in place. I even arranged for the builder to install a conduit at the front of the house, that leads outside the house underground. Three Cat cables fed through the conduit and about 20 metres curled up, bagged, buried underground for the time being. When the house is finished and we've moved in I'll dig a trench to the positions where I want the cameras.

With my builder, we arranged that I would contract directly the job of laying the data cabling. I was fortunate that I knew a guy, qualified, and I was the labourer. It took us three days to complete.

So, if you can, contract the job yourself and not rely on the builder. Even if the cost is similar, if you contract the data cabling directly, you are in charge.

ps. My data cabling job is complete, but I have until this Thursday to make any additional runs. On Thursday the plastering begins.

Someone else above mentioned about friends shaking their heads about wiring. I get the same response but now I'm getting sick and tired of trying to explain the benefits. I've got 5 Access Points, ceiling mounted (Unifi Lites) and I know there will be no WiFi dead-spots in the house. In response to this, some tell me to get brand X router because it covers 100 metres etc, yeah, right.
 
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OP, I am currently going through a house build at the moment and last week we laid all the Cat cabling to all rooms, including opposite walls of family rooms. I also accounted for numerous camera locations and in the short term can not see myself installing cameras to each point, but at least the wiring's in place. I even arranged for the builder to install a conduit at the front of the house, that leads outside the house underground. Three Cat cables fed through the conduit and about 20 metres curled up, bagged, buried underground for the time being. When the house is finished and we've moved in I'll dig a trench to the positions where I want the cameras.

With my builder, we arranged that I would contract directly the job of laying the data cabling. I was fortunate that I knew a guy, qualified, and I was the labourer. It took us three days to complete.

So, if you can, contract the job yourself and not rely on the builder. Even if the cost is similar, if you contract the data cabling directly, you are in charge.

ps. My data cabling job is complete, but I have until this Thursday to make any additional runs. On Thursday the plastering begins.

Someone else above mentioned about friends shaking their heads about wiring. I get the same response but now I'm getting sick and tired of trying to explain the benefits. I've got 5 Access Points, ceiling mounted (Unifi Lites) and I know there will be no WiFi dead-spots in the house. In response to this, some tell me to get brand X router because it covers 100 metres etc, yeah, right.
3 underground rated Cat network cabling, correct?
Depending on length.... could just simply run a long fiber patch cord if using GBICS :)
 

saltwater

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3 underground rated Cat network cabling, correct?
Depending on length.... could just simply run a long fiber patch cord if using GBICS :)
Yes, did cost a bit more. They will run through a conduit to their destination.

Fiber patch cord? (may be worth a new thread, don't want to hijack this one)
 
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Hello,

I am building a home and my builder has option to pre-wire for security cameras. One option is to have a network "Cat6-E cable +CoAx" combination (bit pricey, for PoE cameras) and other one is to have a regular electrical outlet (for wifi cameras)

And I am open to options of installing either 'Electrically Wired-Wifi' or 'PoE powered' cameras.

However, since the builder charges per drop of cable, I am thinking of installing 2 cameras per drop (example drop will be on corner, where I can install 2 cameras for adjacent walls) - this way I can minimize the cost.

Has anyone attempted any of these options? Would you have any feedback to offer for newbie like me?

Thank you in advance.
Why would they charge you, that sucks. I had my roof replaced and i mentioned to the roofer that i would be running cable and he said just draw a map of where you want the cable laid and i will have my guys put it there for you. They laid 3 cables at three corners and 4 cables at the other corner of my house. I was so thankful as i would have had hell trying to run that cable. But i guess each business owner has their rules. This corner of the house has one overview looking one way, one over view looking the other way, one zoomed in looking the other way, and one PTZ that i use to look around during the day and at night it is on LPR, duty. So you can never have enough cable run. As i need to hang a dedicated LPR camera in this area a little down from these cameras. So Guess what I have to find a way to get a cable to this area when the time comes. So i would do what @looney2ns said.IMG_2630.JPG
 
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lol.....likely yeah. I'm gonna guess you also have a "home phone" as well? :) (I just saw an article that said something like 80% of people don't use "home phones" any more.)
I have a phone line, for my fax machine. I haven't used that phone in years but its here.
 

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@djernie - I have several of these Linovision POE splitters and they work great for that situation - simply add one of these to that junction box and you are good to go!
 
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You're darned right about that! And I am NOT a throw back to the 1990s, I'm a throw back to the 1950s. It's my car that's from the 90s. But I'm not totally backwoods: I do have a flip phone. More seriously, since the subchannels came about, a few percent of OTA television programming is really good.
Wow--- 30 drops! That would be AWESOME.
I built in '99 and absolutely did NOT see how I might need network drops all over. While all my walls and ceilings now are closed, I need to do a bunch of expansion to my network. I can get from my switch area in the basement up into the attic, but there, part of the house is a scissor-truss vaulted ceiling that stretches over 20 feet to the garage (where I want to add runs. How the hell do I span that distance?? I have a fiberglass fish rod set-- but it just flexes and gets hung up on the blown-in insulation or the next rafter.
Do I need something to "shoot" a string from the garage side to the middle of the house? If not that---What Tool do I buy??

Here are those vaulted ceiling trusses, looking towards the garage.... I took a lot of video when I built that is helpful now.View attachment 61902

The 1st floor uses a truss system too-- this is mostly blocked now by ductwork that runs left to right going across this view... Same issue--- no simple access from underneath (sheetrock ceiling), and I need to go diagonally about 30 feet to where my home entertainment system sits today.
View attachment 61903

EDIT-- view of the floor trusses from the ceiling of my switch area / utility room now... Heat/AC ductwork blocking ...
View attachment 61905


I hope this kind of info helps the OP see how important it is to run as many lines as he can now--- but to ALSO plan a way to expand easily. Not too many people in 1999 ever thought networking would be such a big deal-- my electrician thought I was crazy running cat5 in the very limited way I did. LOL.
i have two kinds of fishing line, one is way to flexible and one is more stiff. I ordered the second set because i just ran cable for a family member as i put up cameras for her. The new set was so flexible it was useless all i could do with it was use it to reach out to grab the other line. So maybe you can find some that is not as flexible. This is the good one i bought flexible but stiff and it glows in the dark which helped me find it in the dark attic.
 
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i have two kinds of fishing line, one is way to flexible and one is more stiff. I ordered the second set because i just ran cable for a family member as i put up cameras for her. The new set was so flexible it was useless all i could do with it was use it to reach out to grab the other line. So maybe you can find some that is not as flexible. This is the good one i bought flexible but stiff and it glows in the dark which helped me find it in the dark attic.
I do have two of these 33 foot sets.... I was split between houses for a while, and kept one at each house.

1589861077901.png

Cheap-- for under $10 you just have to own one, even if they are cheap quality and of somewhat limited use because they are really thin-- they just flex and bow if you try to go horizontal. You would need a good 6 foot of clearance vertically to "arc" this thing 15 feet or so. That's not happening in my attic. The long length actually IS great going vertically down from the attic all the way to the basement. It's useless trying to span that vaulted ceiling. I will be using some pvc and spanning that pvc across, then using this inside the pvc will be easy. It is about 22 feet across, so I will get a line across and pull the pvc out. Then I will use about 60 feet of line tied off at both ends of that span so I can easily pull more any time I want.
 
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I do have two of these 33 foot sets.... I was split between houses for a while, and kept one at each house.

View attachment 61990

Cheap-- for under $10 you just have to own one, even if they are cheap quality and of somewhat limited use because they are really thin-- they just flex and bow if you try to go horizontal. You would need a good 6 foot of clearance vertically to "arc" this thing 15 feet or so. That's not happening in my attic. The long length actually IS great going vertically down from the attic all the way to the basement. It's useless trying to span that vaulted ceiling. I will be using some pvc and spanning that pvc across, then using this inside the pvc will be easy. It is about 22 feet across, so I will get a line across and pull the pvc out. Then I will use about 60 feet of line tied off at both ends of that span so I can easily pull more any time I want.
Yeah this looks like the second set i ordered, i had no idea they had different stiffness ratings. These where awful i wish i could have given it some viagra. But i will use them for something.
 
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