cable-managementcablingdata-wiringelectrical
My family and I are interested in buying a house that was built in 2002. This house is two floors on a concrete slab with a finished bonus room upstairs so there is no attic other than above the garage. I would like each room to have four points and I do have a 1000' roll box of Cat5e shielded cable.
What is the ideal way to run Cat5 for each room and to a com-closet when the ceiling on the first floor is finished and I don't have a crawl space? Is there a tool that I can use to fish the cable?
To help you with the terms, what you're looking at from above is the top plate. Frequently there are two 2x4's for a top plate. Two boards are used for added structure at the joints and extra fire proofing. This gives you about 3" of wood to drill through.
As ChrisF mentions, you should run a stud finder up and down the wall cavity near the halfway point to see if any fire blocking has been installed. This would be a single 2x4, and will almost always be in a wall if the ceilings are over 8' tall.
You'll significantly reduce the odds of insulation in the wall if you are doing this project on interior walls. You should also be avoiding any electrical in the same wall cavity (between the same two studs). You would see an outlet, switch, or wire coming out of the top plate if this were the case.
As for the actual wiring, I've used these low voltage mounting brackets for the hole in the wall. Place the bracket on the wall where you want the opening, mark the corners and sides, and cut out the drywall with a drywall saw. Test fit the bracket and file back any spots that are blocking you until you get a snug fit. Then bend the tabs back into the wall and tighten them with a pair of pliers. On that bracket, I use a modular plate (these comes with more openings if you need them) and then an ethernet jack mounted in the plate. You can also get jacks for cable, phone, stereo, etc.
Couple problems I see. First is the textured ceiling. You'll never be able to open that up and patch it without being obvious, the texture is something that just isn't done these days. Second, the exterior wall should have insulation in it, so you'll end up fishing the line through insulation and the vapor barrier.
Instead, I'd suggest running the line around the floor if you can get it to a convenient wall anywhere in that room. Use some fasteners to keep the cable at the base of the wall to run it around the room:
Best Answer
This has been discussed many times on this site and maybe even a few times on Server Fault.
Step 1: The plan
Come up with a plan - how many drops per room? Where will you terminate all the wires back to? Are there clear path's from floor to floor via the walls? ie: is there an empty part of the wall on the first floor but not on the 2nd floor? Do interior walls line up from floor to floor? Running wire through exterior walls will be more difficult as they contain insulation.
Step 2: Find the framing
Get a damn good stud finder and a pencil and start marking studs and measuring from exterior walls to make sure you end up strait as you go from floor to floor. Do this in the basement also - find the floor joist for where your drops come through in the basement and mark them.
Step 3: Execute
Assuming all the paths are clear, start cutting / drilling. Use a 6 foot flexible drill bit. Cut a box on the first floor for your first set of drops. Drill down through that into the basement.
Directly above this box, cut an access hole about 6-8 inches from the ceiling big enough to get the drill bit through it - about 4 or 5 inches square (square will be easier to patch later on)
Goto the 2nd floor - cut your next box for your 2nd set of drops. Its easier to fish wire down then up, so I would start on the 1st floor, put the fish tape into the access hole at the ceiling, find it in the box hole on the 2nd floor, attach your 4 lines to it and pull the fish tape down. On the 1st floor, fish the tape up from the box hole to the access hole, connect the lines to the tape and pull down. And again, goto the basement, find the hole, fish the tape up to the box hole on the first floor, attach the lines and pull down.
Now that your in the basement, run the lines to your network closet - leave enough extra wire per drop to make sure everything reaches - rinse repeat.
When your all done, everything punched down, start patching your drywall holes.
You can do this by yourself but would be a lot easier with 2 people Lots of time and multiple boxes of cable. 1 box of 1000 feet wont help you, you'll be fishing each line individually and if you precut them, you may waste wire; get some small boxes of 250-500 ft and run all 4 lines at 1 time.
Equipment required: