wiring – Best Material for Low Voltage Conduit on Face of Wall

low-voltagewiring

I'm looking to run CAT5E/CAT6A cabling from my basement where I have a network rack to the attic above my 2nd floor. After a lot of investigation there was no way I was going to feed the cabling through existing pathways in the walls. None of the pathways are "straight runs" from top to bottom, there is no in-wall conduit, existing coax/cat3 wire was run before drywall and stapled, and most walls have lots of insulation in them.

So I found a much easier approach. I'm able to come through from the basement to the garage, right through the drywall above the foundation. Builders did the same thing for wires into the garage for an irrigation system. From there I can run the cables vertically up the garage wall (~15'), then drill a role into the ceiling to the attic above. This way I can run the cabling on the face of the garage wall instead of in-wall and avoid a bunch of work and problems.

I wouldn't want the cables just dangling down, so I'd use a conduit. And since it's vertical and outside the wall I figure a rigid conduit instead of a flexible conduit will be better. I came up with a few ideas. While this is a garage I don't want it to look ugly and stick out. So I'd like the conduit to hopefully be white or have the option to paint it white so it blending into the white walls. Also the more flush it is against the wall the better as well.

  1. My first though was electrical PVC piping (HERE) secured to the wall with some U brackets? Would this be sufficient? Can I paint it white?
  2. Next thought was, do I even really need electrical PVC? Could I just use standard white PVC piping for this? It's not running outside the home or inside the walls.
  3. Then I found this flanged U channel raceway HERE. Would this be sufficient? I guess this is an extension of the previous question if the electrical PVC is necessary.
  4. Finally I thought, why not a square conduit that would sit flush against the wall. Closest thing I could find was some "vinyl" downspout/fencing posts HERE. From what I can tell "vinyl" in this context is just PVC.

I'm open to any other suggestions. I've already determined I can easily run the cables through this area. So much easier then through walls. I want it to look decent and not use improper materials though.

Best Answer

All of these items would do the trick. The electrical PVC is a good choice and it can be painted. The advantage to using it over regular PVC are the bends and fitting available and the strength of material. During your installation of this, a bend or two might come in handy and you won't get those with regular PVC. The mounting brackets are available everywhere as is the PVC.

Your flanged U channel is good and would be a real easy installation floor to ceiling but this stuff is really expensive, about 3 to 4 bucks a foot.

Your vinyl "down spout" would be very bulky and is fairly expensive too.

All these items can be painted.

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