New House

[KenIdaho]

I’m building a new house and the framing is about done and I plan on running a whole bunch of coax and other assorted wires. I wanted to get some feed back on what I should run.


I will Cat 5 computer network cable throughout the house. I will be running 3 twisted pair phone lines to each room.

I currently have two Dishplayers in the near future I will replace them with either 921, 721 or 522 I haven’t decide which yet considering two are not out yet. I want to have pip so I will switch receivers and I want to get rid of the Dishplayer. (Before everyone tells me to get a TIVO D* doesn’t have my locals and I need them in the new house no life line and I can only receive 2 of the big three.)

I plan on running two coaxes to each receiver from where I will be placing the dish or dishes. I will run a double coax from each receiver to a distribution box in the basement. I will then run a coax to each room from a distribution center in the basement.

Have I missed anything? Any suggestions?

[Karl Foster]

I personally would run two coax into each room in case you want to add or move receivers in the future. You only need to terminate one, but the second line will allow you to add dual-tuner receivers at any location without having to run more wire. Much easier to run them now than later. I'd also insure that your phone jacks are near your coax outlets. If not, I'd add another phone line and put it near your coax outlets simply to make setting up your system properly easier (and cheaper) for you.

[Cyclone]

Run a few Coax to the attic. I had three run up there at the last minute and I'm glad that I did. I'm using all of them now and I wish I had run more.

Run at least 3 coaxs to your main TV area. (2 sat, 1 ant). Might want to even double that at the main area for future use.

I have Cat 5 run to many rooms. With 3G wireless Access Points available, its kinda wasted now.

[Ric]

I'd also run some coax to other parts of the main couple of rooms. you can always hide them behind a blank plate but if you ever decide to rearrange the room, you'll wish you had run 'em.

Also, do the same for speaker wires. If you are planning a home theater, you'll need them coming into one location. Once again, if you decide to reorient the room, you'll have the speakers wired for the wrong orientation if you don't plan for separate runs.

[Ric]

one other tip someone gave me (of course it was too late for me), run some PVC from the ground floor to the attic (especially important if it's a two story with basement). this way, if you ever forget something, you always of an easy drop from one floor to the next

[AkShark]

What about Firewire? With this coming on board in the next few years would one need to cable for this too?

[Mike123abc]

Putting in 2"+ conduit metal or PVC works great you can terminate it to boxes with plates on them that later you can easily pull new stuff in when you need it. I use it in my commercial buildings. Makes putting in a new communications system in very easy. To the attic or to the basement or both is easy way to upgrade in the future.

[hojni]

When I built my house 4 years ago, the builder let me get in and install 4"x4" electrical boxes on each wall in my den, family room, bedrooms, and kitchen. I then stubbed 3/4" conduit from each box to either the basement or the attic. Ran three 3/4" conduits from basement to attic. I installed no wiring before I moved in.

This was the one of the best things I did. Now, whenever I need a CAT5 or RG6 somewhere, I can just shove it throught the conduit. I use modular structure wiring wallplates from Milestek to install my jacks.

The only place that I wish I had more is the corner where I put my TV and home theatre.

The biggest advantage to this setup is that as my needs change, I can add or remove wires as I need to. There's no way that I could have imagined the setup that I have today when I build 4 years ago. I'm ready to rock and roll with fibre whenever I need it.

[TomCat]

Originally posted by AkShark
What about Firewire? With this coming on board in the next few years would one need to cable for this too?

I agree that there will probably be something more than cat 5 and rg-6 that one might wish they had run later on, but without a crystal ball we probably won't know what that is.

Firewire is not really designed as a transportation protocol, but more as a method of connecting two adjacent pieces of equipment together, such as when uploading mp3s to your iPod (which it does blisteringly fast). It's not really designed for anything over 4 meters or so.

[navy8ball]

run steel pole through your roof to mount dishes on.

[Big Bob]

Run cat5 e everywhere. It isn't much more expensive than regular cat 5. You might want to look into cat 6. I think it is called cat 6. I have read a few debates whether it is worth it or not. But at least go to cat 5 e.

The cat 5 can also be used for other things. Security systems, intercom systems, security cameras, house automation, audio distribution. Many of these areas are moving to cat 5. At the very least, run a couple of lines to your front and back door for intercom and video camera. I would run a line to my thermostat. I would run a line to any appliance that could be monitored. Like a moisture sensor in the basement or a septic tank pump. If I could do it again, I would run 3 cat 5 lines where ever I have RG6. One phone and two network outlets.

You can use the cat 5 for both phone and networking, so just put it everywhere. I ran at least 2 lines to every room in the house. Anywhere you might want a phone, you might want a network connection. In many rooms, I have 2 lines running to every wall, just in case we move the furniture around.

You don't have to put jacks on all of the wire, just put a blank plate in front of it now and add a jack when you need it.

And run all the wires back to a common point, don't daisy-chain them together like phone lines used to be connected.

Think about your video distribution needs in the future. You may want to have 4 separate RG6 lines where ever you think you might want to have a receiver. 2 lines for satellites, 1 line for an off air antenna, and one line for video going back to a central area so you can send the video to another receiver somewhere else in the house.

Overkill? Oh yeah. But 2 years after rewiring my house, I have already used many of the lines that I thought I would NEVER use. And there are places that I wish I had done more.

Cable is relatively cheap. It won't add that much more to the total cost of a new house. It is almost as easy to run 3 lines of something as it is to run 1. Remember, you don't have to have a jack at the end of everything. Just leave it in the wall and use it when you want.

good luck

[Kagato]

Designate a central point for cabling. That way you can patch from any area to any other area. A good place is near the telephone D-mark point.

How professional you want to get is up to you. I actually bought a couple smallish wall mount racks. They are small and hold about 6-10 U's of equiptment each. I put small patch panels in for Ethernet,phone,Coax, along with some rack mount networking equiptment. Works out pretty slick, makes it look neat and tiddy and gives you flexability.

[Jacob S]

Just make sure they dont put splitters in between like they would for a cable wire installation.

[KenIdaho]

Thanks for all the great advice. I did not think about the conduit before I think I will run some. I had considered wiring for my surround sound system. Some of the rooms will have built in so there is not a lot of need for different walls. Some of the rooms I will run to multiple walls.

If I run a steel pipe through the roof what size does it need to be? I assume it needs to be plumb.

Thanks again

Ken

[angiodan]

Ken, check out this pdf file about low voltage home wiring, it will give you some good pointers. Its a couple of years old, so I would follow Big Bob's advice and run Cat 5e if they don't mention that in the article. Its been a while since I read it myself. I just bookmarked it if I ever get to the point of building my own home in the next year or so.

I've also read some good tips on the avsforum.com . Some there say to run at least 6 coax to your main room, and 4 to everywhere else. Like a few have mentioned above, its easy to run wire when you just have the framework up, and a real pain afterwards!

If you are on dial up, be warned, the pdf is about 63 pages long!

http://www.wildtracks.cihost.com/homewire/WireGuideFull.pdf

[hojni]

Everyone seems to be missing my point. Don't worry so much about what wire to run where - wiring requirements change over time. See if your builder will let you run conduit and wall outlets.

Worry about the cable later, when you know where you want everything. And then years later, when you want to change things you can.

[jcrash]

Make sure they run neutral wires to all your light switches. If you ever decide to get into Home Automation, you'll be glad.

We built our house last year, and we ran 3 coax to the main TV area and the game room. Two are for the 721 type setup, and one is for an HD Antenna or whatever. It came in handy for the Superbowl, I ran the coax from the Output on the 721 into the wall and up to the central closet where I sent it to the game room, thus with one UHF 721 receiver I controlled all the TVs and could pause them all at once for effect.

You might also want a separate wire for cable. We had them wire the house for cable, then we subcontracted the extra work for our cabling.

I cannot in my wildest imagination see a reason for 3 sets of twisted wire pairs unless you are doing business from all rooms of your house (fax/phone/other), but if you want to run 3 - I say do it.

The central closet is the key. Think about where your Router and Cable Modem or DSL Modem will be. For example, if you have a DSL Modem you'll need to run a telephone line from the wall to it, then the Cat 5 to the router. So do you want the Modem and router with you in the office or in a closet? It's all personal preference. I have the modem in my office so I can easily check on it and turn it off and on if needed and the router is in the closet. So, there are three cat5 connections in the office, one is used to go to the router and two come out for my wife and my PC's. Also, make sure you put a network connection behind every TV - or at least the ones from which you might ever want to play internet games.

On another subject entirely, our house is about 3300ft2 and it literally (no joke) takes 3 minutes for hot water to get from the hot water heater to a couple locations in the house. Spend the extra $500 or whatever it is and get the recirculating pump so you have instant on hot water. BUT, make sure you require (in writing) all hot water lines to be insulated (even in the slab). Concrete is NOT an insulator.


Good Luck and have fun.

[Big Bob]

Recirculating pumps are a very good idea. Make sure that who ever does the work puts in the right size pipe. A friend decided late in the game to add a pump to his new house. The hot water line had already been run and they used a smaller pipe because they didn't know there would be a pump used. He never had much water pressure.

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