Cable Installer screwed up - Help

[nz9p29]

Building a house and told the cable installer to use 3.0Ghz, SOLID COPPER CORE, Dual RG6.

Well, went to the house this morning and sure enough, he used Copper Clad Steel.

Here are my choices,

1. Let it be and ask for a discount.
2. Have him rip it all out and run correct wire. He says he cannot get Dual SCC locally. He said he would run two singles to each box if I want or we can order the Dual online. They will pay for overnight shipping, but we will still lose two days.

The inspection was supposed to be today. He says he can have it all done by Tuesday which is the next inspection day.

What should I do? I wanted the SCC, but do I really need it?

[carl6]

It depends on how long your total runs will be. If, from the dish to whatever central distribution point, and from there to your TV location, is roughly 100 feet or less, you should have no problem at all with copper clad steel. The shorter the better.

Also, if you expect to be using a non-powered multiswitch (e.g., the WB68), the distance becomes more critical. No multiswitch, you can probably go with slightly longer runs.

There is really no need for "dual" wire, two separate individual runs are perfectely acceptable.

Hope this gives you enough info to make a decision.

Carl

[veryoldschool]

Building a house and told the cable installer to use 3.0Ghz, SOLID COPPER CORE, Dual RG6.
Well, went to the house this morning and sure enough, he used Copper Clad Steel.
Here are my choices,
1. Let it be and ask for a discount.
2. Have him rip it all out and run correct wire. He says he cannot get Dual SCC locally. He said he would run two singles to each box if I want or we can order the Dual online. They will pay for overnight shipping, but we will still lose two days.
The inspection was supposed to be today. He says he can have it all done by Tuesday which is the next inspection day.
What should I do? I wanted the SCC, but do I really need it?
If it were me, I'd go for the two solid copper RG-6 lines.

[keith_benedict]

I look back at a couple of things I let "slide" when my home was being built. I now see those things every day and regret not being more insistent and, more importantly, not being more patient (which isn't exactly my strong suit).

The point? Better to have delays now than regrets later.

Best of luck, whatever you choose.

[D-Bamatech]

Carl is 100% correct with the distance regards and signal loss ratio vs clad and solid rg-6.

If the price is the same quote (bidded) as per the rg-6 solid cpr.

I suggest the discount as you implied IF there will be no Dist issue.

Best of luck!

[nz9p29]

Well, Trying to be reasonable so here is my solution.

The agreement was that we would pay the difference in cost between Copper Clad and Solid Copper. Since he used Copper Clad, no extra cost. I put a lot of Cable Boxes in (25). So rather than make him pull everything and redo, I gave him five locations that MUST be SCC. These are the main locations/long runs that will have 90% of the TV use. (Bonus Room, Living Room and Master Bed.) They will also be where the Plasma/LCD's will be.)

I told him he needed to re-run those locations and the rest I will accept. I told him I was not paying for ANY extra wire including the solid copper. I also told him I wanted a discount.

He was sorry and agreeable.

Hopefully I will not regret. I will say, we are not TV junckies so I doubt I would be able to tell the difference. I was just trying to put the better stuff in since it really was not that much more expensive.

Thanks for the help.

[carl6]

Sounds like a reasonable compromise, and should work just fine for your intended application.

Also, if you had RG6 run from your central distribution point to an outside location for the dish, you want those to also be solid copper core. A better choice for that run is conduit so you can pull whatever is needed. Minimum 4 runs of RG6 to the dish.

Carl

[captain_video]

Since the house is still under construction I'd make sure that there's some sort of conduit or raceway between levels of the house that would enable you to run additional cabling after the drywall is up and the house is completely finished. Depending on the style of house you are having built, you should have a way to run cables from the basement to all upper floors and the attic.

If you plan on having the basement finished then put in a suspended ceiling. This allows you easy access to the floor above as well as the basement wiring. Here's a breakdown of how to go about installing any cables after the fact:

1. Outlets and wiring on the first floor can be installed by drilling a hole upwards between the floor sill and the vertical studs. An inexpensive stud finder and a tape measure will help you to find any location quickly and easily. Locate the space between the studs on the first floor to install your outlet and cut the opening to the right size. Be extremely aware of any electrical wiring and plumbing or you could be in for a disaster. All you need is a low-voltage outlet box which is basically nothing more than an open frame that clamps to the drywall and is finished off with a coverplate.

2. Basement wiring can be dropped down from the ceiling and behind the finished wall. Outlet boxes are installed the same as the 1st floor.

3. 2nd floor wiring should be run up to the attic and dropped down from above, using the same techniques as wiring for the 1st floor.

Wiring the entire house during construction is a smart move, but since nobody knows what future technology may crop up down the road, you need to provide for any contingencies. I did the exact same thing for my home and ran about 1/2-mile of wire for cableTV, phone lines, ceiling fans, and a whole-house alarm system the weekend before they installed the drywall. Since then, I have rewired the entire house for DirecTV, once with copperclad RG6 and again with solid core copper, including 2nd lines to each room for DVRs. I have also run ethernet cabling to most of the rooms.

I managed to find a location to run the wiring between floors, and I was lucky to do so after the fact. Without it I would not have been able to wire the house like I have it today without some major work. I keep a heavy string run through the raceway and tied off at each end with about an extra 20 feet of slack. When I need to run a new line I simply wrap the string around the cable end and tape it securely and then pull it through the raceway from the other end.