Wiring - What did you do?

9 years ago

Ok.. Now I know I am getting ahead of myself with this as we have only started to get bids on the basic construction of the home but I have been trying to work on a wiring diagram for the house and just wanted to see what others have done with the following items.. I have expressed to all potential builders that I wanted a structured wiring system for everything in the house so that all tv coaxial, ethernet, telephone, etc all comes into one central point in the basement.. Anyway.. Here is what I was wondering..

1) I have basically figured that the house will have 1 coaxial run to each bedroom, loft, living room, office, and basement area where we plan to do a media room down the road.. My question for coaxial is - Did anyone run more then one line to each room in case of future furniture rearrangement? I was contemplating running two cable lines to each room and just "storing" the unused cable behind an empty wall plate so that in the event we decide to rearrange furniture the television can be moved without having to open walls or run cable across the wall.

2) What did you do for ethernet? Being that it is cheap to run I was planning on running multiple lines to each room but in some rooms I was thinking for as many as 6. For example in the upstairs loft I plan on putting all game consoles, smart tv, blu ray player, etc.. All of these items run ethernet... I have some people saying to just put a switch in each room but I was under the impression that you lose signal by doing that. I figured run each ethernet wire to a central location where they will plug into a large switch, someting like a 24 port or more..

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speaktodeek
9 years ago
We chose a couple locations in each room for ports (usually across the room from each other, to hedge bets). To each port, we ran 2 1/2 inch pvc pipe runs from the basement, as channels through which wires or future cables could be run or changed out. Each port on the wall ends in a faceplate with multiple connectors, so each pipe run can serve multiple wires, up to the number of plate connectors. So for example, our plates serve ethernet, phone, etc. each plate. Color coding is key here!!! Everything terminates (or originates) in the basement in central panel control for internet, phone, power, etc. Each has a central hub.

We also ran channels from the basement up to the attic, in case we wanted to run something up to there then distribute it down to a room below the attic.

You would have to consult code/fire code to see how this might work for you. Depends on your location, code, etc.

The key is to pick your potential port locations well, and to put in the channels so that you have future flexibility, as technology changes so fast nowadays. And use wide curves in your piping if curves needed, so you can drive through your runs with a fish wire later without it getting hung up on corners in the pipe.

This is relatively cheap to do in new construction but gives you a lot of options later.

This post was edited by beautybutdebtfree on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 6:59
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