[ale] [OT] Residential Data/Voice/Video Wiring

[Matt Smith]

An electrician isn't required.. you're talking about low-voltage at best, so this is something you could technically do yourself.

When my house was being built, I coordinated with the builder so that I could install a laced-up bundle of cables I ordered from smarthome.com to several of the rooms - all terminating in a corner of the basement that is now my "server room".  The cable bundle included two RG-6, two CAT5, and two thick speaker wires (they now have some with fiber included).  It's been great to have, but I REALLY wish I had installed conduit to every room.  There have been numerous times that I've needed one more CAT5 here, or another RG6 there - and it isn't that easy to get it there.  I have a lot more access than some, but there are still places I can't get to.

So, if you can afford it, do conduit.  It lets you install and upgrade your cabling whenever you want.

I'd also recommend a whole-house vaccuum system... can't say enough good things about those.


--Matt



-----Original Message-----
From: tfreeman at intel.digichem.net [mailto:tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 4:47 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] [OT] Residential Data/Voice/Video Wiring



Hopefully, three years of waiting has to do with a computer clock, not 
wall clock...

I'll take a semi-stab at this - in two parts. (Somebody chime in where I 
goof please) First - basic problem is you want an electrician. Second - 
run conduit, nice wide fat open conduit, over all runs where getting 
access could be a hassel (like going from the crawl space to the attic of 
a two story, or through a section of roof which has minimal or no access.

IMHO (&/or ignorant opion), the conduit will vastly simplify 
enlarging/changing the wireing later when you (or the people after you) 
figure out what is _really_ needed by making it easier to pull more wire 
through blind parts of the structure. The electrician is to keep the 
effort up to code.

On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Token wrote:

> Hi folks,
> 
>   I'm in the process of building a house.  So far, looking in the yellow
> pages and other places I've been unable to find a company/contractor
> that does voice/data/video cabling for residential stuff.  I'm trying to
> find someone who is familiar with using satellite distribution as well.
> That's been the real stumper.  I'm not looking for anything really fancy
> like a whole house automation system or being able to route video
> electronically and such.  I'm basically just want a distribution point
> for cable TV, Satellite TV, Cable Modem Access, Ethernet, and plain old
> telephone.  I want to be able to have access to all this in each room
> and with some sort of patch panel in the basement.  I could do all this
> myself but I'm not real familiar with the satellite splitter and how
> that would all work with patching cable or Antenna HDTV signals.  I
> figured maybe of some you folks would have some recommendations or
> advice.  
> 
> Thanks,
> Chip Gwyn
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 

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