Cable and phone in new homes

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andyselec@aol.com

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durham,nc
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Electrical contractor
I haven't wired a home in years. Last time I did we were still running TV and phone wires do people still put them in or do you just run a couple of cat 5 wires for wifi?
 
We do whatever the homeowner requests, but we have seen the spots requested for tv and phone decrease dramatically. Instead it seems like we are always searching for spots to put wifi repeaters/wireless access points that dont stick out and look terrible or are susceptible to getting damaged.
 
If I were building a new home I would run at least a Cat6 and an RG6 to every room that may end up with a computer and/or a TV. The best thing for future proofing would be an empty raceway to each room. With the quality of wireless today that might be overkill.
 
infinity said:
If I were building a new home I would run at least a Cat6 and an RG6 to every room that may end up with a computer and/or a TV. The best thing for future proofing would be an empty raceway to each room. With the quality of wireless today that might be overkill.
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Of course with smart TV's there is no need for cable as a roku stick will usually do it all. In the past 15 years or so we handed that part of the job over to the alarm companies. Let them handle the phones, cable, alarms etc.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Of course with smart TV's there is no need for cable as a roku stick will usually do it all. In the past 15 years or so we handed that part of the job over to the alarm companies. Let them handle the phones, cable, alarms etc.
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You're correct but I'm old school and a lot of that depends on the quality of the wireless. I have Fios TV which can operate wirelessly between all of the set top boxes. Truth is it never worked well so I ended up running a RG6 to each STB location. Same thing with streaming. A mesh system would help but even then the wireless bandwidth is limited. I think that the average home buyer wouldn't bother with much hardwired equipment but it is superior to WiFi.
 
I don't think anybody knows what's going to happen down the road. I think an empty pipe run to each room from some central location makes sense along with phone wires, cat6, coax to places where you know you're going to need it.
 
petersonra said:
I don't think anybody knows what's going to happen down the road. I think an empty pipe run to each room from some central location makes sense along with phone wires, cat6, coax to places where you know you're going to need it.
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I think that would be the gold standard for installations. It would allow the vendor to pull in whatever wire or fiber that they need to operate their system and only to the points where the customer needed them.

We may live to see the day when there is fiber right to the device.
 
So run it all back to where? Low voltage panel next to main panel? Mechanical room if there is one?

If there is a crawl space probably easiest thing to do would be to stub conduits from each room into crawl. Then have a bigger conduit up to the "central" spot.
 
petersonra said:
I don't think anybody knows what's going to happen down the road. I think an empty pipe run to each room ...
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I'm a big fan of the empty pipe approach. I daresay it's safe to forecast that telecom "standards" will change five or ten times over the life of a house.

I'm not a big fan of relying on wireless. The technology might be improving rapidly, but I foresee the spectrum becoming saturated, leaving no room for expansion and forcing people back to hardwiring or hardfibering. (or the next generation of hard physical connection)
 
all of the above in own stuff plus an empty 3/4" thin poly lawn watering hose for future firber optic or other use. Or whatever customer wants.

Of course, dont have any wires in that if you are getting an inspection <G>
 
I did the empty pipe thing when my daughters home was built in 2013. The cable company was able to use it to centrally locate their modem / WAP. When she switched to fiber, the installer mentioned to her how he appreciated having the pipe available. He used the RG6 to pull in his fiber.
 
I typically run a spare conduit or two to the unfinished attic or other area that makes sense from the utility room area plus two cat#6 and one RG6 quad shield to the agreed upon location sometimes it is multiple locations.
 
JoeNorm said:
So run it all back to where? Low voltage panel next to main panel? Mechanical room if there is one?

If there is a crawl space probably easiest thing to do would be to stub conduits from each room into crawl. Then have a bigger conduit up to the "central" spot.
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makes as much sense as anything.

if there is a basement, it is even easier. just stub pipe down into basement and leave a string in it for future pulls.

It might tend to vary from house to house depending on size and layout, and of course what the customer wants and is willing to pay for.
 
I've done a handful of these recently. Legrand ON-Q panel in the master bdrm closet. 2x CAT6 and 1x RG-6 to each TV location. Additional 2x or 4x CAT6 to office area. Single CAT6 to doorbell location, and to ceiling locations for Ubiquiti wifi access points. 2x CAT6, 2x RG6, and 1" empty carlon resigard (orange smurf tube) from panel to house can outside for service providers.

Additionally if desired at TV location install receptacle and LV ring at TV height and another LV ring next to the LV port. These are connected together with 1" conduit and have decora brush cable entry on them.

There was a fancier one where owner wanted all the equipment in a closet and no ports showing on walls so we ran a CAT6 in conduit to behind each TV then used HD-BaseT converters to get HDMI+IR return between cable boxes in the closet and the wall mounted TVs.
 
I wouldn’t even pull coax except to the living room TV or wherever they might have a cable or satellite DVR. All of those boxes can connect via Ethernet now. Unless they are using digital basic cable that doesn’t require a receiver.

I install a 42” on-q enclosure in a closet, and then a 9” or 17” on-q enclosure behind each tv with a single Ethernet. If the customer needs additional Ethernet at a tv, use a 5-port switch there.

Spend more money on quality networking equipment and access points.

In my own house I have one coax for my cable modem, and one Ethernet to each tv for my apple TV’s. And I have four 4x4 MIMO AP’s and a roaming controller; two AP’s are outside. Brick house, WiFi doesn’t travel through the walls very well. I’m using DirecTV stream to watch network channels. I would recommend to hardwire any streaming boxes but with a solid WiFi setup you can do wireless.


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I discussed with homeowner and realized I need to run a WIFI network (I knew this one already) but then we realized they need to run an antennae cabling system because now a days everyone steams and gets local TV over the air so need to but antennae in attic. Thanks
for all the replys
Andy
 
I suggest a cat5 or cat6 to each tv location so as to relieve the usage of wifi. You get a half dozen tvs on all at once and you'll probably have isdues.

I also suggest at least one cat5 or cat6 on each floor for a potential computer location (or wifi extender)
 
hbiss said:
Unfortunately, that's all homeowners know is WiFi. You don't need wiring anymore, you know. If that's their attitude let them get it from the cable company or some IT dude.

-Hal
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The customer will be better off in the long run in some cases if they have hard wiring but a lot of people get by with Wi-Fi and never miss the hardwiring. In the end it's what they're willing to pay for.
 
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