internet/TV cable rough in question

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Stevenfyeager

Senior Member
Location
United States, Indiana
Occupation
electrical contractor
My customer wants me to run all internet and TV cables (Cat 5 and coax) runs to a room in the center of the house and run one of each of those two to the outside of the house for the providers to connect to. My question is what type of wires do I run from that room to the outside for the providers to connect to ? (Normally we run all runs to a room near an outside wall close to the providers entry, but not in this case) The house will be drywalled soon and the providers won't be able to access this room, I will try and call a provider today. Thank you.
 
Empty PVC conduit?

Houses last a lot longer than telecom protocols. It wasn't all that long ago, while working for a cash-strapped startup business, that a coworker lamented, "Nobody takes you seriously if you don't have a fax machine.".
 
Depends on the provider too. FiOS and many others use RG6 for the CATV and Cat 5e or Cat 6 for Ethernet. I would not run Cat 5.
 
I have seen a new home that had a communications cabinet in the center of the house with smurf tube (ENT) running from there to garage for provider runs.
 
drcampbell said:
Empty PVC conduit?

Houses last a lot longer than telecom protocols.
Click to expand...

This.

My daughter’s house was built in 2013. We had 1” pvc run for this purpose. Was very handy for the catv installer at the time.
Just this year, she had fiber internet installed - not available or even considered when the house was built. The fiber installer smiled when he saw the pipe!
 
+2 on the conduit. Even Verizon here roughs in commercial building spaces with smurf tube then pulls in fiber when the customer signs up. Technology is moving so fast that RG6 and CAT6 today will look like knob and tube in a few years. I wouldn't install anything that couldn't be easily changed.

-Hal
 
+3 for conduit, and use PVC and not smurf tube if you can help it. Smurf tube is an absolute bear to pull through with more than one or two bends and many LV cables / fiber have low max allowable pulling tension. 1" PVC will make the installer's day, and the cost difference is minimal.

Consider your back boxes as well; make them as deep and large as possible; many data cables and coax (and especially fiber) have minimum bending requirements that can't be satisfied with shallow back boxes.


SceneryDriver
 
In this area, it is quite common for the provided to ignore all previously installed RG cables as they have the warranty but have no control over the install. The house I recently bought has three sets of RG in some locations.
Once the network interface was installed, they didn't care if the cable was Cat5 or Cat6.
Check with your providers.

I vote for the orange smurf tube.
 
SceneryDriver said:
+3 for conduit, and use PVC and not smurf tube if you can help it. Smurf tube is an absolute bear to pull through with more than one or two bends and many LV cables / fiber have low max allowable pulling tension. 1" PVC will make the installer's day, and the cost difference is minimal.

Consider your back boxes as well; make them as deep and large as possible; many data cables and coax (and especially fiber) have minimum bending requirements that can't be satisfied with shallow back boxes.


SceneryDriver
Click to expand...

We used 1” also, but I will add that if there is any chance you need to pull an HDMI cable, it will be tight given the size of the connectors.
 
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