Roughing in for satellite.

[electrofelon]

Roughing in a house in a rural area. Cell service is marginal and there is no cable. Owner is not sure what service if any they will use. Question came up about roughing in for satellite/dish in case - to avoid them coming in after and running cables all on the outside of the house. How does this work: each location needs it's own receiver correct? I always see a double cable run, is this just two runs of RG6? Any idea if the sat people will complain about hooking up cable that I run?

 

[zbang]

You're probably better off running smurf tube from a central location to the prosepective outlets and to the roof, then they can pull in whatever they want.

 

[LarryFine]

The only true future-proofing is conduit. You can stub up or down, say with 3/4" PVC, for each room if you have crawl- and attic-space, respectively, and a 2" PVC connecting the two, or up or down from a central point if you only have one of the two spaces.

If you have to run the wiring now, I would recommend two coax and two CAT5 cables to each room from a central location, plus the same from that location to the exterior for the incoming services. You should also wire for at least one hard-wired phone jack.

 

[Little Bill]

The only true future-proofing is conduit. You can stub up or down, say with 3/4" PVC, for each room if you have crawl- and attic-space, respectively, and a 2" PVC connecting the two, or up or down from a central point if you only have one of the two spaces.

If you have to run the wiring now, I would recommend two coax and two CAT5 cables to each room from a central location, plus the same from that location to the exterior for the incoming services. You should also wire for at least one hard-wired phone jack.

I'm not seeing why two of each cable, and why every room? I usually ask the HO where they want cables or where they are likely to want one in the future. I then run them from the room to a central location. What I usually do is put in a media cabinet close to the panel and run all the cables to there.

 

[electrofelon]

I agree running conduits is the best for future proofing, but I do no think that is in the budget. Its one of those situations client doesnt know exactly what they want, dont want to spend any more money, yadda yadda....

 

[LarryFine]

I'm not seeing why two of each cable, and why every room?

I meant in each room the customer wants wired, and two of each only because you're trying to cover all contingencies.

 

[egnlsn]

Two RG6 cables because a lot of people watch TV OTA in addition to their cable/satellite service. Two CAT6 cables -- 1 for network and the 2nd one for a home phone. If it's not used for a phone, there are 8 conductors that could be utilized for a wide variety of other things, including remote control of a DVD player located elsewhere in the house.

Most of the general public are not educated in these things, and don't think of 5 years down the road. When they start building a home, they go with the minimum cabling package, which often is 1coax and 1CAT6 to the master bedroom, and the same to a spot in the living room. Putting cables in other rooms costs more and is not needed. Some years later, they need a TV outlet and a network connection in a room they're going to use as a home office, so they cuss out the builder for not cabling that room and have to pay (more) to have it done. If the whole house is finished, they may end up with cables on the exterior, which nobody wants.

The safest route would be a conduit to each location where you think they may want cabling. If not that, pull in 2 RG6 and 2 CAT6 to each location (bedrooms, living room, family room). If they only want a TV there, stash the other cables behind the wallplate. Odds are that they will put a smart TV there and need a network connection, not wanting to do WiFi.

 

[hillbilly1]

You're probably better off running smurf tube from a central location to the prosepective outlets and to the roof, then they can pull in whatever they want.

That’s what I do, and a 2” from the basement to the attic. Helps if they decide to do security cameras later too.

 

[oldsparky52]

Y'all have heard of wireless, right?

I like the smurf tube idea. With smart TV's able to get signals through my wireless router and cable company apps as well as other viewing apps, I bet it won't be too long before you won't need any wired device.

 

[PaulMmn]

Unfortunately, a wired connection is a lot more reliable than wireless, and almost certainly has greater bandwidth. When possible, wire it!

 

[hbiss]

That’s what I do, and a 2” from the basement to the attic. Helps if they decide to do security cameras later too.

+1

I wouldn't even want to get involved with running the cables for this. Requirements change almost every day. And what about internet? AFAIK only a couple of providers provide internet via satellite (at a blazing 50 Mbps) but no TV. So that means another dish for TV.

I wouldn't even know where to start. Stay out of it and just run empty conduit.

-Hal

 

[GeorgeB]

The 2" from basement to attic sounds good. You's do well to use 1.25" or 1.5" within the rooms to allow HDMI connectors to easily fit and be replaced as technology improves.

 

[cabledawg]

Run a ground wire as well!

 

[zbang]

Yep, pretty much install everything needed except for the actual signal cable and connectors.

 

[LarryFine]

Run a ground wire as well!

I'll bite. Why?

 

[cabledawg]

At the very least, make sure the co-ax ground block is grounded, same from said ground block back to the satellite dish. So you don't introduce voltage/lightning back into the house. If its "new construction" or "retro-fit", you can always install an enclosure inside and have all your services(cat5/6/co-ax) run back to it. Then wire from the enclosure to the outside services.

 

[hbiss]

No. Grounding and ground blocks are not your responsibility. Don't even bother with an enclosure because the ones designed for this are a joke. Everything winds up hanging out of it. If you feel like it, just install a large backboard someplace with your conduit runs going to it. Install a quad receptacle on it. Job done.

-Hal

 

[electrofelon]

No. Grounding and ground blocks are not your responsibility. Don't even bother with an enclosure because the ones designed for this are a joke. Everything winds up hanging out of it. If you feel like it, just install a large backboard someplace with your conduit runs going to it. Install a quad receptacle on it. Job done.

-Hal

My take on it is than non of this is my responsibility, it's just all about trying to prevent the comm companies from running their wires all over the exterior of my clients brand new house

 

[cabledawg]

No worries.

 

[suemarkp]

Do you have an intersystem bonding block near where the sat cabling splitter will be? If not, they will need that or a wire going to it. The sat companies usually want to use their own cable to the dish, and they could need from 1 to 4 depending on what services the user wants and how many tuners they need (I have one dish antenna with two cables). Typically, they use one coax to each room receiver that has tuners, but each company is different and they are coming out with new hardware all the time. But many now can use ethernet or even wi-fi instead as long as the main receiver tuner(s) have a coax cable (they use MOCA to communicate between boxes). I much prefer to have things on wired paths and not have everything sucking up the wi-fi.

If the path from the splitter to the dish is easy for them to access, then you could be done. If no easy way to pull cables and a ground, I'd help them by providing a path. Otherwise, it is probably going to be visible on the outside.