Drilling from first floor to second floor

tidusjar

tidusjar

tidusjar

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Joined
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Farnborough
Hi guys,

I want to run Cat5e cables from downstairs to upstairs, I was originally going to just route them in some trunking all the way up (around 20-25m) but I'm just thinking, it's going to be quite ugly.

So I am thinking about just drilling directly upwards (office is above). The master socket is right by the front door, now I've never really done much drilling (other than frames etc), is there anything I should be aware of when going through a floor? I do not know where any pipes etc are in the walls.

Thanks
 
Lift a floor board where you want to drill. That way you can make sure you won't hit a pipe or cable or even joist. Will also make it much easier to actually find the cable once pushed up into the ceiling space.
 
ZG002 said:
Lift a floor board where you want to drill. That way you can make sure you won't hit a pipe or cable or even joist. Will also make it much easier to actually find the cable once pushed up into the ceiling space.
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I was hoping there would be an easier way. To lift up the floorboards I will need to take a lot of the current flooring up :(
 
I routed my cat6a cables from the front porch to the upstairs rooms and loft by going through the above floor.

It's safer by lifting the floorboards in the room above where the cables are going to enter. This way you can visually inspect distance to drill away from floor joists and if there are any plumbing/electrical wiring that could get in the way.

Cat5e will be much easier to work with, just keep the cables away from copper heating pipes as my cable's insulation was rated upto 50 degrees c and pipes can get as hot as 70c when cranked up to max during winter.
 
I have just realised a potentially better way, There is already a hole in the outside wall in the office for the Sky dish feed, I could just use that. Just need to drill through the outside wall... Or is that more 'dangerous'?
 
probably safer to drill through outside wall as at least you know you won't be drilling through a pipe or wire by accident.

Just make sure you angle the drill upwards (from outside) to prevent water from being able to run through the hole to the inside..
 
If you peel back some carpet in the office above where you want the cable to come through you can see where the nails hold the floor down. That will give you the location of the joists. Working a few inches away from where a joist is likely to be you then need a bi-metal hole saw of a reasonable size. If you have a long electrical extension cable you can mitigate some risk by connecting the extension cable to a kitchen outlet if these are on a separate fuse at the fuse box / consumer unit. That way you can switch all except the kitchen electricity off at the consumer unit. Use the bi-metal hole saw with it's arbor and slowly drill hole in desired location. The bi-metal hole saw needs to big enough for you to fit your hand through the hole. Slowly drill it so that the drill doesn't shoot through the hole, ideally a drill with a measuring gauge will stop you pushing the drill way past the thickness of the flooring material. Now you press the circular cut out, out of the bi-metal saw as you'll need it later. Once you've finished with the hole fit a piece of wood that can span across the inside of the hole and screw through the floor to attach the wood. This is why you need the hole to be a little way in from the side of the room and joist. Once the wood is screwed in place you can pop the circular cut out of flooring back in the hole and screw this to the wooden support you just added.

Whilst you have the hole you can shine a torch in the hole and feel around to check for any items like pipes or cables that are running in close proximity to the surface / location. If all is good drill a smaller hole to feed the cable through closer to the edge of the room as far as is possible taking account of any obstructions such as the joist. When you feed the cable up from below you can use the larger hole to get hold of the cable and feed it through the smaller hole. Once that's done you can close up the larger hole you made with the bi-metal hole saw, as above.

The gap around the circular piece of flooring that you put back can always be filled with some gripfill.
 
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tidusjar said:
I have just realised a potentially better way, There is already a hole in the outside wall in the office for the Sky dish feed, I could just use that. Just need to drill through the outside wall... Or is that more 'dangerous'?
Click to expand...

External grade cat5e will be fine. Get a hole tidy, cable clips and some clear silicone to make it look neater.
 
tidusjar said:
Is there a danger to using regular cat5?

Also where would the best place to get external cat6/cat5e be?
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You're shooting yourself in the foot with cat5, you may aswell get powerlines if using that. Cat5e is 10/1000Mbps and is better. Don't know where the danger element comes in unless falling of a ladder counts :p
Netstoredirect sell cables, and connectors. If you're doing the job once just get a cheap crimping tool from Amazon. There are other places that sell cables by the metre but they are ocuk competitors so just do a search for external grade non cca solid core cat5e cable.

Adam said:
If you were routing the cable outside would it be advisable to use metal conduit as well?
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If routing many cables then an overflow waste pipe would be better imo. Otherwise if it's one or two cable runs then external grade is fine.
 
I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the reason you use exterior grade cable is to avoid the need for any sort of conduit?
 
Twirlywoos said:
You're shooting yourself in the foot with cat5, you may aswell get powerlines if using that. Cat5e is 10/1000Mbps and is better. Don't know where the danger element comes in unless falling of a ladder counts :p
Netstoredirect sell cables, and connectors. If you're doing the job once just get a cheap crimping tool from Amazon. There are other places that sell cables by the metre but they are ocuk competitors so just do a search for external grade non cca solid core cat5e cable.



If routing many cables then an overflow waste pipe would be better imo. Otherwise if it's one or two cable runs then external grade is fine.
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Yes sorry I meant Cat5e.

So this would be fine? http://www.netstoredirect.com/rj45-...5e-utp-ldpe-rj45-patch-leads.html#/length-15m
 
Conduit / waste pipe is just for cosmetic reasons, and the external grade stuff is just for UV protection but I've run normal (not external) Cat5e cable as outside cabling a number of times, and its worked for 5+ years (I moved house).
 
tidusjar said:
Yes sorry I meant Cat5e.

So this would be fine? http://www.netstoredirect.com/rj45-...5e-utp-ldpe-rj45-patch-leads.html#/length-15m
Click to expand...

If you want to drill a bigger hole through the wall to accommodate a cable that is pre-assembled with connectors then that will be perfect for outdoors.

You could chop one of the connectors off to make routing easier and at the end that enters your office get an external box with single module. You'll need a Krone punch down tool also.

http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat5e...tes.html?search_query=double+cat5e&results=12
http://www.netstoredirect.com/faceplates-backboxes/85-surface-mount-back-boxes.html

If the cable is going behind a wall then buy a flush mount box instead
http://www.netstoredirect.com/faceplates-backboxes/291657-dryline-flush-mount-back-boxes.html

Edit you'll also need a normal cat5e cable that will run to your computer
 
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