Help running cat6 cable outdoors

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 09:50

Morning folks.

Ok so my question is cause I'm having a nightmare trying to work this out. I'm either over thinking it or I'm just being plain stupid either way some confirmation would be great.

I'm running some cat 6 cable from the front room of my house outside and round to the back if the house into my man cave. I've been told mdpe tubing is good but the only place I can get black is online (misses doesn't want blue tubing round outside of the house) however I have to wait for that to be delivered and I was hoping to do it today before I head back to work tomorrow. I was wondering whether general garden hose pipe would be suitable? I've found this one on Wickes which is long enough and weather resistant however I'm un sure on the diameter and whether are not the cat 6 cable will fit through. I'm having an absolute nightmare trying to work this out. Maths is not my strong point....

Would any of you be able to help me out? Or recommend something else possibly as long as it's black. Here what I was looking at.

Hose pipe

martin363 · 6 Jun 2016 at 09:59

Hi,

I have had white and blue CAT cable running outside my house in the tropics un-tubed for the last 4 years. there is some environmental stress cracking to the PVC outer but it still works fine, no issues. if I need to replace it in the future because of weathering, I will but 4 years in the tropical sun and monsoon is likely tougher than UK weather.

Hope that helps.

Martin

K.C. Leblanc · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:11

It would probably be easier to get outdoor grade cat5e.

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:14

K.C. Leblanc said:
It would probably be easier to get outdoor grade cat5e.

Already bought the cable in advance. Didnt think it would be this much hassle...i was wrong lol

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:16

martin363 said:
Hi,

I have had white and blue CAT cable running outside my house in the tropics un-tubed for the last 4 years. there is some environmental stress cracking to the PVC outer but it still works fine, no issues. if I need to replace it in the future because of weathering, I will but 4 years in the tropical sun and monsoon is likely tougher than UK weather.

Hope that helps.

Martin

Hi Martin.

Thanks for that. Out if curiousty where abouts in the UK do u live? Im up by Newcastle and its more rain and wind than anything else lol.

Have you ever had any trouble with connection being interupted or water leaking into the cabling?

andicole0 · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:23

We ran normal cable outside at work for years with no issues, I wouldn't bother with anything extra. Avoid external connections if you can though.
Unless you want to run it through a rats nest!
Andi.

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:24

andicole0 said:
We ran normal cable outside at work for years with no issues, I wouldn't bother with anything extra. Avoid external connections if you can though.
Unless you want to run it through a rats nest!
Andi.

Both connectors are gunna be inside so itll ne purely just the cable in the outdoor elements

Claire Drew · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:45

Maybe try something from your local plumbers merchants. They have a variety of different piping in black. comes in 3 meter lengths and cost about £3/4 a length and can also get bends and T`s and the clips.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=black+piping

suenstar · 6 Jun 2016 at 10:55

Martin's profile says that he lives in Vietnam.

I run a basic RJ-11 telephone cable around the outside of my house and it's not suffered any issues from weather, a CAT6 cable has better shielding than a standard telephone cable so you should be fine.
If you're concerned you could do what Claire Drew suggested and purchase some cheap pipes from a plumbing supplier and run the cable through that for some extra cover... I'd be shocked if out climate could cause any issues after that.

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 11:51

suenstar said:
Martin's profile says that he lives in Vietnam.

I run a basic RJ-11 telephone cable around the outside of my house and it's not suffered any issues from weather, a CAT6 cable has better shielding than a standard telephone cable so you should be fine.
If you're concerned you could do what Claire Drew suggested and purchase some cheap pipes from a plumbing supplier and run the cable through that for some extra cover... I'd be shocked if out climate could cause any issues after that.

Ive took the risk and at the minute im in the process of running the cable about the house. Ive left some flex inside incase we move the router as i have spare and also using cable ties / clips for quickness as if i decide to run in in some tubing its easily taken down and put back up.

Fingers crossed lol

stuartharrison · 6 Jun 2016 at 12:13

Should be fine - if it can handle Vietnamese tropics it can handle Newcastle.
It's well shielded - if anything happens you just replace the cable.
They're quite robust.

Cern · 6 Jun 2016 at 12:38

CAT6 cable is pretty sturdy and relatively cheap, so it's worth the risk rather than spending extra money on sleeving. Keep it off the ground though or it will be eaten through by rats / mice. I've lost a couple of bird nest box camera cables that way.

wakadoo · 6 Jun 2016 at 13:00

run the cable through a hosepipe, they are cheap, flexible and come in many colours now.

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 13:10

Cern said:
CAT6 cable is pretty sturdy and relatively cheap, so it's worth the risk rather than spending extra money on sleeving. Keep it off the ground though or it will be eaten through by rats / mice. I've lost a couple of bird nest box camera cables that way.

Ive ran it round the house following the route of the virgin connection. So it goes out the same hole and followed it round the house towards the back bedroom and then into outhouse looks pretty decent tbh the grey kind of matches the cement work

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 13:18

pictures of the finished product. Thanks for the advice folks, much appreciated as always!

And for those of you who haven't seen it this is the project I've been working on that need your help. Man Cave

stuartharrison · 6 Jun 2016 at 13:24

Neat cabling - shouldn't interfere with airflow

pabloh20 · 6 Jun 2016 at 14:58

It will be fine, I have had cat6 cabling running outside of my house for quite a few years now with absolutely no sign of any detrimental effects on the cable. I am Liverpool, so not too dissimilar climate to yourself, maybe a tad less windy! I just got white cat6cable and joined in the route of the sky cables that were going the same direction, so it just looks like a sky feed.

Barron2110 · 6 Jun 2016 at 15:05

pabloh20 said:
It will be fine, I have had cat6 cabling running outside of my house for quite a few years now with absolutely no sign of any detrimental effects on the cable. I am Liverpool, so not too dissimilar climate to yourself, maybe a tad less windy! I just got white cat6cable and joined in the route of the sky cables that were going the same direction, so it just looks like a sky feed.

Yeah thats all ive done mate. Looks quite neat and tidy. Happy with the results and saved myself about £30

pabloh20 · 6 Jun 2016 at 15:57

Yeah, I saw the pix, neat job!

It was just another reassurance that you will be fine without doing anything else to the cable. I just checked and it was 5 years ago when I ran my cable outside and as I said there is no sign of weathering at all that I can see.

I think by the time the weather does start affecting the cable, like me, you will be well moved on to the next gen of cables, whatever that will be. We might even be running fibres by then lol

Cern · 6 Jun 2016 at 16:41

Barron2110 said:
pictures of the finished product. Thanks for the advice folks, much appreciated as always!

A very tidy job.

I think it's probably best left as it is. If you put any kind of sleeving up, be it hosepipe or plumbers tubing, it's going to draw a lot more attention from 'her indoors' and risk having planning permission for your mancave revoked