Burying Cat6 and running alongside power

[Mike_J_Smith]

Hi All,

I’m having some electrical work carried out next week which will involve running electrical power through the loft, down the side of the house, underground for ~5m and then into the garage.

Since the electrician is going to be doing this and digging channels for the power cables, I was thinking of using this as an opportunity to run cat6 cable from the loft into the garage, as that’s what I wil need in 3-6 months time.

Given that the cable will be buried and travel alongside mains cable, what cable should I use? I’d probably need 30 meters or so allowing for leeway.

Or is it a bad idea and I should just run the cat cable later and separate from the power?

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Sparx]

Presumably the electrics will be SWA as it's going underground and to the garage?

If you can put some conduit in for the 5m underground section, use it just for the Cat6 and then just just buy standard external rated Cat6 cable (like this stuff for £21) and direct clip the rest along the walls etc... But you should keep it a good few (ideally 6-8") apart from the SWA, although interference is unlikely with SWA it's best practise (might even be in regulations somewhere) to keep it a suitable distance apart as suggested.

Or if you don't want to run conduit for the underground bit, you could buy 30m armoured external Cat6 cable (here for £68). Just means it'll be more of a pain to run the cable (less flexible) and terminate (removing the protective steel wire etc). However it would be a proper job and you should have no worries that trees/roots/rats could eat into the cable, or someone accidently digging into it there would be much better protection.

Still keep it a few inches apart from the electrical run regardless, but I'd definitely get the Cat6 done if you're paying labour to have the electrics being run from/to the same area!

 

[Mike_J_Smith]

Excellent, thanks. I think I just needed some reassurance! I had already looked at that cable so I’ve ordered 30m. I will just get the electrician to bring it into the loft and leave it so that I can route it at a later date.

 

[Sparx]

Sounds good, I'd have gone for the armoured cable personally as well. Is the sparky not burying the SWA and running it to the garage already? I'd get him to do it at the same time if you'll have the cable on hand. Leave it loose in the garage then so less labour for yourself? Just my 2p anyway.

 

[Mike_J_Smith]

Yes that’s exactly what I’ll do. He’ll be burying the cable anyway and messing about in the loft, so may as well get him to run the cat cable. I’ll leave some loose in the garage and loft to play with in the future. Thanks for your help.

 

[bledd]

Run two of them!

 

[Mike_J_Smith]

Run two of them!

That’s a good idea. I got 30m so I could split it into 2 15m lengths and do from just inside the loft, down and into the garage; not sure if that is possible to do with 30m though.

How would I connect them inside the loft? They’d need to connect up to standard cat6 cable to go off into the patch panel

 

[Quartz]

Keep as much of it as possible as one cable. As few joins as possible. But do install pull wires in the underground pipe - don't just bury the cables - and oversize the pipe to allow for more cables later.