Which cables to install during large house renovation?

[[FnG]magnolia]

Hi,

We have a two storey house which is going through substantial renovations. At the moment the framing has been done but the gib/walls have not gone up. Now appears to be the ideal time to install data cables but I'm not sure what I want which is driven by ignorance of what is available. What are the obvious things I should be thinking about having fitted?

 

[Maccapacca]

Pull 4 Cat 5/6 cables from every room to a central point.

Maybe 8 from your front room.

 

[PlacidCasual]

On the basis of house building books I've read, what is your purpose in fitting data cables? Is it for your own desire with the long term plan of living there or for value when the house is sold on. It's just unless it's something you really want you need to control the costs because buyers following you may not place the same value on it.

 

[Destination]

What sort of ceilings will you have, solid or suspended?
Can you conduit around the place happily?

Shielded cabling, or not intertwined with electric supply is best.
Cate 5e, or cat 6, one has more flexibility in the amount of bend iirc, less placement intensive.
Either terminate into faceplates or into room hubs. Will you have a central server?
How is NZ TV delivered, cable, satellite or aerial?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Pull 4 Cat 5/6 cables from every room to a central point.

Maybe 8 from your front room.

Why?

On the basis of house building books I've read, what is your purpose in fitting data cables? Is it for your own desire with the long term plan of living there or for value when the house is sold on. It's just unless it's something you really want you need to control the costs because buyers following you may not place the same value on it.

We're not selling our house, the refurb is for us to live here for a considerable time. The truth is I don't know what the purpose is - I almost don't know what I don't know. It's possible that I don't even need them. Several friends and our builder have all mentioned how now is the ideal time to fit cabling because the house is so open and easy to fit.

What sort of ceilings will you have, solid or suspended?
Can you conduit around the place happily?

Shielded cabling, or not intertwined with electric supply is best.
Cate 5e, or cat 6, one has more flexibility in the amount of bend iirc, less placement intensive.
Either terminate into faceplates or into room hubs. Will you have a central server?
How is NZ TV delivered, cable, satellite or aerial?

Upstairs flooring sits on top of steel beam-supported floor joists and it's very easy to conduit around the entire house right now - it's basically a shell until the walls go up. We have aerial and satellite TV.

The more I type the more I think the problem is that I don't know what I want. Maybe my question is : given complete access to your entire house, what would you fit while you had the chance?

 

[Nightglow]

Pull 4 Cat 5/6 cables from every room to a central point.

Maybe 8 from your front room.

Definitely need that many in front room, plan for the future not the present.
Might not used all of them today, but in six months, a year or two you may be wishing you had install extra cables.

You have tv's home cinema amps, blue ray, these are just a few items, most have a network port now, then you have IP phones, & IP cameras for security.

And pull a couple of cables into the kitchen, plus I would use Cat 6, again it will future proof you a bit.

 

[axer]

2+ Cat5/6 ports from every habitable room back to a patch panel & switch in a cubbyhole somewhere e.g. under the stairs/office/utility room>

I'd also consider putting a HDMI cable between any living areas that you might want to play movies in in case you want to power them from a noisy/bulky/ugly HTPC.

 

[bitslice]

Shielded cabling

People often suggest this as they think more shielding must be better, but given that a home environment is electrically pretty quiet then it's mostly pointless and just adds a lot of material and fitting cost to the install. Not to mention that in some circumstances the shielding acts as a nice aerial anyway. UTP is fine, and personally I wouldn't even bother with Cat6, the installer is only going to make a pig's ear of the connectors and it'll downgrade to Cat5 anyway.


Add some 75ohm Coaxial cable for FM, DAB and CCTV

Add some 6/8 core cable for alarm signalling and possible automation or environmental monitoring

Add a few HDMI leads.

Remember that you can route telephone over cat5

 

[nick.lidgett]

You can also stream an hdmi signal over cat5e and cat6 with the help of a couple of little boxes.
I have run a cat5e cable to the room upstairs where my desk is for my pc to use, but i have not bothered putting it anywhere else because the wireless signal i recieve around the house is strong enough to stream most media types.
However, with more and more things relying on an internet connection, if i was you i would add the cables now, while the walls are unfinished, it will save a lot of disruption in the future.
Just because you dont know what you need them for now, they may come in handy one day.

 

[James]

Hi There

I've got a central cupboard where all my AV gubbins is going.
I've ran CAT6 to both bedrooms, and four lots in lounge/kitchen/diner area including two behind the tv.
Two HDMi cables from the tv to the cupboard.
Speaker cable to both bedrooms, bathroom and on ground floor.