Hey selfhosted, any tips or tricks for running cat6 in your home?
Hey selfhosted, any tips or tricks for running cat6 in your home?
I hope this is appropriate here. I figured it fits the general theme of things considering if we’re self hosting there’s gotta be some hardware involved.
I’ve got a house built in the 1960s US. I’m working on upgrading my security infrastructure to a PoE system as my previous choice of wireless system was a poor decision on my part. I have all my ‘gear’ if you will in the basement but I don’t have any convenient drops from the attic to my basement. I need to do a total of 8 drops from attic to basement. I’m not too versed in wiring things through a home (ie. minimal damage to walls and such) I’ve done long runs in warehouses but that was essential all open space.
My main questions are:
- is there any specific conduit I should be looking at to pull the runs through the walls?
- Is there any specific tools that I need to know about to make this job easier? I assume one of those line pullers would be handy in this case ( the hell are they actually called?
- Any other tips and tricks from those of you who have done something similar?
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O man, this is one of my jamb's!
- Conduit: not required, you can run through walls with cable, but!!!! Any time I open up a wall for any reason I run conduit. I chose to run metal so I can run power in the future. Running "smurf tube" or PVC is perfectly ok for networking. The big advantage of conduit is that you can leave a pull string and/or fish new cables easily until its full
- YES!
- Sharpie before all other tools ALWAYS LABEL THE CABLE BEFORE YOU PULL IT. If you dont you will be testing later on with more expensive tools to figure out which cable is which. A Sharpie is cheep.
- Side cutters/cable cutters, or utility scissors (my recommendation) these are needed to cut cables, strip off jackets, and cut kevlar/thread or plastic core. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1718739-REG/jonard_tools_es_1964_electrician_s_scissors.html
- RJ45 Crimp tool, you can do pass through ends or not thats up to you, but get good ones they are worth the investment. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1043092-REG/eclipse_tools_902_354_network_tool_bundle.html
- Drywall Saw https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-6-in-Drywall-Saw-with-Plastic-Handle-725/100647777
- Fish tape or glass rods (I prefer fish tape) 25' or 50' are fine for home use.https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1718757-REG/jonard_tools_fts_50_steel_fish_tape.html
- Lightweight cordless drill, I like Milwaukee but there are plenty of options https://www.homedepot.com/p/M12-FUEL-12-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Brushless-Cordless-Hammer-Drill-and-Impact-Driver-Combo-Kit-w-2-Batteries-and-Bag-2-Tool-3497-22/320268525
- Heavy duty corded drill (hammer suggested) https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-7-8-Amp-Corded-1-2-in-Variable-Speed-Reversible-Hammer-Drill-DW511/100037000
- Paddle bits, get at least one long one so you can get through wall top-plates https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-High-Speed-Wood-Spade-Bit-Set-13-Piece-48-27-1520/305537862 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-Daredevil-1-in-x-16-in-Spade-Bit-DLSB1013/203274545
- I also like wood boring bits https://www.lowes.com/pd/BLACK-DECKER-Marples-14-Piece-Woodboring-Drill-Bit/1003008984
- Pull string, every time you pull a drop, pull some string so you can run more lines in the future! https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bender-1-8-in-x-6500-ft-L-210-lbs-Strength-Poly-Pull-Value-Blow-Line-in-a-Bucket-PL132B/313821648
- Use interior walls as much as you can. Very often you can find closet walls and interior walls that have almost no electrical in them and have no insulation which makes running cable very easy. I would avoid exterior walls as drilling into the top plate near the roof line is a tight space and running fish tape with insulation is a pain in the butt.
Example of a decent interior wall that should go from basement to attic even on a multi story house.I like to use low cost bike hooks to keep my cables off the ceiling in the attic that way im not walking all over them they are very affordable but are not great for long pulls as they drag on the cable jacket. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Vinyl-Coated-Steel-Screw-In-Bicycle-Hook-25-lbs-21407/206585761 real J Hooks that are designed for cable are $$$ https://www.homedepot.com/p/ICC-3-4-in-J-Hook-ICC-ICCMSJHK22/204517525.
I ended up installing 2x 3" PVC conduits from my basement rack through a closet wall into the attic. From there I run cable through the bike hooks until I get to the wall I need to do the drop in, and then I drill a hole in the wall top plate and drop my cables down that wall.
I always try to drop my cables along side a vertical stud so I will cut into the wall BEFORE i run cable and do so directly adjacent to the stud. I dont install the box until the cable is run, but I use the cheap new construction boxes https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-1-Gang-18-cu-in-Blue-PVC-New-Work-Electrical-Switch-and-Outlet-Box-B118A/202546986 and just cut the nails off rather than use more expensive "old work" boxes https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-14-cu-in-PVC-Old-Work-Electrical-Outlet-Box-1-Gang-B114RB/100404027
Some drywall screws in the side of the box going into the stud are more than enough to secure it.
When cutting the box in I find the stud (use a magnet, never trust a stud-finder) measure to the middle of any existing boxes or outlets. I then measure that hight out about about 1" from where I expect to find the stud, and I cut in the direction of the stud with my drywall saw. Once I hit the stud I pull out the saw, and I align the box center to the cut, and the edge to the vertical stud. I trace the outline of the box using a pencil and then cut along that line. If you do it this way it should end up level, the same height as other outlets/boxes, and be permanently secured so it wont fall out like some of the cheap low voltage cutin's that cable companies LOVE.
HOW DO I GIVE YOU GOLD?
Excellent write-up - exactly what us nerdy new home-owners need! :D
https://www.patreon.com/discussonline/posts
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You could do a 1 time donation to my instances admin to help him cover hosting costs!
Wow, what an incredibly detail response thanks for all of this.
Holy shit this is going to help me out! Thank you so fucking much man, definitely saved my ass more than once! Lol.
Side note : The photo embeds are amazing on Lemmy, idk if it's just me but I way prefer it to Reddit.
Any advice for Victorian era terraced houses in the UK where every wall is solid brick :/
Wb the ceiling? Then paint the wire to match the walls LMFAO. I've also seen people cut channels in drywall then spackle over the wire (this can be a problem if you go to hang something though...)
Yeah the correct way to do it is to chisel a channel in the plaster and embed the cable in the plaster, but thats quite an ordeal to do, a lot of older houses here have plaster on brick interior walls, the same plaster you find in old houses in the US where you'd have lathe and plaster instead because you mostly build houses from wood. (Also we call drywall plasterboard)
Yep, big fucking hammer drill and drill bit. Make sure you have some solid ear protection and kick everyone out of the house while you drill.
Yeah ended up doing that in a couple of places, for me its not practical to have bundles of cable running from a central switch, because of having to run a cable through a hole in the wall, hiding it behind skirting boards (baseboards) and under floors (where there are crawl spaces). My work place is based in a really old building and theres just bundles of ethernet everywhere running across floors and loosely attached to walls etc, wish they spent the time, effort and money of equipment running fewer 10Gb runs to floors then having 10Gb to 1Gb switches for the workstations.
That is hard :( I did a bit of work with an 1880's Victorian but that was in the North East US so it was plaster and horsehair but hallow walls even on the outside.
Do you want to take some pictures and I can see if there is anything I can think of? Chances are if they plastered right on top of brick/stone than pulling off the baseboard like you did and running everything behind them may be your only option for hiding cables.
Nah, thanks but I think I've got a handle on the options, my original reply was more a tongue-in-cheek "cries in brick wall" type thing. I mean it has its positives, I could hang a wall mounted rack anywhere without any prep or checking :)
Interesting - in Australia internal walls are impossible and all cabling needs to be done on external walls - they run between the frame and the brickwork in the brick veneer constructions that are common here.