I have a 35 year old house that I have been running wires through for the last 5 years. I now have (for 2 weeks) some open walls that give me a straight run from the basement to the attic--I want to take advantage of this opportunity, but what should I run?

Right now I have a 3x4 sat multiswitch in the attic feeding rg6 to 4 bedrooms-- another multiswitch in basement feeding the downstairs ( 2 dishes) I've previously run some cat5 to 2 bedrooms for lan-- other than that, nothing structured or organized.

I have a spot in the basement where most wires pass-- thinking thats the best place to be my "hub"-- do I need one of those structured wiring cabinets? or can I just mount some splitters etc on a board on the wall?

How much wire do you leave in the attic for future use?

I realize the answers could easily be "it depends" but I'm looking for some general guidance--

thanks

Um.. What do you want to do? What wire you run definatly depends on that.

Are you planning on ever moving? That definatlyhas a bearing as putting in a ton of wire now when you may move in 5 years is kinda silly. You have LAN, I assume you have Phone and Coax.... Is it home run? If not thats what I would concentrate on.

Our "Structured Wire: generally consists of 2 RG-6 coax cables and 2 Cat-5e wires to each location. All Home run of course. This provides a resonable amount of flexibility and expanability. That could easily be doubled if your doing multiroom audio/video with local sources....

May I make a few suggestions?

How about two or three 2" PVC conduits, attic to basement. Around the home-rum area is a certain place for one or two.

How about a 2-gang box in each room, strategically placed, with a 3/4" or 1" PVC going up and/or one going down.

Considring in-wall speakers? That's the one pre-wire I'd really worry about.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

This message was edited by Larry Fine on 07/06/04 21:50.

i'd agree with larry. carlon makes 2 gang LV rings that accept 1" carlon pipe. one run up. up down. put some rg6 quad and cat5e in each and let it roll. tape the ends in the basement and attic - keeps the spiders out.

Thanx for the agreement; my suggestion was to not worry about the cable installation until it's needed. Pull-strings might be an idea if one doesn't have a fishtape.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Larry great suggestion. I'm surprised I don't see it more often.