Paul, where did you get the in ground box with the telephone cover? I could use something like this on an upcoming project

The conduit was all designed and planned around 3 years ago and the electrician provided all the undergound work and exterior pull boxes.  I took over once the conduit was stubbed in and worked with the electricians and HVAC guys to route everything properly out of the way and into the racks.

I used some Panduit duct on the landing board for wire management into the rack.  This will let me pop out with the telco and DirecTV wiring that will just be surface mounted on the board above the racks.

Here you can see a better picture of my low volt work routed next to the high volt conduit leading to their panels.  This was really tight to make room for HVAC ducting that was added later:


Here you can see the Panduit slot duct:


After the HVAC ducting was installed you can't see the conduit work anymore :(


This is a good example of how I leverage other trades on large jobs.  There's almost 1 mile of 2" conduit around the property.  I don't have the manpower or equipment to do this kind of work, but the electrical contractor did.

The electrical contractor provided the outdoor pull boxes.  They came from a local electrical supply called California Electrical Supply, but any electrical supply should be able to get them for you (Graybar, etc.).

Not sure who makes them, but just tell them what you need.  They make them in concrete, but these are made from resin which is a whole lot lighter and you can cut them if needed to fit around conduit.

Here's a picture before the grading was complete in that area:

Are the DWR racks for structured wiring/infrastructure or will they house A/V as well? More than one head-end in the place?

That's it for the head-end, but theater has it's own rack.  Not really that much technology in this job:

6 zones of audio
6 zones of intercom
3 TVs on HDMI matrix in main house
1 theater room in main house with local equipment
Lutron lighting
URC control
Wired & wireless network
Central vac

Other buildings will have DirecTV with local sat boxes.

It a big place, but not the primary residence for the clients so music and TVs in a few key areas is all they were interested in.

Conduit and layout in the mechanical room will allow for upgrades and expansion in the future if necessary including additional racks.

Just picked up this little RTA app for my EVO. Pretty slick! Five bucks.

[Link: play.google.com]

Yes I fully expect it to be as accurate as a $30k audio analyzer. :)

Nice job with the Panduit duct Paul. Really keeps that looking super neat. We've managed to make our head ends for structured wiring pretty neat but I'm a perfectionist and demand that it look magazine quality or as close to it as we can reasonably achieve. Your work is always something to aspire to - thank you for posting it here and elsewhere.

Nice job with the Panduit duct Paul. Really keeps that looking super neat. We've managed to make our head ends for structured wiring pretty neat but I'm a perfectionist and demand that it look magazine quality or as close to it as we can reasonably achieve. Your work is always something to aspire to - thank you for posting it here and elsewhere.

What kind of intercom have you standardized on?

Mostly Russound ComPoint

Sorting through some job photos today and found that I have a nice set of pictures showing a stone fireplace install from start to finish.  Seem to be some questions on the forum from time-to-time about installing TVs on real stone.

Original design created for client & architect:



Framed wall:


Pre-wire completed:


Stone work starting.  This is Santa Barbara sandstone which is very common in the area.  Often the stone is from the jobsite itself and saved from then they do the excavation work.


Stonework completed:


Starting installation: Speakers installed, HDMI and other wires pulled through conduit, starting to build out rack in right-hand cabinet:



Holes drilled in the cement mortar which is stronger than the stone:


Starting to drive in and level toggle bolts:


Mount installed:


Sony 55" XBR TV installed:


From side:


This TV is mirrored with a second smaller TV in the Kitchen using a Denon AVR with dual HDMI out.

Impressive Paul! very nice!

Just curious how did you do the sketch drawling?

Paul, you are a master of clean installs.

Paul, your work is simply amazing.

Thanks guys...

Drawing was done in Visio which is the only application I'm somewhat proficient in to do scale drawings.

Once you get the hang of it, it's fairly easy (and quick) to make drawings that are accurate as long as you have dimensions for the room.

Here's a couple more examples from a theater project done in Visio:

 





Here's the theater completed: