Residential Structured Cabling Question?

Question

My house is in the midst of extensive kitchen and bathroom remodeling and now has about 50% of all the plasterboard removed. Why don't US remodeling workers cover their dirty shoes when walking on my expensive carpeting? A cultural thing?

So while crying about my carpets, I say to myself, "self, what a great time to put in structured cabling!"

My house is about 2000 sq/ft with an half basement/garage and upstairs living area with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths.

I'm thinking to run to absolutely every room: 1 cat6, 1 dual RG6, and 1 3e telephone cable.

Yes, I know that I could buy all this in one cable, but don't want to do it this way. Are there any other cables I should be running along with the aforementioned, so that my house can some day be the "smart house of the future"?

I'm thinking to put the connector box downstairs in the basement somewhere because it would be convenient to access, and no room upstairs where it could be elegantly installed. Good idea? Anything else?

It surprises me that Americans almost always wear their outdoor shoes into the house. Then they let their infants crawl all over the floor, oblivious to the presence of germs and viruses.

I asked the workers nicely not to wear their outdoor shoes on my clean carpeting but was ignored.

How about sound/stereo cables?
Should I run those seperately?

Answer 1

I think you are absolutely right: it IS the very best time to do the cabling right now.
As long as you have access to every room, do cable every room indeed. With proliferation of networked devices these days it's become even harder to predict where a device that will need a wire hookup is going to be located. Besides, you might want to change the room's function in a few years and I'm pretty sure you would not want to see dirty shoes on your carpet again :-) I ended up needing three CAT5E jacks in my morning nook. There was almost nothing that hinted at that need just three years ago when I was re-cabling the house. So, plan ahead and then add some spares.

As far as combination of cables you are planning to pull to every outlet, I would reconsider. First off, drop the CAT3. It costs just a tiny fraction less than CAT5E these days will all the same labor to install it and only 1/10 of available bandwidth. Not a good value for money at all.

Second, you will find that dual RG6 creates a very thick and unmanageable bundle which in many cases (notable exception is your home entertainment center location) is going to be one cable too many.

Third: I would leave it up to you to decide if you really need CAT6 in a residential environment but keep in mind that 10Gbit/s certified CAT6 is invariably a thick and rigid cable that is going to be a pain to pull and there is a great chance that 1Gbit/s is going to be enough for you anyways for years to come.

Considering thick cables, always keep in mind that you will have to drill through joists and studs and you REALLY want to keep the holes diameter to the absolute minimum as to not jeopardize structural integrity of the house.

So, with that said, I would say that the basic cable combination for a residential environment these days is 2xCAT5E + 1x RG6U. An ideal would look like 3xCAT5E + 1xRG6U of which one of the CAT5E may be re-purposed for IPTV sooner than you or I think.

Basement makes for a perfect location for the distribution device (DD), especially if you can find a spot that it located directly underneath a shaft or a pathway leading straight up into the attic for second floor distribution. Garages also make for nice spots, depending on the roof construction. You have to be able to eventually get into the main attic without too much trouble. Size the DD as everything else in cabling: oversize it. No one knows for sure what will be located in it couple years down the road.

As far as workers in dirty boots are concerned, you will not be able to make them take the boots off because they are (I hope) wearing steel toe boots that protect their feet in case they drop something heavy on it. It’s a standard construction practice and it saves a lot of feet in the industry. So, don’t push it. Instead, have them wear protective covers on top of the boots as they enter the house. A reasonable contractor should be able to accommodate for the reasonable request of a paying customer.

Good luck with your cabling project! Check out the resource I give below and let me know if I or other experts there can be of more help.

Answer 2

Some contractors will do their best to remove dirt from their shoes when they come into the house. Some of them don't care the main thing is having to come in and out of the house all the time to get stuff and trying to keep your shoe's clean does get tire some at times. What I have seen done a lot and when I did some jobs like that is put down plastic over the carpet so that the carpet does not get damaged doesn't slow down the contractors. Might be a good idea too to ask the contractors if they will walk on the plastic you have provided them.

As for the cables should be all you will need for now. If the basement is wet you might have a problem later on having the connection down there wet or damp places will cause the wires to rust and the router or switch to start to mess up.

The safer the place you put it the less of a chance of you will have to put a lot of money in it in the future.

Answer 3

If I were you I would consider looking into fiber optics. In the next couple of years they are going to be poking their heads into residential homes. Why not get the jump on it?

Keep in mind that you will probably need to get a pro to run it as terminating and splicing fiber optics are a pain in the rear if you do not have a lot of practice at it.

Other than that, I think you have the right idea. If you are not interested in the fiber optic option you might want to run an extra cat6 cable to each room for other data transmissions (I.E. your smart home devices)


I doubt the remodelers even thought twice about the carpet. They might have assumed that you were planning on replacing the carpeting.