Would you if you had the chance fit Cat5e in the living room ,if so where close to Tv or Telephone and what would use it for , and why not rely on wireless.
Also how would to go about adding CAT5 into an old house?
Is the Cat5e cable from blackbox solid or stranded?
Hi,
I've just moved into a place and it's being gutted and rewired and thought now's the best time to put in some CAT5 for networking.
Am I right in presuming CAT5 cannot be run alongside the electric cable or can it be run in conduit alongside or any there any guidelines etc to follow?
Also has anyone run speaker cable for surround under downstairs flooring? We've got concrete floors so I presume they would need channelling out and then some trunking run with the cable in then covering before laying the (laminate) floor on top?
Finally does anyone know of anywhere to get chrome/stainless face plates for network points - My wife will let me run cat5 but not if it's presented in nasty white plastic boxes next to the nice chrome/stainless sockets we have planned.
Industry rule is 5cm or 2" seperation and cross power at 90 degrees, no specific requirement for capping/conduit
It might be better to round the walls rather than under the floor, easier to chase out and finish off
Most manufacturers offer chrome finished 'euromod' plates and then you just buy modules to fit and present which ever cable you need.Your friendly local custom installer should be able to help or I believe there will be an ebay shop selling them soon.
Where cables go through joists, studs and noggins use the steel plates that nail into the wood over the cables to protect them and get someone to help with spooling out and routing the cables!
Any pics as an example? - sorry you are talking to a TOTAL amateur
Paul
I wired our new house, at the hub end I have a 36-port coax patch panel, a 48 port Cat5 patch panel, 6 stereo speaker pair wall plates, a 5.1 multi-channel speaker wall plate, 4 stereo line level feeds, 2 component video sends and a component video return.
Each room has 4 cat5s and a pair of coaxes with a couple of rooms having more. All up it's about 1500m of cable. Thankfully the wire was bough and installed early last year as copper has increased in price by 70-80%!!!
Regarding chrome/steel plates G.E.T make them. Our reception rooms all use the screwless flat plates. You may find you need to get a G.E.T catalogue or go to your local electrical factor to ensure you get the stuff you want.
The good thing with cat5 is that when it's used for data only 2 of the 4 pairs are used so there is always redundancy in the cable. It's only when you want to send video/audio that you need all 4 pairs.
Personally I ran the proper cables to known locations and then cat 5 can do the rest. By this I mean that I used component video or analogue line cable when I knew that I wanted a specific device (Squeezebox, TV etc...).
For speaker cable I used 2.5mm T & E and it works perfectly.
My recommendation would be to label every cable clearly (especially at the hub end) and test them once they are in place. This is time consuming but saves you installing a cable, plastering it in only to find it doesn't work.
Where cables go through joists, studs and noggins use the steel plates that nail into the wood over the cables to protect them and get someone to help with spooling out and routing the cables!
Do you do private work!?
Possibly, if the price is right....