Question Ruipro hybrid or other

It was a 30m2 extension on my kitchen. Effectively new build. I did it myself as I used to have an AV / Custom Install business do have done a lot of this kind of install. Although flexible conduit was a challenge with 6 bends.
 
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Ah I see. Good job mate . This isn’t really my comfort zone so maybe something obvious but can I ask what the extra batons of wood are for that are effectively bringing the ceiling lower?
Also, I expected the cable to come coiled up in a large Jiffy bag not a huge box like that
Sorry to be a pain
Gaz
 
The joists were battened to allow the existing ceiling joists, which were a little un-even and the new joists to sit at the same level so that I had a perfectly flush ceiling when the plasterboard was screwed on. Because my RSJ was pushed into my ceiling and was deeper than the RSJ that was removed it meant that it sat lower than the existing joists. Each of the battens for the existing ceiling were hand-cut as they were all differing thicknesses. All of the new ceiling battens were the same thickness.

Not a pain at all. The box is about 20cm square and 4cm thick it is a truly excellent and quality product.

When I pulled it I used a single 1mm cable off a reel (that was split from a 2 x 1mm figure 8 cable). I wrapped the plug of the Ruipro in some polythene (Tesco carrier off-cut) and then taped it with electrical tape. I then carefully taped the plug to the puller wire and taped the ruipro cable itself at 10cm intervals (3 times) also to the puller cable, to relieve any strain on the plug / cable joint. This meant if the Ruipro snagged or dragged (which it did) the plug was not taking all of the strain. Finally it was pulled using plenty of washing up liquid (as a lubricant) coating the entire Ruipro as I pulled it. There is a massive amount of friction over 10m of flexible conduit. It was a very long and slow pull but it was done successfully with no damage and a perfectly working cable.
 
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Excuse the TV, its my test TV and will be replaced with a new 49" 4k when the kitchen is finished. I just use it to make sure that all of my connections work.

I also only have 2 of my 4 MA C165s installed. I wanted to see how effective two were, before adding two more. My little BK Gemini Sub also connects to my amp via a sub cable pulled through the same conduit.

You can see the larder unit in place where my AV amp lives, that is where one end of my ruipro is, the other end comes out behind the brush-plates behind the TV. The area above the larder units is going to be framed and plastered, so you wont see any of the cabling.
 
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A few more photos if you are interested

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Corner behind the larder units where the flexible conduit comes down.

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Shoes how the battens bring the ceiling below the RSJ

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From another angle

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RSJ Fireboarded (Pink Fireboard)

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The extension from outside

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Cables in the back of the larder unit during install
 
That looks awesome mate, top job. I honestly wouldn’t even know where to begin with that lot. Where did you get that brush plate from? I’ve only found the plain white plastic ones.
Are you just going to box up above the ladder unit?
I’m thinking of potentially getting the sparky to put in two extra speaker cables rolled up in the ceiling for when I eventually go Atmos. Don’t want to push too far with my requests though in case they get fed up with me.
 
Yes top of the unit will be fully boxed and plastered. The cupboard brush plates are off Amazon. The TV Brush Plates are Scolmore Click Define in Brushed Nickel.

Put the cables in now and measure exactly where they are in the ceiling. Its 10 minutes for the spark. Buy him a crate of beer / bottle of scotch and he will be a happy chappy. I have 2 more sets of speaker cable in ceiling / soffits. 1 set for the second set of C165's and another set in the soffits for my outdoor speakers, some Niles OS6.5s that will go either side of the doors under the eaves.

BTW do you need to run a Cat5/6 to your projector ? Do it now.

Decide on anything else that you might need, write a list and give it to your spark. If necessary offer to pay for the additional work. If you have already bribed him with booze, he will probably just do it.

If you can, as a side issue, get him to run 2 x Cat 6 from a central point (under the stairs?) to the landing ceiling and another pair into the loft. This will give you a backbone for your whole house. One of the pair on each floor you can use one for a wireless access point and the other you can connect to a switch if you need any more points. Make sure he leaves about 5m coiled at each end. You may also wish to run a cable from your central access to your hall ceiling (or wherever is central) now you have every floor covered. Last tip, wherever your phone line is coming in, ask your spark to run a cat 5/6 from that point to your central location. Now you can have your router under the stairs (or wherever) and can connect all those other Cat 5/6 cables to it.

If its under the stairs, get him to drop you a couple of double gang sockets in there. Now you can power everything as well.
 
Thanks mate, things there I haven’t even thought of to be honest. I’m definitely going to ask to put the cables in for the ceiling speakers now. Is it regular speaker cable or does it need to be special stuff being in the ceiling? We’re having downlighters in the room so any cables will have to be directed around these I guess. My current projector only has a power lead and hdmi to it at the min, it’s fairly old and I will at some point update it. I want even aware projectors have network capabilities?.. or is it just for firmware updates etc? Is it ok to run these cables through the same conduit?
Our home is on a new development and network cables etc aren’t even on the options list so I’m not sure how far they will go for me. I don’t even know if I’ll get to see the sparky in person to be honest. I’m certainly liking the networking idea and think that could work well so hopefully someone can pull some strings for me to make it happen.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and help mate, I really appreciate it.
 
Decent scotch always greases the wheels, especially if it’s the site manager.

Yes you can run HDMI and Cat6 in the same conduit. Maybe useful on a new projector for say Alexa Control.
 
How big of a job would it be after if they refuse? Kind of got it in my head now what I want :thumbsup:
 
I could talk you through most of it. Where in the U.K. are you out of curiosity? Chesterfield ?
Putting the cable in is easy enough if they give you access. Terminating takes a little practice, but its doable.
 
Yeah chesterfield mate, just south of Sheffield.
Let’s say they won’t do it for me and I can’t get access to do it, is it still doable after it’s been boarded? Maybe with rods etc? I’ve actually put some network cables together before and yeah....it was bloody fiddly.
 
It’s doable, just a ball ache. I put over 1km cat 6 in my house retrofit. You learn to patch pretty quick.
Honestly talk to the site manager and ask if you can either have access or you can pay a spark. It’s a couple of hours work for all of it at first fix.

If you do it yourself just buy 2 boxes of Cat6 then you can drag pairs together.
 
So just to confirm....1 cat6 to the upstairs landing to use for a wap (great idea) and the other to the loft so I could add a switch to feed other rooms if necessary?
 
Correct. You may also want another to hall ceiling for another WAP. Then that’s whole house Wi-fi blanket. 5 bars everywhere.
I have 3 Ubiquiti AC-Lites in my house, one on each landing and one in the hall. Wi-fi is never an issue.
 
Definitely sold on the wap idea. With 4 kids in the house sometimes between the ages of 8 and 14, good WiFi is a bonus
 
That was one of the reasons that I put 3 WAPs in. Kids regularly stealing all of the Wi-fi and bandwidth. Laptops, phones, consoles, TVs, tablets etc meant I couldn’t even watch Netflix when they have their mates round. Now at least I stand a fighting chance.
 
Just reading back through your posts pal and I’ve notices you suggest a pair of cables for each location!?! Is that really necessary or have I understood it wrong?
Compiling a list now of what I want including potential cctv points.
Network stability is a biggy so seriously considering the waps you reccomended
 
I expected the cable to come coiled up in a large Jiffy bag not a huge box like that

The huge box justifies the high price ;)

On a more serious note that's some excellent advice from @mushii. It's disappointing that they are still building houses with no consideration for even basic networking. I'd be making sure cables were run where I wanted them.

When I did my room I ran lots of flexible conduit, just keep the radius of the bend as large as possible. There's also no need to put draw strings in beforehand, it's very simple to do afterwards. Just put some cotton wool or even kitchen towel on the end of some string and suck it through with a hoover.
 
Most people tend to run Cat 5/6 in pairs. It’s pretty cheap and it gives you some built in redundancy. As you are normally pulling it out of 305m boxes, you just pull 2 boxes at a time. However much Cat5/6 you put in, it will never be enough, trust me. For Cameras I use cat 5e as it is more flexible and easier to terminate into cameras. Think about everywhere that you may want a camera and cable it now. e.g. if you have a side gate, think about one covering it, driveway, front door, back door, patio doors, shed, back garden etc. Maybe not all, but once you have cameras, you will want more.
 
Most people tend to run Cat 5/6 in pairs. It’s pretty cheap and it gives you some built in redundancy. As you are normally pulling it out of 305m boxes, you just pull 2 boxes at a time. However much Cat5/6 you put in, it will never be enough, trust me. For Cameras I use cat 5e as it is more flexible and easier to terminate into cameras. Think about everywhere that you may want a camera and cable it now. e.g. if you have a side gate, think about one covering it, driveway, front door, back door, patio doors, shed, back garden etc. Maybe not all, but once you have cameras, you will want more.
Ah right ok. So the second is effectively a “spare”?
What cameras you using mate? I currently use Ring cameras and they are just ‘ok’. They work off WiFi so sometimes they are a bit hit and miss. I’ve heard nest are decent. I was thinking of cameras hooked up to a hdd but I really like the remote cloud access offered by ip cameras.
 
Yes the second is a 'spare', for now. Most people find that they want to use that 'spare' pretty quickly as they forgot something or want to change or expand something. For the sake of £5 of cable, it saves headaches and hours of mauling further down the line. The idea of putting a CAT 5/6 backbone into houses is something I have been pushing for years. It may not be perfect but it gives a solid platform to build off for house networking and allows for WAP's to be installed to provide high quality wifi, which every new home should have.

I install Hikvision and run Hikvision at home. The quality at the price point is very good and you are into prosumer / professional grade CCTV. Some people dont like it, because there isnt loads of apps (just one for remote viewing) or HA or Alexa integration, but that is what you want for security. Security is security and HA is HA and having the two separate is IMHO the only way they should be installed. Other people on here will argue differently and want convenience from their CCTV. I want security, quality of image and reliability. If the Chinese government (allegedly) want to monitor my front door, my driveway and my surrounding property, I am more than happy, it affects me not one iota.

Sorry /Rant Off
 
Ok, so would you suggest I just get the cables left coiled up at known positions in the ceiling and then pull as required after? I guess joist positions is the biggest issue here and therefore pre planning absolutely necessary. I’m new to this so apologies for the questions but I don’t want any regrets after moving.

So you install cctv? I’ve been looking at a company on Facebook who install a 4 camera Hilook system for £299. Not sure if your familiar with this set up?...
CCTV & Smart home design
 

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