RE: newbie question - how to get cat5 cabling into walls?

[Kevin Hawkins]

That's a tough one without actually seeing your particular situation.



It also depends on what level of 'hidden cabling' you wish to use. For
example some people are happy tacking a CAT5 cable under the edge of a
carpet between the floor grips and the wall - whereas others will want to
put it under the floorboards. Does your house have floorboards - many
modern
ones don't they use these large panels which make it much more awkward -
also look which way the boards run - the joists run at right angles to
them.
It is much easier to route cables the same directions as the joists
(meaning
you lift two floorboards). This depends on how much space is under the
joists of course. On some floors the underside of the floorboards is lined
with thermal insulation (often like a silver paper) - you want to be
careful
not to damage this if you have it. This is more typically found on the
ground floors to insulate against the cooler and damper earth/concrete
areas. If it is literally just one cable I would be very tempted by the
'under the edge of the carpet' solution - be careful if you have to go
across doorways though as this will cause a lump in the carpet and
pressure/wear on the cable. Most installers will drop the cable under the
floorboards (just for this span) if they have to do this - you can probably
manage this with a drill (for two holes) and a coat hanger - check though
you wont be drilling through any pipes or electric cables under the floor
!!!

Whichever way you look at this you have to get the cable from point A to
point B, (and of course you wouldn't expect anything else than the points
being diametrically opposite). KAT5 is very tolerant of length and being
run closer to other cables than if you were using other solutions so that
at
least gives you some flexibility.

First consideration must be inside or outside, I would strongly suggest
inside if possible. CAT5 is not a weather tolerant cabling. In my situation
almost every decision has been based on where I can run the vertical cable
between floors where it will be hidden - typical points are airing
cupboards, store cupboards and where the central heating pipes or alarm
wires have been run - identifying this point tends to lead you to finding
the best horizontal routes across floors. As ever try and stay away from
hot pipes and mains wiring - the latter won't have an adverse effect on
CAT5
but there are some safety issues and possibly some regulatory issues. The
insulation on CAT5 cables is not rated for such installation although
special versions can be used. Likewise you can buy CAT5 that has different
heat/fire qualities (often this is coloured blue or purple).

Also do consider whether there may be other needs for CAT5 cabling within
your house - for example more AV or a computer network or something - my
advice would be that when you install this to run a second (or even third)
cable as well as it is very low cost and whilst you have the disruption
make
the most of the opportunity.



Kevin





-----Original Message-----
From: gyr3 [mailto:<a
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Sent: 14 August 2003 09:57
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Subject: [KAT5] newbie question - how to get cat5 cabling into walls?



Hi Folks.

Sorry for jumping in with a total newbie question. I've just stumbled over
KAT5 and it looks like it is ideal for getting my sky digital s-video
signal
from the sky digibox to my PC upstairs.

The problem is... I've not got a clue how to get the cabling from the
downstairs lounge to the upstairs office. The lounge and office are on
diametrically opposite sides of the house, just for fun :(

I live in a 4 year old house, which isn't wired for cat5.

Could you wise folks throw me a few fairly non-disruptive (and not too
expensive options on how to run that cat5 cable from the lounge to the
office.

Many many thanks.

-- gyre --