CAT5 Cable and OT Drains!

[allan.smith@xxxxxxx]

Couple of questions which I hope you can help me with.

I have just bought a new house (unfortunately finished before I saw
the light of HA)!
Before the carpets are going down SWMBO has given me a chance to run
some CAT5 all round the place.  This I intend to use for IR, Video
and networking.  Is there any problem using stranded over solid cat
5? The reason being that whatever is left on the reels I assume you
convert into patching cables which I guess has to be the stranded
type?  Also, where is the best place to get Cat 5 cable?

Second question is way of topic but you seem such a friendly bunch.
Aforementioned house is built in garden of an old house and the new
house drains feed into nextdoors. Now having only been there a 5
months (yes, months without carpets isn't going down well with SWMBO)
the neighbour is trying to sting me for some drain costs. He wants to
build a new manhole over the join and is claiming the drain needs
sleeving because of some radial cracks. My builder is saying no way
jose the cracks are normal for a drain of this age and need no
remedial action (they are only cracks in the glaze, there is no
movement of the pipes)... and I am left in the middle. Does anybody
know if sleeving is neccesary for radial cracks & can it be laid
without digging a manhole (Cracks are 19M down the drain from nearest
manhole).

Many Thanks
Allan