New Home - Pre-Wiring

[mpek]

Hello Everyone,

We are 1st time buyers buying a new home that's not built yet. So, we have started meeting the builders electricians, designers etc -- to plan the overall setup of our home. Our home is 2 floors and approx 2500SqFeet.

Yesterday, we met the electronics guys and we went through our wish list of how we wanted the home to be set up. Well, after a long discussion it turned out that the cost of laying everything that we want is beyond our budget (approx $6K). This quote is ONLY for pre-wiring. No electronics equipment will be installed.

So, to get to our final goal -- am thinking of splitting our plan into 2 phases. Because the home is currently being built, I am focused on getting all the electrical done for the 1st floor. By electricals, I mean -- setting up each room with Video and Data connections (RG6 / CAT6) as well as setting up links to put our flat panel TV in the Family room.

Its a structured wiring plan and our main Wiring panel will be on the 2nd floor (near the game room). Am thinking of home running all our cables from 1st Floor to this panel in this phase. I am NOT wiring anything on the second floor, except for this Wiring Panel.

This is my 1st adventure in this world and I need your advice on the following :

1. Is this a wise plan -- only wiring the 1st floor and keeping 2nd floor for later, pull all the other cables (video, data, HDMI etc etc) once the house is built.
2. How easy is it to wire the second floor once the house is built ? I presume its easier -- please correct me ?
3. How else can I reduce overall costs ?



Please advise or suggest ...

Much appreciated and thank you in advance !!!

Cheers --

Mpek

 

[brshoemak]

If cost is an issue your main goal, and one that supersedes everything else, is to run conduit and pull strings to every location where you might want drops in the future. At least two per room for flexibility and more if you desire. Whatever budget you have left over you can use for the actual cable runs and jacks/wallplates.

People talk about 'future-proofing' by using CAT6A, etc. but the only true 'future-proofing is to have conduit in place so you can pull whatever you want later on. Most people can't terminate CAT6A to spec so they don't really get the benefits they expect - CAT5E is fine for 99% of use cases.

Wherever you decide to place the structured wiring panel make sure you have power outlets near it. Ideally you would have at least 2, if not 4 outlets. You can always add power strips but no one likes those hanging everywhere. You also ensure you have room for a cheap shelf where you could place a UPS alongside the panel. Some panels even allow for a UPS to be placed inside it. The reason I mentioned 4 power outlets even if you use a UPS is that you still might not have enough outlets on the UPS to handle everything you may want to put in there. It all depends how clean you want to make it vs how much you want to invest.

- If you have a basement I would prefer the structured wiring come back there so if you ever have anything that makes noise (server,etc.) you won't hear it humming on the second floor. It's also easier to pull IMO. You also usually have more room in a basement - oftentimes people will throw their gear in a smaller closet and quickly run out of space for equipment. If you're on slab it probably doesn't matter much.

- Get a decent sized structured wiring panel, larger than you think you'll need - no one ever complains about having too much room in their panel.

- Many electricians are not low-voltage experts, they just figure that wire is wire. DO NOT let them staple any of your CAT6A wiring and make sure they terminate them into a patch panel in your structured wiring cabinet, not just terminated with RJ45 ends.


To summarize:

1) Running conduit and pull strings everywhere is your first financial priority. No question.
2) CAT5E is fine. Few electricians have the experience or equipment to properly terminate CAT6A to a point that you would get ANY benefit
3) If you're still gonna run CAT6, run CAT6A instead
4) Make sure they don't staple any low-voltage cabling and ensure it's terminated directly into a CAT5/6A patch panel (of whatever density you want - 24/48 ports)
5) Plan for power, because it's often overlooked
6) Get a decent sized structured wiring panel

I'm sure there is more, but that's a good start. I'm sure others will have more to add.

 

[ScottMac]

I agree with the above post, and would add that you can probably get a good discount if you have the cable pulled, but not terminated (which takes the most time, and if it's "Certified" takes even more time ... time is money, especially Union Time).

Getting the conduit is a big help. At the least, a pipe from the closet to the attic and / or each floor helps a lot (up to the attic, accessing the rooms below, up from teh basement to the rooms above). Get it as fat as you can afford; one inch or larger would bee nice, but 3/4" is more common ... thinner conduit with lots of bends causes more drag and it's easier to exceed the "stretch spec" of the cable ... pulling tension should not exceed (typical) 10 pounds.