What Tools will I need to pull Coax / CAT6 cable through new home construction?

[leeland]

I am about to embark on one of my biggest projects and have a weekend to complete it in our building schedule.

I have the Coax / CAT6 already.

Got a cordless drill.

I need to figure out what other tools I should get when trying to drill the holes through the studs (horizontal)

and also what would be the recommended type of tool / bit for drilling a hole vertical to get all the drops down into the basement.

I was at the home when the plumbing guys were there and they had some heavy duty Milwaukee drills with large drill bits with a circular type end

I would assume I would need something about an inch or larger in diameter.


Thanks for any comments.

Lee

 

[Eug]

You don't need those circular ended drill bits.

The wood boring bits that are relatively flat are what I used.

BTW, I'd run 2 x coax and 2 x Cat6 to be safe.

Hopefully your battery is good, and you have spares. This type of work eats batteries like mad.

 

[imagoon]

New construction: Are the walls open at the moment? Then a normal boring bit works fine. If the walls are sheet rocked all ready, you need one of the longer augur style that will fit through the opening in the sheet rock and drill down in to the basement.

See the sticky.

 

[drebo]

Spade bits are what you need. 3/4" are about as big as I'd go in a house. Depending on the specific pieces of wood you're going through and the walls they're on (caps can be anywhere from 2x4 to 4x10), you might need an extension. Speedbore makes good spade bits and extensions.

If drywall is up, you'll need a fish tape or fish rod.

 

[leeland]

New construction: Are the walls open at the moment? Then a normal boring bit works fine. If the walls are sheet rocked all ready, you need one of the longer augur style that will fit through the opening in the sheet rock and drill down in to the basement.

See the sticky.

Everything is open right now.

the electricians are going to hopefully be finished by the weekend which gives me the entire weekend to get it done.

I will check out the sticky

 

[imagoon]

Everything is open right now.

the electricians are going to hopefully be finished by the weekend which gives me the entire weekend to get it done.

I will check out the sticky

I would personally recommend that when you pull the cables, attach them to something unterminated. Drywall dust really screws up keystones. Once it is installed don't leave the cable attached to anything as you will hate yourself if you ever need to pull more wire. Something like a loose knot will keep the wire from falling though the floor. Then cut the cables below the knot and terminate them after the walls are up.

 

[leeland]

I would personally recommend that when you pull the cables, attach them to something unterminated. Drywall dust really screws up keystones. Once it is installed don't leave the cable attached to anything as you will hate yourself if you ever need to pull more wire. Something like a loose knot will keep the wire from falling though the floor. Then cut the cables below the knot and terminate them after the walls are up.

Thanks for the recommendation...I was going to try to figure out a way to do exactly what you were recommending.

Having the wire in its place (inside it's box) with the bare wire sitting there until the dry-walling is complete was my plan...

You don't need those circular ended drill bits.

The wood boring bits that are relatively flat are what I used.

BTW, I'd run 2 x coax and 2 x Cat6 to be safe.

Hopefully your battery is good, and you have spares. This type of work eats batteries like mad.

I was planning on running 2 Cat6 to each bedroom (to be safe)...

Is it worth it to run 2 Coaxial to each bedroom? I suppose now that I type this it is well worth the PITA in the event something goes south with the original run and probably won't find out until I get it hooked up to find the problem (good recommendation!)


Another question...

How many CAT 6 runs would you personally run to your office?

If everything is running into the basement (patch panel)

I would have a desktop / NAS / laptop in the office at all times

I was thinking 4 - 6runs would be enough but I haven't thought it all the way through yet.

 

[Eug]

I ran 4 coax to my home office.

However, that was for:
1 for TV, and 1 for TV backup
1 for cable modem, and for cable modem backup

Yeah, that's overkill, but contractors have a nasty habit of putting screws through cables. I've already replaced one CAT5e line in the basement because the HVAC guys burnt it when welding some pipes. Luckily the walls and ceiling were still all open. (Actually maybe unluckily... because they've been open forever. This reno is taking FOREVER.)

For network cabling, I have only three lines (2xCat5e and 1xCat6) coming out of the home office to the rest of the house, split into two different routes. It all depends on what your want for your topology. In mine, I have one outdoor (flooded) CAT5e cable going direct to the home theatre, and two lines (1 Cat5e and 1 Cat6) going to the distribution panel in the basement.

I would have put another backup line to the home theatre but I was short on cable, and luckily it's easy access if I want to replace it later.

For the lines to the basement distribution panel, I actually have no direct network connection via those lines to the office. The distribution panel gets a signal from the office indirectly via the home theatre instead. In fact, I'm using the direct Cat5e line to the office for telephone instead and the Cat6 line is sitting there unused. (The phone wiring in this house is poor, and I wanted a good quality line from the basement to the home office for DSL.)

Which reminds me, don't forget about hardwired phone lines. Your electrician may want to put in Cat3, but you may as well just run Cat5e or Cat6 for those too.

---

Why do you want 6 network lines to the distribution panel to your office anyway? You could theoretically get away with just one (plus a backup, plus one for phone for a total of 3), and then just put a Gigabit switch in your office for all your network devices there. That said, there's nothing wrong with having too many lines.

 

[Massive Overkill]

My 2nd house I was able to run conduit from the garage to my bedroom closet and then conduit from there to each bedroom. I suggest you do the same if they'll allow you. I'll be able to replace/upgrade the runs indefinately. I used orange conduit (I used to be a cable guy so I had easy access to it).