Any suggestions on how to cable a new home as subtly as possible?

[Woodchuck2000]

I've just bought a house (or at least will have in about 2 weeks!) and I'd like to run Cat5e to all of the rooms - wireless is all very well, but not for streaming media and copying files.

It's a 2 storey house with a loft, any my general plan is to put a little 6U rack up in the loft with a patch panel, gigabit switch, UPS, and my home server. I'd then like to drop a cable to each of the three bedrooms, and also one down to the living room where I'll have my wireless router, media centre PC and XBox360.

The only issue is that I need the cables to be as invisible as possible, in order to get my plan past the other half. She's not a fan of obvious cabling and is also not entirely happy about me making holes in the walls unless completely necessary. All of the websites I've found with advice are American and so have wooden frames and basements, which makes cabling much more convenient.

Has anyone cabled their own home, and if so, any hints tips or general advice?

[Jay]

you can get flat CAT5, not sure its able to take gigabit speeds though.

[handscombmp]

Have you thought about perhaps getting an electrian in.

I have no idea on price but i've got a feeling ti could be expensive.

[oolon]

Yes I have done this before. my first recommendation is to install more cable than you need, when I did my place I only installed 1 cable to each room from my study, then I had to upgrade it.! It depends on your property age. Stud partition can make things really easy. Older houses don't have a solid floor downstairs to getting cables to ther can be quite easy. Look were your water pipes/sewage/heating is install that can be a route for your cables particularly if its a old house that has been updated. Having a rack in the loft for cables is not very good. as all the cables need to go up the walls, however the best place to hide boxes is low down near the floor as the cable can be pushed behind the skirtingboard. The problem is the cable then needs to travel under the floor to the point where it needs to go up. Concrete floor downstairs therefore is a pain. The problem with trunking is it looks ok before you paint then rubbish forever, If you have coving or picture/dado rails you either have to jump the cable or cut a section out. Personally I used black flexible conduit as it can be removed from the wall to paint. Run the cable up the wall behind or obsecured by a pillar, or where you want a book case. If you have a mini patch panel under the stairs with a switch your have to run alot less full house length cables.

When you move is the best time to do it, as you have not decorated yet. To go the living room I took a angle grinder to the paster/wall to recess the trunking put the cables in then plastered over the top!

Snaking the cable down, the wall has been repainted after the cable was fitted and used to be darker but I think it still looks good.



Hiding cable with stuff, pillars and dark wall colours works very well.


You cannot beat a proper job with an angle grinder.

[mribrahimali]

My first idea, maybe lift up the sides of the carpets and trailing it through there, rugs can then serve more purposes. if you have laminated flooring and no beading on the sides where the skirting board joins the floor, then u could put it along there and then chip a groove into some beading so that it can fit over it - caution if the wire breaks though - you'll be a bit miffed.

you should be able to get these covers that are rectangular that attach around it so you could put it in a corner and have it painted to not attract too much attention.

[phoenix198]

Have you considered using powerline home networking? 200Mbps systems are reasonably priced now if you shop around a bit.

[Funkstar]

but you never get 200mbps.

Cabling a house properly can be messy, but it is well worth it in the long run.

[phoenix198]

but you never get 200mbps.

Cabling a house properly can be messy, but it is well worth it in the long run.

Have to agree with you if for long-term occupancy or ownership, which is probably the OP's situation. But for someone like me who tends to move every two to two and a half years (goes with the job) then powerline networking is a 'good enough' solution.

[GoNz0]

rent an SDS drill and buy a cable chaser attachment http://www.screwfix.com/prods/16724/...el-Chisel-30mm

do the work before you move in while the wifes still packing, you can get the cables laid and the holes filled ready for decorating

[Jay]

Always do more than one run per room though!

[petrefax]

i can't add much to the cabling debate that hasn't already been said but i would advise caution about basing your server kit in your loft.

lost space gets al lot of fluctuations in temperature, so they're generally freezing in winter & boiling in summer depending on the ambient outdoor temp so once the summer months come you might find overheating becomes an issue

(unless your loft has been converted to a liveable space, in which case you can probably ignore the above )

[GaryRW]

what sort of house is it - how old?

Mine is a new build, and I've managed to run all the cables I've needed so far on the external walls - behind the plaster board - so between the plaster board and the breeze blocks. I used electrician's rods to poke down from the loft and (with some luck and a lot of swearing) I managed to put them down where there were already holes in the wall for other sockets (which I had unscrewed leaving a hole). So for all but one run, I didn't need to cut any new holes in the plasterboard.

And as you've suggested, all mine meet up in the loft with one gigabit switch. Very glad I made the effort. Now if I could just get my main pc to stay connected at gigabit speeds, I'd be happy....

[Ben Rogers]

Use trunking if you want to hide the ethernet cables, it does a good job and keeping it tidy and try and keep the trunking near the ceiling IMO.

[killie99]

I've cabled my entire house, it was built in 2000 and it was pretty straight forward. Put my switch in the cupboard in my study where the electricity meter is as this was right next to the waste pipe coming down from upstairs so I fed 8 cables from the loft down along the side of the pipe (used electricians rods for pushing the wires down and cut 2 double size socket outlets on the plasterboard at the bottom of the pipe chase. This let me fit 2 double socket size outlets with 4 rj45 sockets on each and then just used patch cables to connect to the switch. Dropped 2 cables into each bedroom on the internal partition walls and fitted a single size socket with 2 rj45 sockets. This was easier than I thought it would be as my internal walls have been constructed using vertical metal frames so there are no horizontal battens and the cables can easily be dropped.
Downstairs I then ran a single cat5e behind the skirting boards (concrete slab floor so no going under the floorboards!) from the switch to my master telephone point so I could now have my adsl modem right at the master telephone socket - no more telephone extensions to mess with my broadband! All i had left to do then was feed 2 cables from the ADSL router through the wall to the living room and that was me done. No cables showing anywhere and everywhere has nice rj45 faceplates.
I then had an extension built and it was pretty straight forward then to have an extra couple of network cables fitted while it was being built and fed from the loft - I split one of the existing cables in the loft and put in a 5 port switch so I still have 2 cables in each of the 4 upstairs bedrooms along with 2 in the living room, 2 in the extension and as many as I need in the study. It's all wired with cat5e and all the computers in the house have Gbit cards (5 of them). Works like a charm.

I have my wireless router in the hall at the front of the house, I have a access point in the upstairs back bedroom and I have an access point in the extension - all with the same SSID so I can roam around the house with my laptop and wander to the end of the back garden and never lose my wireless connection.

If i was to do it all again I'm not sure there is much I would do different except run a couple of extra spare cables to the loft 'just in case' I needed them.

[Great Eastern]

i can't add much to the cabling debate that hasn't already been said but i would advise caution about basing your server kit in your loft.

I have to agree with that the temperature in a loft which hasnt been converted for living in, plus the humidity levels may be a problem. Condensation at this time of year caused by poor ventilation etc could also cause trouble.

[Rob_B]

I loved this one Cableflowers