New Build - CAT6 Wiring

Puntoboy

Edited to add - for those new people coming to this thread. I started this 3 years ago when we moved into our current house. I ended up going with CAT6 cable but didn't do all the runs I wanted. It was just too time consuming and required cutting more holes in the walls that I could be bothered to repair. I started off with the BT HH6 and BT Whole Home Wi-Fi and now are using a Ubiquiti ER-X and 3 UAP-AC-Lites. Really happy with it all.

3 years on and we are moving house. Another new build on the same estate but a fair amount bigger. New house means new cabling, but this time I am hoping to get into the house before they finish the walls and get some conduit installed so I can run all my cables once we move in (I'm pushing it with the conduit, I doubt they will let me actually cable the runs as well). The house is currently at concrete slab level.

One little upgrade I would want to make having 6a cable out to the garage, unfortunately it's over 55m and I would like to add 10GB Ethernet for a future project, so I need at least 150m of CAT6a just for that run, I'm thinking that I may as well run 6a everywhere rather than 6. The problem is price as 6a is around twice the price of 6 for 500m. I need to decide if I want to spend that money. I don't have a current need for 10GB elsewhere in the house, only between the central point in the house (where the comms cabinet will be) and the garage so maybe just 6A for that run.

                                                                        Hi everyone,

We've bought a new build that will be complete in about a month. Unfortunately I could not come to an agreement with the builder to install CAT6 cable for me whilst they were building the house so I'm going to have to do it myself when we move in. I'm used to cabling, I work in IT, so going to be fine doing the work. However I have never wired a house before and it's a bit different to offices. I'm intending to use shielded CAT6 cable.

My intention is to have the following:

Living room - 3 outlets
Bed 1 - 3 outlets
Bed 2 - 3 outlets
Bed 3 (my office) - 4 outlets
Garage - 3 outlets

There is a central cupboard in the house where Openreach will be installing the ONT for FTTP broadband so I'm planning on putting all there other kit in here as well. The garage is detached about about 5 metres from the house, I'm planning on digging a channel, installing a duct (with pull cord) and laying exterior CAT6 cable with a water pipe to the garage (I'm installing the water as well - so it will be deep ~750mm). I'm also planning on running a couple of cables down from the soffits for CCTV.

My questions are:

Where is best to buy the cable? I could buy it through work but weirdly it doesn't seem as well priced are some of the websites I've seen.

Are there any tips and tricks for running cables inside a house? The walls have metal studs and as far as I know there are no horizontal battens.

Do I need a shielded patch panel with the shielded cable? My experience says no but best to check.

Does anything see any problems with that I intend to do?

Thanks                                 Click to expand...       

neilball

Unless you intend to use shielded patch panels, data modules etc then there is no point in using FTP cable as you are not maintains the integrity of the shielding. Best stick to UTP cable and accessories as it will be much easier to terminate correctly and therefore ensure cabling system works as intended.

Don't be surprised if you find decent cable as cheap (if not cheaper) than you find it from internet suppliers - businesses don't always buy from the cheapest supplier. Just avoid copper clad aluminium (CCA) cable and ensure you use solid copper conductors.

Be careful when pulling cable through metal studs unless there is protection on the "holes" in the stud - it will easily strip the insulation from cables as it is pulled through too aggressively or even cut off the cable there are any sharp edges.

Puntoboy

Great thanks.

Wouldn't shielded be better to prevent the risk of interference? If I need to upgrade the patch panel and faceplates that's fine I just don't want to pull all this cable and get interference then have to do it again.

Sorry I didn't follow your point on cable supplier. I've been looking at solid copper core cable but the prices vary quite a lot.

mickevh

IMHO - it's a waste of time and money using A) cat6 and B) shielded. Cat5e UTP is more than good enough for GBit ethernet to 100m (more if it's good quality, though it's out of spec.) Of course it depends on your use case as there are other uses of UTP that may need the better frequency response of cat6 (e.g. HDMI) but for ethernet, cat6 makes diddly squat difference over cat5e.

Since most DIY'ers don't test their install with the rather expensive test test gear required to certify the install to some given "cat," strictly speaking they aren't "cat" anything. There's more to it that simply buying "catX" bulk cable.

If you are determined to use shielded cat6 (or whatever,) then yes you should be using cat6 shielded patch-cord, patch panels, etc. and ensuring the shields are grounded. You can omit "bits" - but each omission eats into the performance headroom which eventually all adds up.

However, (again in my humble personal opinion) if one really is worried about "interference" "speed" and/or "future proofing" (delete as applicable) then one really ought to be thinking about fiber optic rather than copper.

Whilst chasing in cables to walls etc. be sure you obey the curving radius requirements (no "hammering" cables round 90 degree bends) and if you want cat6 and you need to be paranoid about "nicking" the sheaths on all those metal studs. (You should really be laying cat6  into "proper" containment and "tray" work.)

If you want to scare yourself silly about how much more "stringent" cat6 is compared to cat5e, check out the following link... Installation Pitfalls in Cat6 Cabling  |  Automated Home

The price difference you refer to is probably about quality (and warranty) of product, not to mention copper prices have been on the rise for a few years. And of course, there's a "post Brexit pound depreciation" effect to add in of late. (Lot's of commodities are priced in USD.)

One BIG discrepancy you see is with people selling cheap Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) with assertions such as "CatX equivalent" and "CatX tested" or made up standards such as "cat6e" (no such thing) "cat5a" (no such thing.) The "cat" standards mandate the use of pure copper conductors - CCA ain't allowed, but some snake oil salesmen try to "get away" with it.

I tend to get my cabling done by professional cabling companies and they seem to favour Excel, but I'd look to any of the reputable "big boys" who've been around for a while such as Black Box, BettaBox RS Online, to name just a few.

Puntoboy

Thanks for the detailed information.

I want to go with Cat 6 for future proofing as it's not all about Ethernet. It will start off just for that but I will be looking into HDMI extension and who knows what else in the future. Money no object I would put fibre in however it is and Cat 6 will be fine.

So solid core, cat 6 UTP cable will be fine for my needs.

mickevh

The twists (the "T" in "UTP") do much to reject the interference and the "balanced" transmission used by ethernet also helps. Shielded cable is for the uber paranoid. However, (anecdotally I confess) I've had (literally) tens of thousands of UTP cables run in over the last few decades, some of them through very (electrically) noisey environments such as office plant and M&E rooms, as as yet I've never had any problems. I'd be very surprised if a SOHO environment proved to be problematic in comparison.

"Future proofing" - as I'm fond of saying "future proofing against what?" If there's some imminent future product that required cat6, they maybe it's a good bet. But otherwise we're simply guessing. Viz: I could have the gate for my driveway widened to 20 meters width just in case uber wide cars get invented. But right now, it's a waste of land and money. "Future proofing" is about mitigating things we can predict are going to happen, not "guessing" for things we haven't thought of yet. So installing a ductway with a draw string is a good idea. Installing catX cable in the belief that some as-yet-to-be-invented technology might need it, is at best a guess.

But equally, the counter argument is that the price difference between cat6 and cat5e is so small, you "might as well." However, be sure to read the link I cited previously regarding the stringency required for cat6 installs, plus the remarks I made about testing. You simply don't have a cat6 install (come to think of it any "cat") just because you bought cat6 cable.

The good news is that GBit ethernet is pretty forgiving - you have to do a spectacularly bad job of the cabling for it to not avail GBit ethernet (bad termination is the biggest culprit.)

Puntoboy

That's fine. But I'm not further proofing for some unknown future requirement. I will be doing some HDMI over Ethernet. I also believe that cat 6 is better, although not required for PoE so it makes sense as the cost isn't that much different.

My intention is to run the cables from the loft down to the central ground floor cupboard. From the loft I can drop down into each room and I think it will be easier than lifting floorboards.

I'll read that guide to ensure it's to spec. Thanks.

mrmrh

One additional comment on the whole future proofing discussion, when you are doing this you are best to try and run conduit tubing to protect the cabling, sounds like the horse has already bolted for you on that one.

On the topic of Fibre, what would that look like in a home environment? Short of ISPs and Storage devices I'm not familiar with other uses, esp in domestic installs.

Puntoboy

Yes conduit might be a problem now. Although it could work for the main drop from the loft to the ground floor cupboard as this is though the airing cupboard so having this exposed isn't an issue. Just need to make sure I don't hit any pipes.

Puntoboy

Been thinking about this some more. I'm going to look to run a 40mm conduit from the loft to the ground floor cupboard. This should make running and replacing the cables easier. It will also mean I don't need to secure the cables together, they can be left loose in the conduit. Where this exits in the loft space I will also add trays to run the cables across the loft space to where they will drop. Again this will allow the cables to remain loose and not bundled together which makes them easier to replace if needs be. It will also protect them from getting damaged in the loft. I'll also consider if it's possible to run conduit in the partitions where I'm dropping the cables but this will depend on the wall construction and space.

The wiring requirements for Cat 6 don't see too bad, now I've read the above linked article I'm confident I shouldn't have any problems and if I do, with the additional conduit, they should be easy to replace. Even running cables out to the garage shouldn't be a problem.