Best practices for terminating wire in new home?

[86turbodsl]

12,000 square ft house and you're DIY on low voltage wiring????? Anyone else thinking WTF?

I just got done building a 2900 ft house with 6000 ft of cat 5 and I know what it cost me. I can't even imagine what that would cost.

It ended up being more DIY work than I initially imagined (with several "WTF am I doing" moments), but it worked out. My career started out doing Adds/Moves/Changes on a Harris 20/20 phone system along with IT system administration work so pulling wire and using a punch down tool are something I'm comfortable with. I wanted a home automation system that I could 100% manage myself and be as simple or as complex as I wanted. It should work intuitively and fail gracefully.

The biggest stress was getting it done fast enough so that I didn't delay the insulator sub and then the drywallers.

If I remember right, I think I ended up with about 23,000 ft of LV wire (CAT6, RG6 QUADSHIELD, 14 gauge speaker wire, alarm wire, etc) . This home has quite a few other "big numbers" associated with it (425 yards of concrete, 100 squares of shingles, 18 HVAC zones, 20,000 ft of radiant heat pex pipe (including the heated 310' driveway), 240 recessed can light fixtures, 1,100 ft crown molding, etc, etc). I'm sure it sets no records though.

I plan on using Linux and open source tools as much as possible. The home deserves at much, it was made possible by Linux.

Wow. Sounds like about 1.5M worth of stuff. (not prying). If you don't mind, what do you do regarding Linux? I'm a big fan, having used it on and off since about 95 and Redhat 5.0.
BTW, good job on the radiant. I put it in our house and love it. But not the heated driveway. That's HUGE money to run.
Got any pics of the build? Love to see your wiring closet.

 

[86turbodsl]

I plan on using Linux and open source tools as much as possible. The home deserves at much, it was made possible by Linux.

Incidentally, do you have a gameplan for the linux software you are going to run?

I'm looking for suggestions on software to run on touchscreens and haven't found anything both nice to look at and non-commercial yet.
I'll go into my setup if you wish, but don't want to hijack your thread.

 

[Neurorad]

If you cant get ahold of a piece of tray, you could probably make some homemade tray from lumber.

I'm cheap. Some 1 X 2, 1 X 3, screws, and black paint, and I'm happy.

Great idea.

Now stolen.

Quick Q. - Why the 2 x 2's - why not attach the straps directly?

I may have to go to HD today, to buy the materials. Day off tomorrow.

 

[beelzerob]

Probably overkill (the only way I know how to do things....), but here are a couple reaons:

+ That way I could put up the supports without having to support the tray at the same time.
+ I wouldn't have to worry about the screw going all the way through the 1X3 and thus leaving a sharp pokie in with the cables. (you could always use nuts and bolts instead to get around that, or simply take the strap all the way around the tray)
+ I wouldn't have to worry about the 1X3 splitting from the screw, which would ruin the tray (though with a pilot hole, there's not much risk)
+ If the locations above the tray demand a wider fixing location than the tray width, you can just make the 2X2 longer so the straps still go straight up, as opposed to them coming off at an angle from the tray (aesthetics is all there)

That's all I can think of offhand. I think I just like the flexibility of putting the supports independant of the tray. Personal preference. I didn't patent this (doh!!), so feel free to improve or modify as needed. I quite often get completely stuck into what my "vision" is that I don't reconsider if there might have been a better way. Heh.

 

[Neurorad]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic, but here's MY problem.

I have 2 large parallel HVAC return trunk lines that I'm trying to cross, perpendicularly, with LOTS of cable.

The floor joists above the trunk lines are perpendicular to the trunk lines.

So, why not run the cables between the joists, above the trunk lines?

There is a piece of wood obstructing the passage, between the 2 parallel trunk lines and between the joists - I think it's a fire block of some kind, and I can't reach it from either side.

So do I punch through this wood block (using magic), or go below the trunk lines with a cable tray?

I wish I knew where my digital camera was.

I can just imagine using a Flexibit to poke 30 holes in this wood block, from 4 feet away.

Maybe if I duct tape an 8 pound sledge to a stick, I can literally punch the fire block out. I think I'll try that cheap solution first. However, the fireblock is there for a reason, so I'll have to put something back there...

 

[beelzerob]

Ya, I crossed over the HVAC superhighway in a couple places too, but I didn't have any wood in the way to worry about. Doing anything from 4 ft away is going to be painful.

 

[pete_c]

Personally just turn your "The cold storage room" into a standard comm closet using overhead trays and a "few" open racks with patch panels on each one of them.

 

[klindy]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic, but here's MY problem.

I have 2 large parallel HVAC return trunk lines that I'm trying to cross, perpendicularly, with LOTS of cable.

The floor joists above the trunk lines are perpendicular to the trunk lines.

So, why not run the cables between the joists, above the trunk lines?

There is a piece of wood obstructing the passage, between the 2 parallel trunk lines and between the joists - I think it's a fire block of some kind, and I can't reach it from either side.

So do I punch through this wood block (using magic), or go below the trunk lines with a cable tray?

I wish I knew where my digital camera was.

I can just imagine using a Flexibit to poke 30 holes in this wood block, from 4 feet away.

Maybe if I duct tape an 8 pound sledge to a stick, I can literally punch the fire block out. I think I'll try that cheap solution first. However, the fireblock is there for a reason, so I'll have to put something back there...

Without a picture or drawings or something it's hard to say of it's a fireblock or just a block used to limit how much the joists move laterally. However if it's a fireblock and there's no ceiling on the bottom side of the joists the block is pretty worthless.

I suspect it's a block used to keep the joists from moving laterally when a load is applied to the top (i.e. walking on the floor). If they are allowed to delfect laterally, not only is the span limit decreased but it also tends to make the floor feel 'bouncy' when you walk on it, etc. Question - are these blocks in the same place between all the joists or just these two? IF it's just a block used to reiforce the floor, you achieve the same results by using blocks on either side of the opening (adjacent joist spaces) or by using a strap of steel (or wood) below the joists at that location or by using x-bracing between the joists.

Fire blocking is generally used to separate one area of a building from another so unless there's a wall under it (and likely over it) they aren't going to block a lot of fire.

Again, these are all guesses without some way to visualize it...

 

[Neurorad]

Thank you for trying to figure out what these blocks are for.

No, there is no completed wall below the blocks, but it's framed, and not sheetrocked. It's a row if studs, splitting my wiring closet into 2 separate areas. I think there was supposed to be drywall there, but it never happened. 1/2 of the closet was drywalled, and the other 1/2 was not.

I see these blocks used in other parts of the house, in the 'other' mechanical room, in the basement. These are located above finished drywall, separating the mechanical room from the adjoining room's ceiling area.

I have also seen many areas of x-bracing - so I don't think it's structural. These blocks appear to be located along the mechanical rooms.

I have figured out they are 1" thick - very solid boards. I couldn't move them with a fiberglass pole, pounding pretty hard. They're toenailed in place.

It's a good 4 feet to the board from one side, but about 2.5 feet from the other side.

I bought a 1 foot extension for the 2.5" hole saw at HD, and put some muscle into it. Took a while, but now I have 2 holes in the board, plenty big enough for the current DA project. I have some leftover 2" flex conduit that does the trick nicely.

I'll finish the MBa Nuvo GC zone tomorrow, after a productive day in the attic today. I still need to configure the GC, and build back boxes for the speakers.

 

[sic0048]

You might want to drill all the holes you expect to use before you start running wire through them. It will just make the job tougher if you are worried about nicking a wire that has already been pulled.

 

[pete_c]

Neurorad,
i had the same issue. I just ran the wiring between the joists and above the two AC ducts. I didn't have any wood going perpendicular to the joists though. In addition I use large PVC Pipe plastic hangers to keep my wiring up.
PeteC

 

[Neurorad]

You might want to drill all the holes you expect to use before you start running wire through them. It will just make the job tougher if you are worried about nicking a wire that has already been pulled.

Good idea, but I don't want to have lots of holes, if it's meant for fireblocking.

Maybe I can just fill the unused holes with rockwool plugs. Reaching them is a problem. Maybe fill them with 2" conduit, and plug the conduit with rockwool?

Cutting those 2" holes is a bear, from 2.5 feet. My arms are like jelly today from carrying a 2 year old for over an hour last night. At least she was good for the first hour. :nutz:

Again, sorry to hijack.

 

[86turbodsl]

You might want to drill all the holes you expect to use before you start running wire through them. It will just make the job tougher if you are worried about nicking a wire that has already been pulled.

Good idea, but I don't want to have lots of holes, if it's meant for fireblocking.

Maybe I can just fill the unused holes with rockwool plugs. Reaching them is a problem. Maybe fill them with 2" conduit, and plug the conduit with rockwool?

Cutting those 2" holes is a bear, from 2.5 feet. My arms are like jelly today from carrying a 2 year old for over an hour last night. At least she was good for the first hour. :nutz:

Again, sorry to hijack.

Not sure why you'd have fireblocking there. You are required to fireblock from floor to floor, but not from room to room, regardless of what may be in the room. I have a couple of rooms
in my basement, and one of them has combustion devices in it and was not required to add any fireblocking.

 

[Neurorad]

Fireblocking is required, in some areas, from room to room.

I've read that it's an issue with some home theaters, when a 'room within a room' setup is done. That empty space needs to be separated from other spaces, or divided up somehow.

A brief search shows this forum thread which discusses fireblocking in a basement:

http://www.diychatroom.com/f98/how-fireblo...g-37190/index2/