Cable tray (or alternate) suggestions

[davidqxo]

I'm building a new, single story house. The footprint is shoebox shaped, with centrally located wiring and mechanical closets, and an above ceiling service corridor running the length of the house down the middle.

I'd like to have distributions (low voltage wiring, power wiring, plumbing, air duct) suspended off the ceiling, and a cable tray of some sort seems like one solution, at least for wiring. Does anyone have suggestions for a good approach to this?

 

[upstatemike]

I'm building a new, single story house. The footprint is shoebox shaped, with centrally located wiring and mechanical closets, and an above ceiling service corridor running the length of the house down the middle.

I'd like to have distributions (low voltage wiring, power wiring, plumbing, air duct) suspended off the ceiling, and a cable tray of some sort seems like one solution, at least for wiring. Does anyone have suggestions for a good approach to this?

I like metal D rings bolted to the rafters. It gives you more options if you have to follow an indirect route around plumbing and heating stuff.

 

[Frunple]

I see a lot of neat ideas for this in work. One that was definitely a cheap way to go and got a laugh outta me was those wire closet organizers. each are "L" shaped so they had 2 connected together to form a "U" if you get my drift. Theres your cable tray, cheap and effective. And this was in a multi-million dollar companies data room.... thats where my laugh came from.

 

[felixrosbergen]

I am looking into this as well.

My new house will have a 1400sqf upstairs with a attic above. Attic will have batt insulation so i can easilly remove and add ceiling sensors, speakers, etc.

Am considering how to run all the wiring in the attic to the main trunks (three 2" PVC conduits going directly to wiring room in basement.

One consideration was the 'D' rings, but the attic trusses are about 20" apart or so. Perhaps i will consider a wire tray laying on top of the insulation.

 

[upstatemike]

I am looking into this as well.

My new house will have a 1400sqf upstairs with a attic above. Attic will have batt insulation so i can easilly remove and add ceiling sensors, speakers, etc.

Am considering how to run all the wiring in the attic to the main trunks (three 2" PVC conduits going directly to wiring room in basement.

One consideration was the 'D' rings, but the attic trusses are about 20" apart or so. Perhaps i will consider a wire tray laying on top of the insulation.

20 inches is not a bad span for a wire bundle. Also D-rings are easy when it comes to adding to the bundle.

 

[drozwood90]

D rings are good for small bundles of cables. I found that once you get too many, the weight of the bundle will start to press down on the "bottom" cables (anything touching the D-ring). This deforms the twist of the wire in the cable, which will have a net effect of slowing your total possible speed limit.

I found that putting a thick piece of cardboard seems to help, but I generally tend to keep with something that supports the total weight of the cables.

For me, I just took a piece of PVC 4" tube. Cut it the long way and hung that up. It was cheaper and really allowed me to customize everything (put 45s and 90s in there to run the wires around the house).

I also layed a bunch of string through the tube just to be lazy later on, if I wanted to pull anything new.

Did I mention cheap?

--Dan

 

[beelzerob]

I had the exact same delimna not too long ago....need cable trays....need cheap. I got pointed to plenty of things NOT cheap, and I also even considered the wire shelving approach.

Here's what I ended up doing:

Better than it used to be, anyway:

 

[drozwood90]

I had the exact same delimna not too long ago....need cable trays....need cheap. I got pointed to plenty of things NOT cheap, and I also even considered the wire shelving approach.

Here's what I ended up doing:

Better than it used to be, anyway:

Why the insulation between the floor joists?

 

[drozwood90]

D rings are good for small bundles of cables. I found that once you get too many, the weight of the bundle will start to press down on the "bottom" cables (anything touching the D-ring). This deforms the twist of the wire in the cable, which will have a net effect of slowing your total possible speed limit.

I found that putting a thick piece of cardboard seems to help, but I generally tend to keep with something that supports the total weight of the cables.

For me, I just took a piece of PVC 4" tube. Cut it the long way and hung that up. It was cheaper and really allowed me to customize everything (put 45s and 90s in there to run the wires around the house).

I also layed a bunch of string through the tube just to be lazy later on, if I wanted to pull anything new.

Did I mention cheap?

--Dan

I should also mention, cheap is true, but this SHOULD only be used for LOW voltage stuff...otherwise "some say" this type of plastic can pick up a charge from the AC lines...

I've only used it for LV, so I don't know if it's true or not.

--Dan

 

[beelzerob]

Why the insulation between the floor joists?

*shrug*

If I were to guess, it's because the basement is considered an unheated space. There's insulation everywhere that there's that interface (between kitchen and garage, etc)