New (used) house - prewiring

[KentDub]

Just purchased my first house! I've been waiting a long time to be able to setup my cocoon with miles of wires with the ability to control everything from anywhere.

The house (like most others in this area) has already been prewired for security. My hope is that there are sensors already attached to the doors/windows (don't know how to confirm that though). Just ordered a M1G so I assume (as, of course, nothing is labled) I can hookup wires into the inputs and walk around the house and have the M1G figure out what wire is what sensor.

The house only has a single RG6/Cat-5 running to each room. This isn't going to come close to what I'm going to need over the years. From what I've read, it seems people stay away from damaging walls for retrofit work as much as possible. Since I'm planning on repainting the entire interior anyways, should I remove the sheetrock and run the wires exactly how I want them? I can't imagine a few 8x4 sheets of sheetrock and some texture would cost a ton of money - especially if I only take down portions of the walls.

The house is a 2 story with a limited-access attic (also no basement/crawlspace). It looks like it will be extremely difficult to run new wires on the first floor through the walls. I will be using the master bedroom's closet (2nd floor) as the wiring hub for the house -- this is where the existing security prewire/cat-5/rg6 was run to. I am thinking about 3 or 4 cat-6 runs to each room, with about 12 cat-6 runs to the great room (the active speakers I'm going to purchase have ethernet, lol, they communicate to eachother for calibration).

Is the main reason behind people not wanting to take down the sheetrock the amount of work to repair the damage, or is it the cost? Since I havn't moved in yet and am planning on repainting anyways, does it make sence for me to 'prewire' for present/future at this point? I need to build up some confidence for this decision - my family is going to think I'm crazy.

Thanks for input and suggestions,

Kent

 

[sic0048]

Just purchased my first house!

Is the main reason behind people not wanting to take down the sheetrock the amount of work to repair the damage, or is it the cost? Since I havn't moved in yet and am planning on repainting anyways, does it make sence for me to 'prewire' for present/future at this point? I need to build up some confidence for this decision - my family is going to think I'm crazy.

Thanks for input and suggestions,

Kent

First off, congratulations!

Concerning drywall... I think it is both issues you mentioned, plus the fact that our spouses/significant others would not allow it. The hardest part is getting the new drywall to match the old, especially if it has been painted a few times with rollers and the texture that has built up is totally different from new drywall.

Check around the house for the HVAC runs. Many times there is a central duct line that goes from the top to the bottom of the house. Although the ductwork generally takes up most of the space inside the framed and drywall box, there is usually enough space to drop new wire without too much trouble. Of course that may only get it to the correct floor, you still have to figure out how to run it to each individual room!

 

[Steve]

Without a basement wiring that first floor will be near impossible with disturbing the ceiling. I 'd also hate to rip out perfectly good drywall for many of the reasons Brian said. You may want to consult with a low voltage contractor, many time they have the tools and special techniques to do the job while sparing your drywall.

With regard to tracing your wires, I don't think I would do that with the M1. I would use a toner or a multimeter to ring out the wires and have a pretty good idea what was what before connecting to the panel.

 

[Neurorad]

New house, awesome!

If you're painting anyway, then cutting and repairing the drywall isn't a big deal.

Because you want to move in soon, I'd probably hire a low voltage contractor/custom installer to help with the planning and running of cables. Will make life a lot easier.

You may not have wireless speakers forever - you may want to try to futureproof by running some speaker wire. Overwire now.

 

[nightwalker]

I say you'll never have a better opportunity to rewire, especially if you don't mind a little drywall work. Once it's painted and you've moved in it's a lot harder to do, especially if there's a significant other in the picture. They hate seeing a man with a drywall saw in his hand while looking at their newly painted walls.

 

[Digger]

You may want to consider ripping out the sheetrock on the exterior walls and re-insulating and taking the federal rebate to help cover the cost of the insulation. Then you will have some access in every room to run wiring.

When I bought my house about 10 years ago I gutted the whole house over about a year or so. The savings on the heating have been significant plus I replaced all of the high voltage wiring and segregated circuits etc.

 

[Dave X10]

Congratulations and welcome to the joys of home ownership.

When you repaint your home be sure to keep all the paint "cards" with the color sample numbers and such. This will allow you to match up the paint if you make repairs later. As a rule... you should never need to pull off a sheet of drywall to add wiring. There are some decent books out there on wiring and rewiring. Take your time to read-up on your project(s) first.

You will likely find other needed repairs once you actually get the keys and full access. Take your time and look things over well. Then compile your fix and repair list getting plenty of input from your wife. Use your wife's requested projects to justify the purchase of materials and tools. Later... this will make your automation projects appear to actually be free.

 

[KentDub]

Thank you all for your input.

My cousin is a general contractor and is willing to help me for a weekend to run the wires and get everything all patched up where we damage walls. I agree that I need to take the time to get everything planned - probebly won't be able to do anything for a few weeks after I get the keys. The house is fairly new (built 5 years ago) - so I doubt I would get any benifit of reinsulating (I could be mistaken). Neurorad, I don't have any wireless speakers - The speakers are self-amplified (active), and have ballanced inputs. This means I have to run power/signal/cat5 to each speaker location. Dave, great idea on how to piggyback my projects onto others =) I like the idea of running conduit from the wiring closet or attic to the hard to reach places. That seems to be the best way to future proof the project.

Thanks,
Kent

 

[pete_c]

Welcome to your new home Kent.

Wondering if you have conduit for your electric? Having a cousin that's a general contractor and that is willing to help you is great. I would take advantage of the limited access attic for your low voltage wiring. My home in the MW was 3 years old when we moved in. I have the advantage of a large attic for 2nd floor access and an unfinished basement for 1st floor access. Over the years and while doing each room knowing that I was going to paint I have redone electric and added more low voltage wiring. Recently while remodeling the family room - new everything including ripping out the fireplace and redoing it did cut some major pieces of drywall for access into the ceiling of my family room. You can't tell today where those pieces were cut.

I added a number of low voltage "stuff" in both the walls and the ceiling in all remodeled rooms. I also have been revamping the electric in each room. IE: before I painted the bedrooms added speakers and added more network, video, etc cabling. A few walls I had no choice but to cut drywall in some areas. Electricwise made single mud plate dual gang box for at least two switches become a full dual gang box. I did not use ceiling mounted speakers though thruout the home but rather wall mounted. I used many of the speaker cutouts to run additional cabling. IE: my office : I put two speakers in one of the walls - along with a speaker "controller wall plate / gang box" . One of the speaker is between the same joists for a wall that I have 3 cat 5 connections plus a number of other low voltage connections. I used the same "inbetween" joists area from the attic to the speaker cutout to the wall plate(s) for minimal drywall cutting...

One area in the home utilized for a "wire" run I use mounted speakers plus a cutout. The only one in the home and is utilized for all cabling running from basement to attic (20 + foot run). Funny too just noticed that the caulking I used for the trim faded the paint. I did have another centrally located area which I found an HVAC return that ran from the basement to the top of the second floor. It does utilize all the space between the joists. My HVAC person told me that I "could" use that but I chose not to.