Tips or Suggestions for attic runs?

slipnfall

Member
Hi Folks,
I was hoping you could suggest some tips for 'retrofit' attic installs. The house is finished, but the attic is exposed rafters/joices/insulation. It's barely tall enough to stand, so we have no plans to 'finish' it. I'm just looking for some suggestions on how to protect and keep the wires tidy, but at the same time keeping them out of the way. Worth mentioning, the wiring is cat5, coax, phone, and alarm runs to cover aprox 1000sq' of living space. I'm getting the lower (split foyer) half from the basement.

I wanted to keep the bundle towards the corner (where the roof meets the walls), but there will be a lot of cross-runs. We use the attic mostly for storage, and I would hate to have my better half toss a box and crush some cable.

At first I was going to use good 'ole j-hooks, but realistically most of the wires will be carried over to drops, and so I don't think the j-hooks would be used a whole lot. Is it OK to use the coax staples for CAT5e?

Smurf tubing comes to mind, but would this be overkill?

Cheers,
Jamie
 
My first and most important suggestion is to not use your forum name while in the attic :)

It is nice to keep wire near the ends, but that is tough in alot of places since you have no room there due to the roofline. Most people just lay cable across the trusses, and usually in all kinds of crazy (least cost - ie. shortest) paths. I think smurf tube is really double work and not needed. There are many ways to skin this cat and it all depends on how much access you have, how much time you want to spend up there and how much you want to spend. Lately I have been using 2" PVC pipe clamps screwed into the upper part of the truss to keep the wire up and out of the way. You can either then drop it down where you need, or come down one of the trusses and go from there. Any kind of hooks or insulated staples should be fine as long as you don't crush the wire. I also don't particularly like tighter clamps or staples because it will be tough if you ever want to remove a wire. Just try to cross all your LV stuff at 90 degree angles to your AC and don't run parallel to AC. Thats one of the reasons I go up high because in some spots a parallel run is the only option. . And however you run it, put a couple of pull strings in the main route for future runs.
 
I have more room in my attic. But I ran all the low voltage high, used big staples or velcro ties where the cable comes together and used small staples near the end. I always leave a "service loop" of wire at one end and use smaller hammered in staples to secure the loop. I never sink the staples all the way, I just leave it loose. With 2 staples on each end of the loop, it will secure the wire without the need to sink the staples.

In hind sight I would recommend the velcro straps, vs big staples as they are easier to pull wire through. Also, if you use staples, I recommend the insulated ones vs. uninsulated as they reduce the risk of cutting into the wire if you sink them too far. If only electricians would use these exclusively there would be alot less house fires.

I guarantee that every house in the U.S. that uses non-insulated staples has several cutting into the insulation on electrical wires, somewhere...
 
Herdfan said:
I would not use Coax staples on CAT5e. Depending on how they are done, they can crush/crimp the cable.
I should have been a little more clear: by coax 'staples', I mean the molded platic ones with the nail already embedded.
 
Steve said:
My first and most important suggestion is to not use your forum name while in the attic :)

It is nice to keep wire near the ends, but that is tough in alot of places since you have no room there due to the roofline. Most people just lay cable across the trusses, and usually in all kinds of crazy (least cost - ie. shortest) paths. I think smurf tube is really double work and not needed. There are many ways to skin this cat and it all depends on how much access you have, how much time you want to spend up there and how much you want to spend. Lately I have been using 2" PVC pipe clamps screwed into the upper part of the truss to keep the wire up and out of the way. You can either then drop it down where you need, or come down one of the trusses and go from there. Any kind of hooks or insulated staples should be fine as long as you don't crush the wire. I also don't particularly like tighter clamps or staples because it will be tough if you ever want to remove a wire. Just try to cross all your LV stuff at 90 degree angles to your AC and don't run parallel to AC. Thats one of the reasons I go up high because in some spots a parallel run is the only option. . And however you run it, put a couple of pull strings in the main route for future runs.
Haha: yeah good point, I'll watch my step. :D

I came across these 'saddle straps', that have a plastic piece you can nail to a joice, then a loop of velcro on the bottom. In the end this should prove to be the most versatile for moving wires around if need be.

The blue LV tubing seemed like a good idea at the time because it would fully protect the wires against boxes and the occasional rodent. My father across the street has had every one of his attic-installed speaker cones (+wires) chewed through from mice.

Thanks for the suggestions folks!
 
slipnfall said:
I came across these 'saddle straps', that have a plastic piece you can nail to a joice, then a loop of velcro on the bottom. In the end this should prove to be the most versatile for moving wires around if need be.
Yea, its a personal call on exactly what kind of 'fastner' to use. I like the solid ones like pipe clamps or D-rings because they are solid and sturdy and you can pull wire thru them more easily imho.
 
slipnfall said:
Herdfan said:
I would not use Coax staples on CAT5e. Depending on how they are done, they can crush/crimp the cable.
I should have been a little more clear: by coax 'staples', I mean the molded platic ones with the nail already embedded.
I actually had to use those today because I misplaced my cat5e staples. The coax staples seem to be bigger than the cat5e ones, since the cable is still moving around. Not the best fit, but it will do for now.
 
I use these 3/4" plastic "nail-on" staples and a roll of double-sided 3/4" velcro. It's inexpensive and works really well for supporting low voltage cabling. As already mentioned... it's easy to add/remove wires after the fact and also provides much better support than a zip tie which is important when supporting data cabling.
 

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pkoslow:

Do you have a source for those stable things? I'm doing my attic/crawl right now and that is exactly what I am looking for!

While we are on the topic of protection, i have a basic question. In my house I have something that looks like this:

Code:
bundle ->=====================================|
          ====================================||<-bundle 
          ===================================|||  corner
               |                |            |||
drops->       |                |            |||              
               |                |            |||
               |                |            |||
               |                |            |||
               |                |            |||

Where the drops exit the bundle do I need to do anthing special? How about when the bundle goes around a corner?
 
I used the strapping the HVAC guys use for ducts. I would create a good size loop then staple or nail it to the truss or rafter, leaving plenty of room to run wires through. Once all the wire was run, I went back through and cable tied the bundles together.

BTW, I can't take credit for this idea. NTHAUG came over and helped out on a Saturday and Brett (can't remember his forum name) suggested this. It worked great though and was cheap (since the HVAC guys left rolls of the stuff laying around).
 
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