Tips or Suggestions for attic runs?

mdesmarais said:
I get those staples at Lowes. . . how about the velcro though- where does that come from? Very spiffy!
I get the staples and velcro from a local wholesale electric supply shop, as mentioned... I've seen the staples at the local Home Depot too.

The velcro may be a little more difficult to find? I'm sure it's available on-line somewhere. It's made by Zip-Tie and comes in several different colors and widths. The 3/4" works great with these plastic staples, but I also use 1/2" and 1" widths too for different things. Having a roll of this stuff around is indespinsible for cable management... it's much less expensive than the pre-made velcro straps and can be cut to length.

If anyone needs the velcro and can't find a source, send me a PM as I ususally have 2-3 rolls on hand.

Here another picture using the blue colored velcro which matches the category cable nicely for a comercial installation:
 

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Nobody mentioned "j" hooks so I'll throw that idea out there. Mine are mounted high. away from the line voltage stuff but low enough to avoid being cut by an over zelous roofer. The hooks make it easy to drop in new wire, pull out an old run or do whatever else might need doing. They do cost a bit more than some of the alternatives.

Mike
 
The OP mentioned j-hooks:

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?
I do like the tie wrap stuff as well but its a tradeoff. If you do that nice cable wrapping you cannot simply pull another cable thru with a pull string - with my pipe clamps or j-hooks, d-rings or whatever, it is easy to pull another wire thru without having to retrace your steps, open the velcro bundles and add them in. Choose your evil...
 
J-Hooks & D-Rings are inexpensive, convienent, and great for telephone, speaker wire, Security wire and to some extent 10MB Ethernet (Cat5). When you get into higher speed Cat5e/Cat6 the small diameter wire that these are made of just doesn't provide enough support and can pinch the bottom wires reducing performance.

I'm not saying that they won't work, but they're not ideal for Cat5e or higher. There are special "wider" J-Hooks that are designed specifically for this. Here's an example I found with a quick web search.

http://www.milestek.com/SHOP/product.asp?id=70%2050214

Panduit also makes a bunch of similar hangers that mate up with their ladder rack, cable trays & other cable management nicely.

Cheers,
Paul
 
I agree with Paul about having something too narrow. Just so everyone knows exactly what I was referring to, these are the ones I use. Picture is 1/2". I usually use 1.5 or 2".

Here is an example of how a previous installer did wire mgmt in the attic. While still not ideal, this shows the clamps that I used.
 
Steve said:
The OP mentioned j-hooks:

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?
I do like the tie wrap stuff as well but its a tradeoff. If you do that nice cable wrapping you cannot simply pull another cable thru with a pull string - with my pipe clamps or j-hooks, d-rings or whatever, it is easy to pull another wire thru without having to retrace your steps, open the velcro bundles and add them in. Choose your evil...
This is why I like the HVAC straps with big loops in them. You can pull cable pretty much all the way through the attic with no issues yet it's suspended high enough to avoid the HV stuff.
 
Steve said:
I agree with Paul about having something too narrow. Just so everyone knows exactly what I was referring to, these are the ones I use. Picture is 1/2". I usually use 1.5 or 2".
Hi Steve,

Those conduit clamps work well... I use them too sometimes, but usually when running bundles of wires down a wall stud.

I initially thought you were talking about D-Rings (commonly called "drive rings") like in the following link. They're used a lot in telco & security, but not so good for high-speed data.

Drive Rings

Cheers,
Paul
 
I've been using mostly the plastic conduit/pipe connector 'D-rings' that Steve linked, good for the attic.

Many different styles of J-hooks. If these were cheaper, I'd use them. I appreciate the curved edge, compared with my conduit D-rings.
cat-links-main-image.jpg

platinum-tools-ccp-series-j-hooks.JPG


Plastic hangers for overhead runs
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I like the flexibility of bridle rings
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These D-rings are designed specifically for cables
gc-dringx_3.jpg


Yeah, I know, OP asked about 'in the wall'
 
wow! That's waking up an old post.

I think Neurorad had replied to a post from yesterday - then someone must have deleted it..? Weird because I know I read this thread yesterday because it had a new post.

Anyhow - it was a timely reminder for me. The weather is near perfect for some attic pulls! time to get a few sets of speakers installed + some 22/4 for occupancy sensors. I ordered some of these Drive Rings which should work well.
 
In my attic kind of went with my own home brew "J Hooks". I used plastic PVC pipe "hangers".

Very reasonably priced at your local HW box stores. The mounting holes on these are arranged such that the "J Hook" can be mounted different ways.

Before wiring in the attic adding "walking paths" and electric (lighting is "daylight" like for my "aged" vision now).

This and falling between attic joists once about 30 years ago over my parents living room with a cathedral ceiling (my hips stopping my fall).
 
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