Wiring Closet - I sure could use some ideas

[easytimhal]

It's going to be new construction for a home I'm building.
I have a bunch of stuff I want to hook up.

6 rooms will have 2 speakers in each room,thats (12 wires ) that are ceiling mounted, each room with have a wall mounted IR receiver (Buffalo Electronics Buffalo IR-250 In-Wall Insert (8) IR Repeater) All of this needs to go somewhere and be hooked up to a Russound 6.2 speaker selector.

Then there will be one RG-6 cable run to each of the 7 rooms each one of these run will come from a Video Distribution System amplifier.
7 rooms, each will have a RJ45 CAT5 Network plug

So, I will have a DSL modem, a router, 8 IR repeater, 8 speaker selector, 7 input video amplifier,4 camera video server, two phone jacks .
Just what should I do to have a place for all this to go and be hooked up?

I really think a wire closet just might be the thing to do, I'm hoping to hear from you guys on how you went about hooking
everything up, I need a place to go with all these wires. PLEASE give me your input

 

[tmbrown97]

You have several options depending on personal preference and space available.

If you can get a dedicated closet and keep it cool and home-run everything, that's the best... like a corner of a basement or a room that works well in the house layout.

Otherwise, you work out your options. For example, where I'm at there's no basements or extra closets really - so you'd probably run all your infrastructure cabling to an in-wall cabinet in the master closet; then for the audio system (speaker wires) you'd run them to the main family room entertainment center and keep your equipment there. The security DVR would probably go in the master closet as well in a locking enclosure if you're smart.

If you have a closet or basement, you can run everything there and decide if you want a full rack, or a partial rack with some in or on-wall routing of cables.

I personally have a little of both... I use a 50" in-wall structured media cabinet for security and the fiber modem that came with the house; then I have a 12U wall mount rack for other stuff like router, WHS, DTV distribution, etc. I went a little unconventional in that I yanked the Cat5 and RG6 out of the structured wiring cabinet and put them in the wall-mount cabinet for easier wiring to the switch - but that could've worked either way.

What kind of options do you have?

 

[easytimhal]

Well, I don't have a basement, its Florida, but I will have a 5 car garage.

I'm thinking of building a small room 3' x 3' with a door that I can lock in the extended part of the garage, maybe in the corner. In this little room I would leave the back

open where the wires would come in from the top. With several shelves at 3' x 2' to hold everything. Most likely I will put vents in the bottom and a fan at the top to pull air in and hot air out at the top


I'm switching from X10 to Insteon, I now have ISY-99 and HAL 2000 and several of those cool mic's, AXIS video server and of course I can see and control everything with my iPhone

 

[pete_c]

I did a tear down in FL on the gulf side around 2000 and the new home is elevated somewhat with the 2.5 car garage at floor level. I "modified" a closet in the laundry room adjacent to the garage at 2nd floor level near the fuse panel. The closet is somewhat deep and I have all of the house LV wiring going to it. I keep wanting to take pictures of the setup and will do so on my next visit.

Personally having the wiring closet at 2nd floor level was a bit easier cuz it provides easy access to the attic; for additional wires. Its still difficult because the house has all vaulted ceilings anyways. Putting the wiring closet at ground level would have made for some difficulties because its all cement for one and the run from the ground level would have had to been run along the cement walls into the main floor cavity. Another thing; cuz the house is on the water; should a hurricane pass or water level climb then the closet at ground level would become flooded; that's me.

I had an alarm company do the pre-wire for the alarm and the phone company do the pre-wire for the telephone. The builder did some RG-6 for TV. I added audio, more RG6, more 4 wire / 2 wire alarm, cat5. The LV wall is made up of two panels at this time. One Leviton and one for the HAI OPII panel. I did have issues because the alarm company wanted to wire the panel in the master bedroom walk in closet and I didn't. I'm still automating the home. I did run a pair of audio cables (14/16 guage) plus cat5e to each room in the house, garage and Lanai. I have speakers mounted in the vaulted ceilings and walls. I did upgrade a friend / neigbors alarm system and that was wired to a large closet in a spare bedroom in the middle of the house. It was a walk in; such that the rest of the LV wiring for just about anything could have been done there.

I have a friend on the Atlantic side on the water that is also in a ranch that he built. Very large garage and did build a wiring closet at ground level; guessing around the 1970's before the building codes / FEMA stuff. All of the wiring from the house goes to the garage wiring closet which is larger; so there are servers in the closet as well.

 

[Del91574]

I wouldn't recommend the garage, especially in Florida. Electronics don't like heat, then factor in humidity. Conditioned space is the best option.

 

[pete_c]

BTW for the teardown and new contruction in FL we used:

http://www.arthurrutenberghomes.com/

With permission I was able to do much of the LV wiring on weekends.

I did meet with the general and would fly down almost every weekend to check construction.

Most of the issues I had though were with the 50 home HOA; really the only issues I had.

I did add much LV cabling from the wiring closet to the "great room" where there is kind of a wall of wires for LCD, MM receiver, etc. Today I probably am only using 20% of what is there.

Here in the midwest we started construction with a builder called Heartside Construction around 2003 or so. They screwed up so bad after initial ground breaking we "fired" them; received our deposit back and moved to a home about 2 blocks away.