11 ms·

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

NegativeLatency 4y ago
An attic or unfinished basement can make this much easier
yakubin 4y ago
I've watched the video and I still don't understand how you get the wire through the conduit though. Part of the video seemed to happen through telekinesis: the part where a wire magically came out of the wall, allowing you to pull from the other side.
- js2 4y ago
  I'm not sure which video you mean, but you use either a fish tape or a pull line. I know that Verizon also has fiber with a stiffer jacket that they can push through conduit a pretty good distance. I know this because I helped the Verizon installer run FIOS at my daughter's apartment in a building that was over 100 years old. The conduit had a crimp in it so it took the two of us a while to get past that.
  - sschueller 4y ago
    Probably referring to this demonstration video regarding the FTTH Squeeze plate where the pull line comes flying through the conduit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARSpp4B9-X4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARSpp4B9-X4
    - js2 4y ago
      That's a fish tape being pushed through from the other end.
- thefounder 4y ago
  You have to have a wire installed in the first place(i.e coax or just a simple thin but strong wire). That wire is installed when you install the walls/gypsum. Then you use it to pull whatever you need(hdmi etc). When you pull the new wire(hdmi) you attach an additional wire at the tip so that you can pull back your initial wire once your new HDMI is in place. If you don't have an initial wire installed you can use a magnet kit with a specific wire to pull it through the conduit.(e.g youtube "magnepull"). A camera small comes in handy as well. If you need to pull wires through the ceiling and you already have recessed lights you can use their wires to pull your new wire.
  - yakubin 4y ago
    That explains it. Thanks.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    > You have to have a wire installed in the first place(i.e coax or just a simple thin but strong wire). That wire is installed when you install the walls/gypsum. Unfortunately, in my experience of 6 or 7 new builds in the last 15 years or so, coaxial cables are usually staples to the studs and useless for this purpose.
    - dfc 4y ago
      Coax stapled to the studs is different than coax running inside of a conduit.
      - ComputerGuru 4y ago
        I have never seen coax running in a conduit in a residential setting in the USA.
    - thefounder 4y ago
      >> Unfortunately, in my experience of 6 or 7 new builds in the last 15 years or so, coaxial cables are usually staples to the studs and useless for this purpose. Well, that's part of the fun/job. Usually you end-up with a few holes as well so you try to get hold of anything that helps you, "one inch" at a time. As always, the easy way to deal with this is to let someone else do the job(hire a pro/custom installer).
- Unklejoe 4y ago
  You can attach a string to a foam ball/plunger type thing and then suck it through with a vacuum from the other side. Then, fix your wire to the string and pull it back in the other direction.
  - uncanneyvalley 4y ago
    A plastic bag tied to pulling twine works really well and is less likely to get stuck than a ball or plunger. I always leave a length of twine in my conduits so I only have to use the vacuum method once.
    - sponaugle 4y ago
      Indeed the plastic bag trick works very very well in a lot of different use cases. I was able to pull twine over 500 feet with this technique while doing my driveway conduits.
      - sokoloff 4y ago
        I had about 50 feet and 270° of bends in some PVC conduits I'd buried under a section of yard. I'd gotten everything done and asked my wife to come help me get the poly string and then mule tape into the conduits. The poly line practically leapt into the conduit chasing the plastic bag. It was one of the greatest ratios between how hard I thought something might be and how hard it actually was.
        rootusrootus 4y ago
        Pulling a bit of twine through from my pool over to where I had installed my equipment pad went much the same way, and I was too dumb to think about using a plastic bag ;). Just stuffed a bit of twine in one and and left it loose, walked over to the other and and put a shop vac on it, and -whoosh- here came the string. Felt like cheating. It was only a small conduit, though, 3/4 inch, so it had pretty good airflow.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jonatron 4y ago
I'm guessing you're in the UK. Even in my relatively new house (80's), almost all cables are chased in, no conduit anywhere. Standard construction in the UK could be improved by just doing basic obvious things that other countries do.
- KerrAvon 4y ago
  Likely the US. Unless it’s a very new high-end house or you got lucky and bought the house a contractor built for themselves to a high standard, they did the cheapest thing the electrical code allows them to get away with, which certainly wasn’t conduit in the 80’s, unless that was local code somewhere. Certainly not in CA or FL.
  - js2 4y ago
    No conduit in NC in my 2004 built house, with the exception of specific chase pipes I asked them to install from the basement to the attic. The drywall was already up to get them to do much more than that. I'm guessing all the cat5 is stapled into place behind the drywall. Fortunately between the attic and the ceiling-tile basement I can get to where I need, it's just a PITA because of fireblocks. So many fireblocks.
  - yummypaint 4y ago
    Renting a place built a few years ago in NC. It has only one conduit, it runs from the networking panel to the outside where fiber comes in. Unfortunately there was nothing left in the empty conduit to pull things through with and the installer didn't want to spend half a day with a fishtape, so it didn't even get used. Companies really couldn't care less about doing things right w/ regards to people's homes unless there is some direct monetary consequence for them.
Someone1234 4y ago
Agreed. In most US homes, by code, there needs to be a fire-stop between floors but also for practical reasons there are often cross-bracing mid way up each wall, therefore going from one place to another often involves multiple holes in drywall (which is relatively inexpensive, but also a dusty/annoying nightmare to patch). If I built a home I'd add conduit, but that's an extremely niche idea.
- uncanneyvalley 4y ago
  A flexible drill bit[1] can be used to pass a horizontal member within a wall. You can enter the wall through an outlet hole or use the length of the bit to drill straight up through bottom of the wall, if you’re able to access it from a basement. They usually have a hole in the tip to pull twine along with the head of the bit. [1] similar to https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/flex-bit-accessories/flex-bit-kit https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/flex-bit-accessories/flex...
  - bombcar 4y ago
    If you have high baseboards/ceiling trim, you can have drywall that ends way above the sill plates which makes it incredibly easy to route cable with the baseboards off. Similar to: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/wiring/running-cables-through-existing-walls https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/wiring/runni... There are some considerations if it's a firewall or an insulated wall, but it can be really nice.
    - uncanneyvalley 4y ago
      Great point. With the baseboards off, you can even look inside the wall (e.g. with a phone camera) for clear stud bays and power cables, potentially finding easier runs.
throwaway09223 4y ago
I was able to run two conduits to key areas during a remodel of my older home. Take advantage of open walls when you can!
bombcar 4y ago
Many parts of the world use concrete or brick and those almost always have conduit. The US can add it but it’s an extra cost and so rarely done.
pooper 4y ago
> I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls. I don't own a house and have never owned a house. This will probably sound stupid and I am sorry if this is something obvious. Is it that my spouse will leave me or my parents will disown me if I run a conduit just hanging on a wall? What is this obsession with hiding all wiring within the drywall? What am I missing here? It could be something as simple as a conduit like https://i.imgur.com/6X5of8Y.png https://i.imgur.com/6X5of8Y.png Not that I have a leg to stand on because I still can't afford to buy a home outright (and at current rate, never will). I live in an apartment and I don't make any changes to it. I cannot even imagine doing something simple like drill a hole on the door for a doorbell. So, I am definitely hypocritical when I say this. Maybe I am just being salty as a non-home owner. I feel like all of this comes from treating our homes as some kind of liquid asset that we must keep in pristine condition at all times so we can stage it and sell it at a moment's notice. If you own your own home, why not live in your home like you own your home? Run that conduit across all the walls (and through inside door frames or something like that if you must). If not, do you really own your own home? Why not just live with housing insecurity like I do? Edit: spelling
- bombcar 4y ago
  Many people who own homes use them with an eye to selling and so they don’t bother with things that they’re afraid would reduce resale value. Or they just run cable along the walls. Many garages will be as you describe.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- monitron 4y ago
  It sounds like you just have different priorities or a different aesthetic sense than folks like me who go to great lengths to hide cables. To me it just feels good to wake up in a visually simple environment with things out of sight. It feels like magic, in a good way, to be surrounded by performant, reliable and useful technology but to be able to see almost none of it. And I have an automatic negative reaction to visual clutter or conspicuous machinery in my house. I don't see anything wrong with your way of thinking. I can't easily change how I feel about it and I see no reason why either of us should have to. Edit: this makes me think about sci-fi spaceships. Battlestar Galactica vs. the Heart of Gold from Hitchhiker's Guide. One has its conduits and controls run every which way and the other is minimalist to a fault. I like them both but would definitely prefer to wake up every morning in the latter!
sponaugle 4y ago
One interesting technique I have seen with fiber is running it along/behind baseboards in old houses. Since it is very small (and you can get even smaller single mode fiber) it can in some cases run along side. Some people remove the baseboard and put it behind it. It creates some routing issues, but might also solve some.
- Aloha 4y ago
  Bend radius?
  - sponaugle 4y ago
    Yea, that can be an issue, although for shorter runs it is surprising how much loss you can have and still work fantastic. There are some very cool bend insensitive multimode fibers that would work well in that case. I saw a video where someone was doing this and they used little plastic bend guides that were painted trim color.. not perfect but also not as noticeable as I would have thought.
latchkey 4y ago
I'm currently in the process of literally tearing down walls in my old house (built in the 40's). I used to fear smashing into walls. Once you do a bit of drywall and mud yourself, you realize it isn't that big of a deal. Everything I've learned has been off YT videos and there are some excellent channels with all of the professional tips and tricks. It isn't rocket science by a long shot.
- RHSeeger 4y ago
  While it's not rocket science, I always find it to be super annoying to do. Getting things smooth/flat when you're done (generally, I think I wind up doing 4-5 layers of mud) takes a fair amount of time. Plus sanding it down without getting the powder everywhere is difficult; I use a wet sander / sand "sponge", but even then I wind up with some of it spreading around.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Drywall is one of those things I've found it is highly worth hiring out. Even if you hang the drywall, hiring someone to tape and mud and sand can be entirely worth it - they do it day in, day out, can use five minute mud, and can get done in a few hours what would take you days or even a week. Doing small repairs is easy enough that everyone should at least know the concepts involved.
    - lazide 4y ago
      Concrete finishing is another, IMO. It takes a lot of practice to be smooth enough at doing it to have a nice result over any large area before the concrete sets. It’s not the type of thing that benefits from going ‘hmm, maybe I should do it this way’ after you’ve started. Also, it’s much, much easier to do as a small crew - easily 3-5x more productivity per person. Same as drywall. It’s not easy to do as a solo worker, even if you know the tricks.
  - latchkey 4y ago
    My house already has the "Santa Fe" texture on the walls... it is supposed to be not perfect. Going with smooth, seems like a mistake to me.
shagie 4y ago
This is one of the things that my father did when he did the wiring for the house ~50 years ago - conduit everywhere. It means things like drilling into the wall is safer (you hit metal rather than wire) and when you want to, you just pull more wire through it. There are so many parts of it that were "over engineered" for a house 50 years ago that are "oh, that's convenient" now.
blinded 4y ago
Youd be surprised what you can do with a 40in drill bit and a wire snake. did my whole house and only had to repair 1 piece of dry wall.
- kuschku 4y ago
  With that drill bit you won't be able to get far with concrete brick walls... I hired an electrician to drill the holes for me earlier this year and it took him over 10 minutes per hole to get through the 60cm (2ft) reinforced concrete slab for running cables between two floors.
  - rootusrootus 4y ago
    Honestly, 10 minutes to go through 2 feet of concrete is damn impressive. I had to put a couple 50A electric circuits through my foundation a few months back and I'm pretty sure we spent more like 45 minutes getting through. And we didn't even hit any rebar, which is a minor miracle itself.
petepete 4y ago
I'm moving into my new home (which was built in 1962) in the next month or two. My plan is to run cat 6 throughout, before I get the bulk of my stuff/furniture in. Hopefully I won't need to smash into too many walls but there will be a few. Definitely worth it in the long run though.
- m463 4y ago
  There are so many things I think about "if I had just done X in those few weeks before moving in the furniture". This is an opportunity - you might want to brainstorm X. anything in the kitchen (before you start depending on it for food and/or fill the fridge with perishable stuff) mindfully adding specific storage. Could be the difference between moving in and piling all your stuff in random places. related: garage - before it becomes the "catch all" for unresolved boxes of stuff you move with. A friend said overpaying closetworld for cabinets around the perimeter of his garage was money well spent. adding electrical outlets, switches, etc and yeah, cat5 or fiber
  - petepete 4y ago
    Sorry only just saw this. Thanks for the tips. Thankfully I'm in no rush to move out of my current home (I'll have a 2 month overlap) so plenty of time to get the 'infrastructure' stuff done first.
pmontra 4y ago
I just spent a couple of weeks putting conduits in my brick walls. I couldn't reuse conduits in place for power (regulations, EU) and they are too small anyway. I used Cat6A, not fiber. I don't think an ISP will ever bring fiber to my home. Cat6A is 10 Gb/s so it should be OK for a NAS for a long time. I only have 1 Gb/s network cards now.
philjohn 4y ago
Agree with this. I had my house wired up with 30 Cat 6 drops (3 being in-ceiling for AP's) and in the end it was simpler to go up to the loft (2 story house) and come down that way, with all of the cables then being bundled up and coming down through a built-in-wardrobe into the garage below. It required a bit of patching here and there where a small chase had to be chisseled out to get around a cable going through a patch of plaster used for dot and dab (technique to quickly plasterboard/drywall onto brick), but with conduit it would have been a much simpler job.
Aeolun 4y ago
Yeah, all my walls are filled with loose cables taped together. I wish I had nice things like conduits.
julianlam 4y ago
I wish my house had conduit. To date I've never seen (much less lived in) a house with condiuit. I live in a split level. The company I hired flat out refused to do a cat6 drop to my upstairs office, after spending nearly 40 minutes getting wire up a single story.

NegativeLatency 4y ago

An attic or unfinished basement can make this much easier

yakubin 4y ago

I've watched the video and I still don't understand how you get the wire through the conduit though. Part of the video seemed to happen through telekinesis: the part where a wire magically came out of the wall, allowing you to pull from the other side.

js2 4y ago
I'm not sure which video you mean, but you use either a fish tape or a pull line. I know that Verizon also has fiber with a stiffer jacket that they can push through conduit a pretty good distance. I know this because I helped the Verizon installer run FIOS at my daughter's apartment in a building that was over 100 years old. The conduit had a crimp in it so it took the two of us a while to get past that.
- sschueller 4y ago
  Probably referring to this demonstration video regarding the FTTH Squeeze plate where the pull line comes flying through the conduit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARSpp4B9-X4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARSpp4B9-X4
  - js2 4y ago
    That's a fish tape being pushed through from the other end.
thefounder 4y ago
You have to have a wire installed in the first place(i.e coax or just a simple thin but strong wire). That wire is installed when you install the walls/gypsum. Then you use it to pull whatever you need(hdmi etc). When you pull the new wire(hdmi) you attach an additional wire at the tip so that you can pull back your initial wire once your new HDMI is in place. If you don't have an initial wire installed you can use a magnet kit with a specific wire to pull it through the conduit.(e.g youtube "magnepull"). A camera small comes in handy as well. If you need to pull wires through the ceiling and you already have recessed lights you can use their wires to pull your new wire.
- yakubin 4y ago
  That explains it. Thanks.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  > You have to have a wire installed in the first place(i.e coax or just a simple thin but strong wire). That wire is installed when you install the walls/gypsum. Unfortunately, in my experience of 6 or 7 new builds in the last 15 years or so, coaxial cables are usually staples to the studs and useless for this purpose.
  - dfc 4y ago
    Coax stapled to the studs is different than coax running inside of a conduit.
    - ComputerGuru 4y ago
      I have never seen coax running in a conduit in a residential setting in the USA.
  - thefounder 4y ago
    >> Unfortunately, in my experience of 6 or 7 new builds in the last 15 years or so, coaxial cables are usually staples to the studs and useless for this purpose. Well, that's part of the fun/job. Usually you end-up with a few holes as well so you try to get hold of anything that helps you, "one inch" at a time. As always, the easy way to deal with this is to let someone else do the job(hire a pro/custom installer).
Unklejoe 4y ago
You can attach a string to a foam ball/plunger type thing and then suck it through with a vacuum from the other side. Then, fix your wire to the string and pull it back in the other direction.
- uncanneyvalley 4y ago
  A plastic bag tied to pulling twine works really well and is less likely to get stuck than a ball or plunger. I always leave a length of twine in my conduits so I only have to use the vacuum method once.
  - sponaugle 4y ago
    Indeed the plastic bag trick works very very well in a lot of different use cases. I was able to pull twine over 500 feet with this technique while doing my driveway conduits.
    - sokoloff 4y ago
      I had about 50 feet and 270° of bends in some PVC conduits I'd buried under a section of yard. I'd gotten everything done and asked my wife to come help me get the poly string and then mule tape into the conduits. The poly line practically leapt into the conduit chasing the plastic bag. It was one of the greatest ratios between how hard I thought something might be and how hard it actually was.
      - rootusrootus 4y ago
        Pulling a bit of twine through from my pool over to where I had installed my equipment pad went much the same way, and I was too dumb to think about using a plastic bag ;). Just stuffed a bit of twine in one and and left it loose, walked over to the other and and put a shop vac on it, and -whoosh- here came the string. Felt like cheating. It was only a small conduit, though, 3/4 inch, so it had pretty good airflow.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jonatron 4y ago

I'm guessing you're in the UK. Even in my relatively new house (80's), almost all cables are chased in, no conduit anywhere. Standard construction in the UK could be improved by just doing basic obvious things that other countries do.

KerrAvon 4y ago
Likely the US. Unless it’s a very new high-end house or you got lucky and bought the house a contractor built for themselves to a high standard, they did the cheapest thing the electrical code allows them to get away with, which certainly wasn’t conduit in the 80’s, unless that was local code somewhere. Certainly not in CA or FL.
- js2 4y ago
  No conduit in NC in my 2004 built house, with the exception of specific chase pipes I asked them to install from the basement to the attic. The drywall was already up to get them to do much more than that. I'm guessing all the cat5 is stapled into place behind the drywall. Fortunately between the attic and the ceiling-tile basement I can get to where I need, it's just a PITA because of fireblocks. So many fireblocks.
- yummypaint 4y ago
  Renting a place built a few years ago in NC. It has only one conduit, it runs from the networking panel to the outside where fiber comes in. Unfortunately there was nothing left in the empty conduit to pull things through with and the installer didn't want to spend half a day with a fishtape, so it didn't even get used. Companies really couldn't care less about doing things right w/ regards to people's homes unless there is some direct monetary consequence for them.

Someone1234 4y ago

Agreed. In most US homes, by code, there needs to be a fire-stop between floors but also for practical reasons there are often cross-bracing mid way up each wall, therefore going from one place to another often involves multiple holes in drywall (which is relatively inexpensive, but also a dusty/annoying nightmare to patch). If I built a home I'd add conduit, but that's an extremely niche idea.

uncanneyvalley 4y ago
A flexible drill bit[1] can be used to pass a horizontal member within a wall. You can enter the wall through an outlet hole or use the length of the bit to drill straight up through bottom of the wall, if you’re able to access it from a basement. They usually have a hole in the tip to pull twine along with the head of the bit. [1] similar to https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/flex-bit-accessories/flex-bit-kit https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/flex-bit-accessories/flex...
- bombcar 4y ago
  If you have high baseboards/ceiling trim, you can have drywall that ends way above the sill plates which makes it incredibly easy to route cable with the baseboards off. Similar to: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/wiring/running-cables-through-existing-walls https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/wiring/runni... There are some considerations if it's a firewall or an insulated wall, but it can be really nice.
  - uncanneyvalley 4y ago
    Great point. With the baseboards off, you can even look inside the wall (e.g. with a phone camera) for clear stud bays and power cables, potentially finding easier runs.

throwaway09223 4y ago

I was able to run two conduits to key areas during a remodel of my older home. Take advantage of open walls when you can!

bombcar 4y ago

Many parts of the world use concrete or brick and those almost always have conduit. The US can add it but it’s an extra cost and so rarely done.

pooper 4y ago

> I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls. I don't own a house and have never owned a house. This will probably sound stupid and I am sorry if this is something obvious. Is it that my spouse will leave me or my parents will disown me if I run a conduit just hanging on a wall? What is this obsession with hiding all wiring within the drywall? What am I missing here? It could be something as simple as a conduit like https://i.imgur.com/6X5of8Y.png https://i.imgur.com/6X5of8Y.png Not that I have a leg to stand on because I still can't afford to buy a home outright (and at current rate, never will). I live in an apartment and I don't make any changes to it. I cannot even imagine doing something simple like drill a hole on the door for a doorbell. So, I am definitely hypocritical when I say this. Maybe I am just being salty as a non-home owner. I feel like all of this comes from treating our homes as some kind of liquid asset that we must keep in pristine condition at all times so we can stage it and sell it at a moment's notice. If you own your own home, why not live in your home like you own your home? Run that conduit across all the walls (and through inside door frames or something like that if you must). If not, do you really own your own home? Why not just live with housing insecurity like I do? Edit: spelling

bombcar 4y ago
Many people who own homes use them with an eye to selling and so they don’t bother with things that they’re afraid would reduce resale value. Or they just run cable along the walls. Many garages will be as you describe.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
monitron 4y ago
It sounds like you just have different priorities or a different aesthetic sense than folks like me who go to great lengths to hide cables. To me it just feels good to wake up in a visually simple environment with things out of sight. It feels like magic, in a good way, to be surrounded by performant, reliable and useful technology but to be able to see almost none of it. And I have an automatic negative reaction to visual clutter or conspicuous machinery in my house. I don't see anything wrong with your way of thinking. I can't easily change how I feel about it and I see no reason why either of us should have to. Edit: this makes me think about sci-fi spaceships. Battlestar Galactica vs. the Heart of Gold from Hitchhiker's Guide. One has its conduits and controls run every which way and the other is minimalist to a fault. I like them both but would definitely prefer to wake up every morning in the latter!

sponaugle 4y ago

One interesting technique I have seen with fiber is running it along/behind baseboards in old houses. Since it is very small (and you can get even smaller single mode fiber) it can in some cases run along side. Some people remove the baseboard and put it behind it. It creates some routing issues, but might also solve some.

Aloha 4y ago
Bend radius?
- sponaugle 4y ago
  Yea, that can be an issue, although for shorter runs it is surprising how much loss you can have and still work fantastic. There are some very cool bend insensitive multimode fibers that would work well in that case. I saw a video where someone was doing this and they used little plastic bend guides that were painted trim color.. not perfect but also not as noticeable as I would have thought.

latchkey 4y ago

I'm currently in the process of literally tearing down walls in my old house (built in the 40's). I used to fear smashing into walls. Once you do a bit of drywall and mud yourself, you realize it isn't that big of a deal. Everything I've learned has been off YT videos and there are some excellent channels with all of the professional tips and tricks. It isn't rocket science by a long shot.

RHSeeger 4y ago
While it's not rocket science, I always find it to be super annoying to do. Getting things smooth/flat when you're done (generally, I think I wind up doing 4-5 layers of mud) takes a fair amount of time. Plus sanding it down without getting the powder everywhere is difficult; I use a wet sander / sand "sponge", but even then I wind up with some of it spreading around.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Drywall is one of those things I've found it is highly worth hiring out. Even if you hang the drywall, hiring someone to tape and mud and sand can be entirely worth it - they do it day in, day out, can use five minute mud, and can get done in a few hours what would take you days or even a week. Doing small repairs is easy enough that everyone should at least know the concepts involved.
  - lazide 4y ago
    Concrete finishing is another, IMO. It takes a lot of practice to be smooth enough at doing it to have a nice result over any large area before the concrete sets. It’s not the type of thing that benefits from going ‘hmm, maybe I should do it this way’ after you’ve started. Also, it’s much, much easier to do as a small crew - easily 3-5x more productivity per person. Same as drywall. It’s not easy to do as a solo worker, even if you know the tricks.
- latchkey 4y ago
  My house already has the "Santa Fe" texture on the walls... it is supposed to be not perfect. Going with smooth, seems like a mistake to me.

shagie 4y ago

This is one of the things that my father did when he did the wiring for the house ~50 years ago - conduit everywhere. It means things like drilling into the wall is safer (you hit metal rather than wire) and when you want to, you just pull more wire through it. There are so many parts of it that were "over engineered" for a house 50 years ago that are "oh, that's convenient" now.

blinded 4y ago

Youd be surprised what you can do with a 40in drill bit and a wire snake. did my whole house and only had to repair 1 piece of dry wall.

kuschku 4y ago
With that drill bit you won't be able to get far with concrete brick walls... I hired an electrician to drill the holes for me earlier this year and it took him over 10 minutes per hole to get through the 60cm (2ft) reinforced concrete slab for running cables between two floors.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Honestly, 10 minutes to go through 2 feet of concrete is damn impressive. I had to put a couple 50A electric circuits through my foundation a few months back and I'm pretty sure we spent more like 45 minutes getting through. And we didn't even hit any rebar, which is a minor miracle itself.

petepete 4y ago

I'm moving into my new home (which was built in 1962) in the next month or two. My plan is to run cat 6 throughout, before I get the bulk of my stuff/furniture in. Hopefully I won't need to smash into too many walls but there will be a few. Definitely worth it in the long run though.

m463 4y ago
There are so many things I think about "if I had just done X in those few weeks before moving in the furniture". This is an opportunity - you might want to brainstorm X. anything in the kitchen (before you start depending on it for food and/or fill the fridge with perishable stuff) mindfully adding specific storage. Could be the difference between moving in and piling all your stuff in random places. related: garage - before it becomes the "catch all" for unresolved boxes of stuff you move with. A friend said overpaying closetworld for cabinets around the perimeter of his garage was money well spent. adding electrical outlets, switches, etc and yeah, cat5 or fiber
- petepete 4y ago
  Sorry only just saw this. Thanks for the tips. Thankfully I'm in no rush to move out of my current home (I'll have a 2 month overlap) so plenty of time to get the 'infrastructure' stuff done first.

pmontra 4y ago

I just spent a couple of weeks putting conduits in my brick walls. I couldn't reuse conduits in place for power (regulations, EU) and they are too small anyway. I used Cat6A, not fiber. I don't think an ISP will ever bring fiber to my home. Cat6A is 10 Gb/s so it should be OK for a NAS for a long time. I only have 1 Gb/s network cards now.

philjohn 4y ago

Agree with this. I had my house wired up with 30 Cat 6 drops (3 being in-ceiling for AP's) and in the end it was simpler to go up to the loft (2 story house) and come down that way, with all of the cables then being bundled up and coming down through a built-in-wardrobe into the garage below. It required a bit of patching here and there where a small chase had to be chisseled out to get around a cable going through a patch of plaster used for dot and dab (technique to quickly plasterboard/drywall onto brick), but with conduit it would have been a much simpler job.

Aeolun 4y ago

Yeah, all my walls are filled with loose cables taped together. I wish I had nice things like conduits.

julianlam 4y ago

I wish my house had conduit. To date I've never seen (much less lived in) a house with condiuit. I live in a split level. The company I hired flat out refused to do a cat6 drop to my upstairs office, after spending nearly 40 minutes getting wire up a single story.