We just moved into a new (to us) house with a couple of buddies for school. I finally had a chance to really start looking into the wiring of the place. The previous homeowner was a real hack. There was coax and phone cable just draped over stuff and not secured. The outlets in the basement (the sheetrock was taken down due to new drain tile) were wired up with the romex run behind the studs between the wood and the styrofoam insulation. The light circuit is labeled as Garage lights, dining room and lights. It also looks like they tied in a bunch of random stuff from other parts of the house in some of the light boxes. I think that we are lucky the place hasn't burned down yet. It went from a simple project of changing around the switches in the basement to documenting where everything comes and goes in the house as far as electrical and basically re-working the whole thing. Oh well.

 

Good luck with that.

I've got an unfinished basement, so everything is in the open. Can't wait to start wiring stuff up. I'll probably go overboard though, 60 amp cable with 20 amp breakers, breaker on every outlet. TV cable and phone outlet every 10 feet. I just wish they would have wired the rest of the house that way.

 

The basement here is unfinished too, which will make things a piece of cake. I just didn't want to have to do it.


In addition to cable and phone, pull 2 cat5 drops for each location.

 

Yeah, the downside is there is none in the house anywhere. 2 cable outlets upstairs, one main floor. 2 phone outlets upstairs, one main floor. I managed to get 5 phones in, but 3 are cordless, and 2 of those are remote wireless to the base.

I guess I could probably swing it if I put the modem and router in the basement, but I'm not sure how well the wireless would work from down there. That would definitely free up the second upstairs cable for a flat screen or something.

You should see my cousin's setup at his house. In every room he's got 2 cat 5 outlets, a cable, and phone (voip) wired to his basement. No wireless anywhere, all hardline. And his panel has about 40 cables all plugged into something. All done so cleanly, it could be covered up by a mat of cobwebs 6 inches thick and not be a fire hazard.

 

That sounds about what my folk's house looks like except I added the Cat5 afterwards. You can NEVER have enough Cat5. I think that if I was to build a house I would have conduit stubbed up or down from each low-voltage box so that I can add/remove whenever the need arises.

As for wireless, depending on your setup it could work. Do you have an attic that is accessible? You could run 2 access points if need be or just one beefy one. I have extended range antennas on a Linksys WRT-54G with upgraded firmware boosting the output level and it gets great range everywhere in the house.

At home and work (which I also did the network wiring), I almost wish I would have pulled 3 or 4 Cat5 cables sometimes, but I just don't like having more switches or hubs than need be.

I'll try to get some pics of the "fancy" wiring in the house here soon.

 

I wired every room on two circuits, so if a breaker pops, there is still power in half the room. My kitchen has four circuits. Two dedicated, and two split. I also wired the entire house with #12 wire just in case I need more amperage down the road.
My whole house is wireless, with the wireless router in the basement. My signal very rarely drops below 5 bars even at the pool, which is 100 ft. away. I even have a wireless printer, that I absolutely love.

 

Did you make sure that each circuit in each room is on a separate leg of the power? That way if you loose one leg you still have the other

 

I don't fully understand what you are asking. If you are asking if I ran 3 wire through the entire house, and wired each receptacle (top or bottom) separately. Then my answer would be no.
I gave everybody a flashlight, just in case.

 

You should have 3 wires coming into your house for your electrical service. Neutral, Hot and Hot. Is one breaker in the room on a leg and then the other breaker on the other leg?

 

Ok, now I gotch ya. Yes they are on separate legs. My panel switches legs as you go from top to bottom, not side to side like some of the older ones.
I also had a friend check to see if it was balanced correctly. No worries.

 

Well, got started on some of the stuff last night. I got cat5 and RG6 pulled to the living room. Its always sweet trying to get 4 cables fished up into a plastic box inside a finished wall. Also got the outlets for the computer area wired up and connected to the breaker.

 

Why diddn't you use an (old work box), as opposed to trying to fish it in an installed box?

 

The hole was already in the wall and it would have been a bigger pain trying to remove the box. I just drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the box that was there and it worked fine.

 

I took some pictures of some of the low-voltage stuff I am working on. Don't mine tie-wraps that aren't cut yet as I am waiting until I know where all the cable is being run before I tighten and clip them for good.

This is all of the phone/speaker/catv cable that was draped in the floor joists, run across a return air duct, etc.
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01639.JPG

The rest are some pictures of the RG6 and Cat5e that I am running to a bedroom and the living room. 2 RG6 and 2 Cat5e to each location.
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01640.JPG
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01641.JPG
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01642.JPG

 

I got started on the lighting in the basement. Here are a couple of pics.

http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01663.JPG
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01666.JPG
http://mistercmk.com/album/albums/us...2/DSC01667.JPG