Backstory: My parents inherited a house four years ago, my uncle rented it until about a year ago, he moved out and it was full of toxic (stachybotrys) mold.....fast forward till now.....all the interior walls are torn out. My fiance and I are closing on it end of July with brand new insides.

I have always drooled at the idea of being able to wire whatever the hell I want in to the walls of my home, my townhouse is built on a slab and I have never been able to run any speaker wire, cat 5, extra audio inputs, or anything of the sort. The drywall is removed in almost all of the upstairs, there is also a full basement with the ceilings torn out. I have pretty much a clean slate to work with as far as wiring it, but only for a few weeks....then the drywall goes back.

What would you do if you could wire in your home exactly how you want?

- I want surround sound in the living room, thats kind of a no brainier.

- I also want to put an aux input in the kitchen (where a desk is going) I can run back to the stereo from a laptop/pc or tablet.

- I also want the kitchen wired for surround sound, and the back deck. (even if the speakers are installed later)

- I also am going to put a piece of pipe in the wall that is run from where the TV is mounted to below where the stereo cabinet is going for future wiring needs.

- Is Cat 5 a big deal anymore? Most all devices seem to be wifi now. Do cable or satellite boxes need Ethernet?


My questions are.

1) What else would you do? Am I missing anything?

2) Where is the cheapest place locally to buy wire?

3) Is there any point in installing telephone jacks?

5/30/2011 10:51:49 PM

If you run multiple lines of Cat5 it gives you the option to switch one or more to a phone line if you need one. If you're already in the walls, you might as well run it.

5/30/2011 10:54:48 PM

What gauge wire should go in the walls for surround sound? Should larger wire run to the sub than the rest of the speakers?

5/30/2011 11:05:38 PM

Some twisted pair wiring i'd say is a must, for the medium term at least... there's plenty of HD video equipment that works best over wired, and if you ever get a centralized file server/backup system, it'll work WAAYY better of a wired network.

Plus, for proprietary video systems that happen to use twisted pair for the transport layer, it's good to have the wire in the walls if you're not using it for data. A lot of HD TVs for the time being, for example, have network capability, but you have to buy an external wifi adapter if you can't use the built in wired ethernet.

If you're not going for a 7.1 system off the bat, at least have the wire for that, and maybe even consider running wires for multiple configurations of the room in case you want to rearrange things in the future.

Speaking of cat5... you might could even run like HDMI or DVI (or DisplayPort...) patch plates from key locations if you ever want to hook up a PC/laptop to show on your TV or something. Or if a guest brings over their device and wants to use your TV.

5/30/2011 11:53:50 PM

I would run 2x cat6 cables to every outlet in the joint. You can run audio, video, hdmi, data dang near anything with just a balun. We dang near run our whole church on the stuff. Shielded if you can afford it.

5/31/2011 12:04:38 AM

Pick where your router will be and run coax to that location, too. Or run cat5 from where your modem will be to where your router will be.

Run Ethernet to your TV area... I'd prefer using ps3, Xbox, etc over Ethernet, not wifi

5/31/2011 12:20:48 AM

Whatever you do run through the walls, take some good photos of each wall; when you want to tie in near or onto an existing line (power, too; not just what you are planning to install now) you'll know exactly where the wiring is, even a few years down the road or as a selling point to the next homeowner. One other thing you might do is run extra or auxiliary wires to placeholder wall sockets that are capped off in case you plan on installing other things or rearranging items around in rooms.

5/31/2011 1:46:54 AM

Don't forget RG6 for cable TV, satellite, etc.
Also, I'd go with Cat6 for in-wall. It's also a higher quality cable with better specs. There's 700' of it throughout my house now.

5/31/2011 5:25:29 AM

This is pretty much my dream too.

In addition to what you've got, I would definitely run some HDMI. Also possibly some USB ports for quick syncing / charging of gadgets around the house.

Quote :

"What gauge wire should go in the walls for surround sound? Should larger wire run to the sub than the rest of the speakers?"

You need to figure out how long your runs are going to be, then gauge accordingly. The sub *should* be slightly bigger gauge, but it's not going to affect you unless you're really pushing a lot of wattage to it.

[Edited on May 31, 2011 at 8:28 AM. Reason : d]

5/31/2011 8:26:13 AM

I would do 4 runs of cat5e or cat6. gigE network, separate voip/security, hdmi over ethernet, and 1 for just in case, perhaps an out of band network or guest network. 1 run of coax and 10 RCA, 8 for 7.1 and 2 for RCA input from any wall panel.

5/31/2011 9:42:42 AM

Quote :

"I would run 2x cat6 cables to every outlet in the joint."

+1

5/31/2011 9:59:55 AM

Is there a supply house in Raleigh I can get cat6 wire and coax cheaper than lowes or home depot?

5/31/2011 10:06:16 AM

also, if you put a receiver in each room, the rca for the 7.1 isn't needed, you just need the hdmi over ethernet

5/31/2011 10:28:26 AM

is this a good deal?
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202316391/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

5/31/2011 10:44:50 AM

if you can pick it up in store then yea. same thing is 109 + shipping on monoprice.

5/31/2011 11:02:54 AM

I bought a spool of Southwire when the local HD was closing and while I haven't had any problems with it, definitely peel back the jacketing some and check out the tracers. Orange-white, green-white etc are just solid white and termination is fucking annoying.

Try Graybar
1113 Capital Boulevard
Raleigh, NC 27603-1145
(919) 828-4321

[Edited on May 31, 2011 at 11:36 AM. Reason : ]

5/31/2011 11:34:32 AM

Graybar us expensive , buy they will have it.

I would get your spool online, check monoprice, bluejeanscable, and even maybe meritline

5/31/2011 12:12:11 PM

Sewell Direct is where I get all my bulk cable. Somehow they even beat out monoprice for most

Also, why are you running cable for your cable box? The box stays in the telecom closet on top of the router

What you want to put in-wall: Plenum coated CAT6
http://sewelldirect.com/CAT6UTPBulkCableSolidPlenum500MHzGreen1000ft.asp

Also good for in-wall: CAT6 bulk
http://sewelldirect.com/Cat6-Cable-Bulk-UTP-250mhz-1000-ft.asp

If you don't want to pony for CAT6, and/or you run florescent lights and/or you want to run audio/video over the cabling you'll want shielded: (CAT6 shielded is out of stock )
http://sewelldirect.com/Cat5e-STP-Bulk-Cable.asp

5/31/2011 1:11:29 PM

I got 250ft awg16 feet of in-wall speaker wire on ebay with 2 day shipping for $50, gonna get the cat6 at home depot, its not much more than online.

I am still looking for some cheap coax.

The boxes I guess are home depot, going to worry about the plates later, just need to beat the drywall and insulation guys to getting the wire pulled and boxes mounted.

I was looking at plates online and

5/31/2011 1:12:34 PM

How much is the cat6 at home depot? It's riser btw and not shielded.


I'm trying to decide if our new office building needs cat6. I thought the general consensus was that cat5e is fine; even for the next 10 years?

5/31/2011 5:01:44 PM

Monoprice.com has cheap plates iirc.

5/31/2011 5:28:18 PM

What circumstances require shielded?

Quote :

"Monoprice.com has cheap plates iirc."

thx u

5/31/2011 9:48:07 PM

I'm glad I'm not the only one who dreams about doing this.

5/31/2011 9:48:14 PM

+1 sewelldirect

5/31/2011 9:55:37 PM

Quote :

" Should larger wire run to the sub than the rest of the speakers?"

Most subs are powered; You'll just need to run a coax to your potential sub locations to deliver the audio signal from your receiver.

5/31/2011 10:39:41 PM

Quote :

"What circumstances require shielded?"

If you have to stretch HDMI, VGA or YPbPr past the 100' range it makes a huge difference. The biggest problem in a house would be running the wires parallel to your electrical wiring - if it starts picking up the wave from the electric it will jack up your signal quality.

Currently I have 4 HD cameras, 3 VGA projectors, 3 HDMI 42" screens, 5 channels of audio (stereo in/out and a XLR house mix) plus 3 networks all running across cat5e. I did it that way because I got all the cable for free (and each run was around 250', with HDMI requiring 2 runs.) Even after direct boxes and noise gates there's a tiny, tiny hum in the system. I should have ponied up for the shielded and solved all our problems. Good news is that we're moving to a new building and I get to run what I want

5/31/2011 10:58:52 PM

i've got two spools of RG6 if you want to buy one off me. I'll check on the lengths I have tonight and post back.

And for plates, you want to look in to keystone plates with keystone jacks. Some jacks are expensive, but the ones you'll use a lot of are dirt cheap. You can get plates in 1, 2, 4, or 6 ports per plate so you can customize the plate to what you need at each location. Unfortunately, keystones are small and square, so things like HDMI won't work, but you can use them for network, phone, rca, and f-type.

[Edited on June 1, 2011 at 10:58 AM. Reason : .]

6/1/2011 10:55:22 AM

Monoprice for Keystone plates and jacks is the way to go. I did my whole house w/ 2-4 Cat5e runs per room, and RG6 coax from my aerial antenna, all for under $100 in parts and cable. The patch panel and bracket was another ~$50 or so, but makes for a nice clean installation.

When the Directv installer came and wired that up, I just had him fish the cables for that up through my existing holes, and added a couple of Keystone F-type connectors for it. All very clean and relatively cheap.

The surround sound and AV wiring was a bit more involved since I have a 7.1, but once you get it all run and installed, nothing beats the look of a totally clean install. I brought an outlet up the wall behind the TV, and ran all the AV cables up behind the wall on the other side so that the TV and all the front speakers just "float" on the wall, with no visible wiring. HDMI, optical, power, everything is hidden in the wall.

6/1/2011 12:58:09 PM

What ever happened to 6.1?

I am trying to decide if I should wire for 5.1 or 7.1.

6/1/2011 8:05:51 PM

if you're using hdmi to carry your audio, what does it matter?

6/1/2011 8:32:44 PM

I am putting the speaker wire in wall. I have to decide what configuration I want so I can put boxes in appropriate place.

I am leaning toward 5.1 mainly because its going in the upstairs living room, at some point the basement will be finished and part of that could be a theater room (since back wall is below grade and no windows) It seems like that space would make more sense to do 7.1 prewire.

6/1/2011 9:50:57 PM

might as well do a 7.1 prewire even if you only use 5.1. It's cheaper to do it now and not use it than to have to redo it later when the walls are finished. 7.1 still has the wires in the same place as a 5.1 but just with two more extra locations right?

6/1/2011 9:57:34 PM

Dolby® TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio™ Set Up (7.1)


5.1 Surround Sound Speaker Set Up


From the THX site. Probably not necessary though

6/2/2011 12:37:06 AM

yeah in my 5.1 setup i have speakers in the back nearly parallel to my head vs behind me. you could wire "11.4" to cover just about every config in the specific rooms you're considering

[Edited on June 2, 2011 at 2:26 AM. Reason : err ]

6/2/2011 2:25:21 AM

i'd actually run some conduits and then your wires/cables inside of that. This way if you ever need to put in new wire or change out for new tech its going to be a lot smoother.

6/2/2011 8:28:44 AM

I don't know a thing about wiring but I just thought I'd chime in about the telephone line. It might not seem that necessary now but if you ever plan on having a security system in your house, lots of them are hardwired into the telephone line and will require a landline to operate properly.

6/2/2011 9:01:40 AM

^1 cat5e = 4 phone lines. I thought security companies were going cellular now too?

[Edited on June 2, 2011 at 9:10 AM. Reason : ]

6/2/2011 9:09:51 AM

I did this a few years ago. I ran 2xCat5e to each room at minimum and more more lines to AV rooms all terminating in a closet downstairs setup with a patch panel. I also ran 2xRG6 lines several locations in each AV room and single RG6 to all other rooms. These terminate on the outside of the house. If I had it to do over, I should have also terminated them in the closet and ran ~4-6 RG6 lines outside to pick up your cable/satellite sources. In the end I used about a 1/4 mile of Cat5e. I also used the 4xkeystone plates.

Make sure you take pictures and print them! I wired for future surround sound in an AV room and left the wires in the wall. I took lots of pictures, but did not print them. Now I can't find the files. I should have put the files on a disk and printed out some pictures and put them in a binder in my closet.

6/2/2011 11:26:14 AM

Except for the fireplace (which is not having a TV mounted at this time) I am going to install boxes for each wire. I can put a plain white plate over it if its not in use.

w00t speaker wire came today.

6/2/2011 12:32:20 PM

+5 on the Cat6/Cat5e. Using wireless for my TiVo and PS3 sucks. I usually end up running a damn wire across the living room floor when I need to do a software update if I don't want to wait 2 hours for it to DL.

6/6/2011 4:51:26 AM