What to Pull on Home Rebuild??

[yiotta]

I have been reading and researching for about a year on what to pull through our new home.
Let me set up the scenario and then I would really appreciate some advice.

We own a home that has a separate "workshop" that is about 50 feet away. The shop was an empty shell (2 story-concrete block on the bottom and wood framed on the top). We had an architect design it into a 2 floor "Guest House" that has 2 bedrooms upstairs with a main room, bathroom and small kitchen. There will be a large deck out front. The downstairs (ground floor) is one great room (family room), 2 car garage and a newly extended "mud room". The plan is to complete this "guest house", move into it, tear down the old house and build a new home. Big projects, but we are getting close to completing the guest house. All the remodel work including foundation, roof-wall-floor reinforcement to current code, new roof, windows, doors, stairs, framing, etc is done! We just completed all the plumbing and drains.

The electrical wiring is going in next week. We have done everything ourselves with the help of a hired builder and a skilled father in law. So far we have passed all codes and the plumbing was just signed off....

Now it is my turn.... I gotta pull everything that I want now, wallboarding is coming as soon as the electrical wiring is pulled and signed off, and I need your help and advice.

What we want: Internet, Video, Audio in every room.
Audio:small ceiling mounted speakers in every room of the house as well as some on the deck, with the surround system downstairs in the A/V greatroom.
Video: TV/Cable/DSS access to both bedrooms and downstairs (obviously).
Internet: Both Bedrooms and downstairs.

We are trying to not spend a ton of cash on this place, and are learning a lot about what to do for the main house someday.

What wiring should I pull? I am considering pulling RG6, CAT5 and singlemode fiber optic.

What do you suggest? We would like an easy way to control volume for the rooms upstairs, so I am looking at individual volume controls. One of the posts mentioned "4-wire" to those controllers and then "2 wire copper" from there to the speakers. What is 4 wire?

I would appreciate replies, emails, links, anything you care to offer... getting to pinch time and what is my greatest fear?

That I will pull all my wires and wallboard, and then wish I would have done something different or more.
I am planning on pulling a blank line to every room so I can always reverse pull something if I ever need to.....

 

[yiotta]

FYI, I am looking at the Leviton products because they are available at my local DIY stores and I really like the components...
http://www.leviton.com/

And I found one of the best websites that really walk you through some of this home wiring process:
http://www.swhowto.com/Structured.htm

Right now I am considering the following:

A Central Distribution Panel downstairs.

RG6u to the bedrooms and the main room downstairs.

Cat5e x 2 (1 for computers, 1 for telephone) to both bedrooms, kitchen, front room upstairs and main room downstairs.

Sound wiring??? I still need your help. What about RCA jacks? Leviton has a nice setup for that. Or what about those volume control panels? What type of wiring to those?? I really could use your suggestions guys/gals!!

Thanks!! Hope that Howto link is helpful for you, it sure has been to me!!

 

[twheeloc]

Not much but....

I won't pretend to know much about the wiring but upon reading some install magazines recently geared toward this the one thing they all seem to recommend is pull wire into more rooms than you think that you'll need. That way if anything changes in the future you've got options other than ripping out walls to add more wiring. You don't have to terminate everything, simply mark on your plans where you left the wire so that it's ready to go if you ever need it. RG6, CAT5, and Low Voltage wire seem a good start, audio should be transferable over CAT5 though I'm not sure about distances that you're working with. Good Luck...Sounds like a great plan.

Check out Winter 04 Issue of Electronic House, maybe to basic for your needs but it's a start.

 

[zipper]

Lots of good info on that site. I'll just add a couple things.

A good idea is to put conduits in the wall through the stud down (or up, if you go through the crawl space) to close to where the outlet will be. Separate conduits for each application(phone,CBLTV,etc.) will save many headaches should things need to be changed in the future, especially in any wall that is to be insulated. Either that or just run all your wiring, then add a vacant conduit with a pull string in it for future use. Also, I don't think I would spend the money on FO cables at this point as there probably isn't a direct need for it now, or which type would serve your purpose.

If you use the punch-down blocks for phone/data (a good idea), be patient & do it right once. A sloppy effort could cause partial opens which create headaches if you have to trouble-shoot it, especially in data applications. And don't try to double up wires on one punch-down position. You'll definitely end up with opens,partial or complete.

Didn't notice if it was included in the article or not, but it's a great idea to label all wires at the main junction. Believe me, that will also eliminate a lot of headaches.