Anyone ever pull/run cabling at home?

A

ACuriae

500+ Posts
My house was supposed to have CATV and Cat-6 computer network cabling run throughout the house, but only had CATV run into the living room and the master bedroom and no computer network cabling run. The drywall is already up.

Anyone ever pull cable at home after the drywall was already in place? How did you drill the holes in your mid-wall fire breaks or between floors? How do I know if my house has mid-wall fire breaks (not shown or designated on the blueprints from what I can tell)? Will a stud-finder detect fire breaks? How did you pull the cable through the holes?

When i was still in college a decade ago, I worked for a computer company and pulled cable in commercial applications, but that involved minimal drilling. Anyone done this in a residential application before? Any tips?
 
Yes I have, but this is a single story home. Hesitant to comment on multi-floor homes.. a little trickier.

Anyway , a comment on 1 special tool -you'll need it , at least, for installing inside your walls... they make a drill bit which is attached to a long, fairly flexible (steel) shank. The big box stores have them, in varying lengths. 'cabling or cable bits' is what your looking for. Usually a 4 ft and 5 ft IIRC.

Without too much detail, hoping to save you some frustration and grief... do not buy the el-cheapo bits from the big box stores. Unless you want to manually re-sharpen them, because they won't last long. Also, these from the BB stores only come in smaller diameters (can't regurgitate the dimensions) AND the bit is a paddle style.

Milwaukee makes them a well... good strong, auger-type bit @ 9/16 " ( this dimension I recall).
I paid about $40 for it + the trip to a tool house on the other side of Austin.
It is well worth the $, assuming that your job entails alot of wire drop down alot of walls.

PM me .. I may let you have the Milwaukee for a song.

[edit] ordered a box of CAT6 from fourpair.com. This was about a yr. ago... at the time (and copper cost) they had free shipping, and since the firm is in ARK. - speedy UPS delivery... your mileage may vary.
 
If your builder was supposed to run the cable, then make him run the cable. If you run it, I would definitely make him knock some off of the price or throw in something extra. Running cable in a multi-story house isn't easy. It will likely involve cutting some holes in the walls. If the walls haven't been textured yet, it really isn't that big of a deal.
 
If you have fire breaks between the studs, you're ******. There's no way to do it without taking off the sheet rock.
 
If you are just talknig about the cat5, I would just do wireless. Unless you absolutely HAVE to have the full 100Mbps or GigaBit speed.
 
Part of why I'm hardwiring Cat6 is because I want to stream HD and, call me paranoid, but I don't trust wireless for security reasons and we're thinking about having a baby and have health concerns.
 
Fire breaks are usually 2x4's nailed in between the studs. If they were done because of a code, there will be several of these between the floor and ceiling in each gap between studs. It would be a ***** even with a cable bit. When fire breaks are used, you need to put in conduit or run the cables before the sheet rock goes in.
 
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Oh. It can be done. One of my walls had this, except my wall had horiz. 2X4's for bracing.

How about using plenum-grade CAT 6?...Still might disqualify code edicts.

BTW, there are many tools to be had for this job, besides the cable bit. I'd be happy to share what I know. Give me a shout, if you wanna.
 
I wouldn't spend the extra money on plenum. It's not necessary for something like this. I could be wrong, but I think code only calls for plenum inside buildings when it's being run in AC ducts or in sealed spaces that don't have ducted supply or return air.

I'm sure it's possible to get through the fire breaks with a whole lot of cussing and elbow grease. It's not something I would want to do, though.
 
I called the framer again to settle the debate and he said that code required them to use chemical sealant fire breaks between floors. I'll only have to drill through the 6-8" of 2x4s that form the barrier between floors, then seal it with fire-proof caulk or foam.
 
I would use the caulk. It's easier to use and with some rubber gloves to smear it around, not as messy. Good news that there's only foam between floors.
 
It is not too hard in a single story to run through the attic and drop it down to the coax wall jack jack. The problem as mentioned above is if there are fire breaks (double or triple 2 x 4s) they will have to be drilled through which is a *****.

Get some electrical tape and tape the end of the cable to some weight that will fit through the 2 x 4 header stud and fish it out the hole in the wall where the coax cable is landed.
Punch down the connection to a wall jack and get a new face plate that handles the needed number of connections in that junction block.

The good thing is it is not too hot in an attic this time of year.
 
I'd cut drywall before I'd start drilling all over the place with a Versi-Bit; odds are good you'll end up patching sheetrock that way anyway...
 
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