Need Audio/Video Installer

[Hou-Tex Horn]

I recently bought a house that we are completely gutting. Now that I have all the walls and ceilings free of sheetrock I'd like to get someone to completely wire the house with cat6, cat5e, new phone lines, in ceiling speakers throughout, install flat screens, recommend and install home theater set-up, etc, etc...

I'd also like this person to wire the house for a security system and possibly outside cameras at the same time.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an installer in Houston? I am looking to spend less than $10-$12k for everything, equipment included.

 

[Ignatius]

This doesn't answer your question, but have you thought about doing the runs yourself? You can buy the cable, punch holes in the top plates and studs, and install new work J-boxes at every drop pretty easily. All that's left then is the terminations (ie installing the jacks, etc); the latter part isn't that bad, but if you wanted to leave only that to a pro, you could drop your price range down to about $2K, plus (wild *** guess here) about another $2K (max) for the materials for the work you do yourself...

 

[Hou-Tex Horn]

Good input...Any suggestion on what kind of box to pull all these to? I plan to put that central box in an upstairs closet.

 

[Ignatius]

As far as the one in your main closet/cabinet, I don't think it matters as much the model, but you ought to try to get one the same brand as all of the cards/panels that are going to go in it. For example, when I did mine I bought an Open House recessed wall box to run all my cable into, along with an Open House telephone module and Open House data distribution module (to run Cat 5e everywhere). Those are great because the punchouts for the modules fit exactly in the cabinet holes. However, about 3 month ago I purchased an internet module for our security system (to be able to get text messages on certain security events) from Honeywell, and I had to rig something with zip ties because the holes don't line up exactly. It's a minor thing, and it'll work fine, but if you're doing it all as one shot it's something to think about. Realistically, if I had to do it over I might go with a Leviton box just because so much of their stuff is available going forward at Lowe's / Home Depot, but in the end I don't think there's a ton of difference.

One thing I will recommend - get the biggest freaking box you can comfortably fit in your space. I started with one but ended up filling that as I added speaker wire, security cable, more coax, etc. Never hurts to have extra space...

 

[wherzwaldo]

Why do you need both cat5e and cat6? Could you not just do one or the other?

 

[Ignatius]

Yeah, I would just do Cat6...I'd also run three RG6 (coax) cables to each room. Two are for satellite (even if you don't have satellite right now, you won't have a chance to do this again) and the third is to provide the ability for 'direct video' to each room. Specifically, if you have a series of security cameras each of those can relay their output to a central modulator in your wiring closet. The modulator can then direct output to multiple rooms, so that from any room in the house you can view any of the security cameras. There are ways to do this with wireless and with Cat5, but this one is the cheapest and most reliable, as each of the coax cables can just be terminated with a simple RCA plug...

 

[Hou-Tex Horn]

Let's back up a second, maybe I don't know what the hell I am doing because I think I just confused myself. I know what I ultimately want, but don't know how to get there.

I don't mind doing any of the stuff myself, but I don't want to screw it up either. With that said, I guess I do know that I want multiple drops in almost every room of the house (for future reconfiguration) and a central place to tie all those wires together (likely an upstairs closet, that won't be a bedroom).

What supplies do I need to have an HDTV directv connection, internet connection, and phone line in each room of the house...specifically what do you recommend? Any suggestions on where to order spools of this stuff from via the internet?

Also what type of box would I pull these to, again specifically? Once I get them there, I'm sure I won't know what to do with them... I guess once I have done this I might get the assistance of a professional.

Sorry for all of the questions, this is clearly not an area of expertise. Thanks!

 

[Luke Duke]

ebay is a good place to order the wire.

 

[wherzwaldo]

You can do cat5e or cat6 for both network and phone. For network, terminate with RJ45 connections. For phone, terminate with RJ11. Coax should be good enough for satellite.

 

[Ignatius]

What waldo said on the types of wiring, personally at each drop I would have 2 cat 6 (one phone, one data) and 3 RG6 terminations (two for sat, one for dedicated video). Also, while you don't necessarily want to terminate these at the same place in a particular room, think about running 22-gauge security wire to each room, as well as 4-conductor doorbell wire. These two can be placed in a junction box and sheetrocked over, just make sure you know where they are if you want to use them. This will allow you to do some things like a wired intercom, a video doorbell intercom, security keypads/monitors in any room, etc, without having to make the decision right now as far as what you want, what type of technology, etc.

Also think about running security camera wire (the kind where there's one wire for the majority of the run but then at the end a dual plug for RCA video and one to provide power) into each room in the house; these could be at your drops where you do phone and cat6. We don't really like the idea of indoor security all the time because it's kind of creepy, but it is nice to be able to go online from anywhere in the world and check out any room in the house. When we're in town, I just unplug the cameras (especially the ones in the bedrooms)...

 

[texascoder]

Just a little note about the phone and networking cables... When I had my house built, I made sure that I had phone (RJ11) and ethernet (RJ45) drops in each room, but this turned out to be overkill as I now have a wireless phone setup (base unit plus multiple handsets) that uses only 1 phone jack even though I have handsets around the house, and I also ended up having wireless ethernet... rendering the RJ45 jacks useless. The two things I really wished I had done are: (1) wired a few different rooms for speakers and (2) installed cable TV drops in groups of at least 2 in various rooms, since I now have Directv and use 2 separate input signals from the satellite dish.

Good luck with your project and maybe when it's all done you can post a summary of what you ended up doing.

 

[Ignatius]

Yeah, I didn't think of speaker wire but that's a good point also, plus you could also run an in-wall HDMI cable to every room...go to Monoprice.com and it wouldn't be that expensive...my thought is that it's easy to drill holes, run cable, and install J-boxes yourself when everything's wide open, save the money on an installer for this and go overboard on 'futureproofing' your house...

Another over the top idea - run all of these cables everywhere, but in addition install a set of flexible conduit to each drop, at the bottom of the box. Don't run your cables through this (run them over/under/sideways/down, just not in the conduit itself), leave them empty except for a pull 'string' inside each of them, with everything leading back to your closet. This would give you the ability to run a new set of drops in the future if technology/damages warranted it....

 

[CaptainEd]

measure everything out, figure out what wall jacks, etc. you'll need and order all your hardware from monoprice.com.

i have a guy i recently used in houston that did a good job - he has also done the installs at my parents', grandparents', and uncle's houses.

for me he did a 4 hour job at $75/hr and wall mounted a flat panel, ceiling mounted 4 zone 1 speakers & 2 zone 2 speakers, put a zone 2 volume control knob on the wall, set up those with the center, sub, and receiver, and calibrated everything.

let me know if you want his info and i'll send it over.