Home wall conduit

[true2paintball]

I am installing a wired home network. Home is 1.5 stories attic is finished with kneewall access and basement is 70% finished. I am thinking the home point will be in the basement under stairs. From stairs I can make a run along the ceiling to the far back wall, bend 90, run along wall plate, bend 90 down through top plate and terminate. I would like to use conduit anywhere I can to make future runs easier. Also, to make the first straight run I would need to run near 110 wires for a couple feet here and there unless I used additional bends to offset it and then bring it back on track. Thoughts on a good type of conduit for this? Also, if you have any suggestions for the 110 wire issue let me know.

 

[bill001g]

You can pretty much ignore the power wires especially if you are using conduit for your ethernet. The only real requirement is building codes and I forget the separation but it is only a couple inches. This is for safety, you would have to do something stupid like wrap the ethernet around the electical wire for some length to get interference and that would be rare even if you did.

They make special conduit but the stuff you find at the home improvement store will work fine. You want the cheap plastic stuff not the flexible metal tubing or even the plastic stuff that is used for waterproof installation. The simplest has a split along one edge and is mainly used to protect wires. Some also sell cheap corrugated tubing that is not split.

Pretty much anything you find will work. Unless you really want punishment installing it you do not want to use any form of the non flexlible pvc pipe or even worse metal electrical conduit.

 

[Pooneil]

I've wired my home network. IME, conduit is not necessary or worth the time and trouble. Once the Cat 5e or Cat 6 wiring is in, you can expect it to last for years and years. Probably longer than you will be in the house. The only place conduit can help is in areas that are very difficult to reach, such as a long run through a tight space or to make a difficult transition into a wall where you might want to install TV cable in the future. Even with the long tight space, it is pretty easy to use a fish stick or pull tape instead and to leave a pull wire behind for future use. For instance, there are pull wires on the long run through a breezeway to my garage and at the across the ceiling above the second floor so I don't have to do those difficult feeds again. YMMV.

 

[jsmithepa]

Am a little skeptical of conduits. I mean in a typical home environment you are dealing with studs that are 3.5" thick and you can't use a 3.5" conduit because it has to go through drilled holes without compromising the strength of the studs, I don't know what the code says what's the the biggest hole you can drill. Any kinks on the cables and you will have a hard time pulling through it. When you are doing a 90 degrees bent, you should really install a "wide" elbow, because CAT specification says not to do sharp bents, which should also help the pulling. If you finally decide to go with conduit, buy CAT cables that has a SMOOTH outer jacket, which will facilitate the pulling. My CAT6 in-wall cables for example has the outer jacket as if fitted like tight jeans, not smooth.