Hard wiring home network

[MossRoad]

And as other's have mentioned, that's assuming the laundry is in the garage.

 

[dstig1]

The baseboard trick might be even easier than stated. The drywall almost never goes all the way to the floor. There is typically a small gap below it which they need to be able to get a kicker in to lift and snug the lower sheets to the upper ones. Often 1/2" wide or so. Plenty o' space for a cat5 or 3. Just carefully pull baseboards with a very thin flat bar, and protect the wall with a scrap of hardboard or something to avoid denting the drywall when prying.

 

[OKnewguy]

First off, good deal that you decided to go wired! Wired is THE way to go. I myself have a 24 port switch, and all of my tv's and a couple towers are hardwired. I think you need to get a switch and that way you can have multiple ethernet drops. If your gonna do it go whole hog. At the bare minimum use the switch outputs to feed your office and then some Ubiquiti AP's, these will dramatically improve your wifi! In general running cable in your attic is not to bad, your just need to picture how the halls are built. You can usually see the top plates from the attic and drill thru it with your cordless. Try to make your drops on interior walls, exterior walls are difficult to drill the top plate (especially on low pitch roofs) and they will have insulation which is much more difficult to fish. If you have to fish a wall with insulation, use a fish with the end cut off. This will allow it to shot thru the insulation, you then have a helper tape a pull string to it from your box cut out. Pull the string up, and use it to pull your wire down. If I have to use a string, always leave some string in the wall for future!
There are lots of tricks, for running wire. Bendable drill bits, these lets you drill from the room thru the cut out and into the top plate. Make sure and use a good dust mask, and a head mounted light. If you have the old rock wool insulation, cover up! I new a guy that would put panty hose on his arms, it stops the fibers from getting to you.
If this sounds too difficult, you might contact a alarm installer. These guys are some of best at getting wiring to any part of a house!
P.S. I love these cat connectors!
Platinum Tools 1C EZ-RJ45 Cat 6+ Connectors, Clamshell, 5-Pieces - Crimpers - Amazon.com
Dave

 

[gatorguy7]

Thanks for the tips guys. Sorry I forgot to label the laundry - its actually a room between the garage and master bedroom. Running the cable along the baseboards would be quite cumbersome as there's a pantry and door way between the office and laundry room. I think its time to crawl around in the attic a bit more.

 

[RNeumann]

So the garage laundry and master appear to have a flat lid?. If that's the case this will be fairly straight forward as the actual vaulted section you will need to cross is only about 10'-12' depending on where the door from the living room to office is.

So most 8' walls don't have a block in the stud bay. But exterior walls and the wall between the garage and laundry probably have insulation.
With that in mind you can get into the attic from the laundry by running up the wall between the garage and laundry- this can be done by going inside the wall or on the surface with wire mold.

I'm assuming you want to be in the wall in the office so here it goes-


I'd use the wall that is between the living room and office. I'd try this to avoid any insulation on the exterior wall and the closer to the middle of the house the more room in the scissor truss. Find a stud bay and cut in a single or double gang open back low voltage box (typically orange and available at the box box or hardware stores). Then follow the instructions in the video.

How to Run Cable Through Wall Demonstration | Home Cabling Installation - YouTube

I'm betting with this method you won't need to crawl in the scissor truss area at all!

If you have any other questions let us know.

 

[MossRoad]

You can't crawl in a scissors truss at all.

 

[MossRoad]

I think I need a picture of the roofline. I'm not getting it. In my inlaws house, everywhere where there is vaulted ceilings, there is no attic space. You can't go from one side of the house to the other.

 

[RNeumann]

You can't crawl in a scissors truss at all.

Hmmm we may have a different definition of a scissor truss.

This is what I was thinking of-

Scissors truss - Wikipedia

The inside pitch is lower than the outside leaving more room toward the peak. With Florida insulation he may have a chance although with only 10' or so he may not need to get into that area.

 

[CurlyDave]

Thanks for the tips guys. Sorry I forgot to label the laundry - its actually a room between the garage and master bedroom. Running the cable along the baseboards would be quite cumbersome as there's a pantry and door way between the office and laundry room. I think its time to crawl around in the attic a bit more.

I would think about running the wires exposed inside the garage. It is a garage, not really living space. Go through the wall from the laundry room into the garage and then run straight up to the ceiling. Run the wire in the joint between the ceiling and the wall.

Drop down to floor level and go through the garage wall into the LR wall. Go behind baseboard to office wall & go through.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Plenty o' space for a cat5 or 3.

There is no reason at all to use CAT3 or 5. We are not living in the 20th century anymore. This isn't going to be easy; he should put in the best available, and the price difference just isn't that much for a project this size.