Cat 5 Cable Conduit

[Ray]

Can I use 1/2 inch pvc conduit to run Cat 5 underground ?

Or must I go with a larger size ??

Thanks in advance

[berkshire bill]

It would probably be easier with 3/4 inch. They suggest pushing rather than pulling Cat 5 cable through conduits but it can be pulled if you tape your cable to your fishtape or wire every five to ten feet.

Bill

[Ray]

Isn't cat 5 about the size of coaxial ? My intention is to push/pull the cable as I'm placing the conduit in the trench. So wouldn't 1/2" conduit do the trick ? Ray

[Brad Bruce]

"Ray" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

How far are you "pulling" it? How long are your conduit sections? You could just hold one end up and drop it through to the other.

Now the big question.... What are you doing with it?

NJBrad

[RB]

I'd use 3/4" but 1/2" will do. I don't know what you're doing with this but remember that the maximum total cable length for 10BaseT or 100BaseT connections is 100 meters.

RB

Ray wrote:

[Ray]

The distance is about 150'. I'd like to use 20' sections but could use

10' sections. It was suggested to me to use cat 5 because I want to have cable tv, computer, phone and an intercom set up in the shop. Will this type cable do the trick ?

[SQLit]

Make sure you get the conduit deep enough. Pvc does not hold up well with traffic, weight passing over it.

Make sure the wire is rated to be in wet locations. If not your going to be doing this over in a few years.

1/2 inch will work fine. install it then use a vacuum to suck part of a plastic bag through the conduit. I used 1/2 for my pool run recently. I was installed the pull line by myself so I had to walk back and forth several times.

[EJ]

You could use a lubricant to push it easier. The Borg sells something like that made by Ideal.

EJ

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[Joseph Meehan]

I would use the 3/4, you never know what you may want to pull another cable.

[John Grabowski]

Ray, Cat 5 wiring is an outdated standard which I would only recommend for telephone. For residential high speed data lines Cat 6 is now the standard. For cable TV you will need to pull a coax cable which I recommend RGB 6 Quad Shield for optimum results. For intercom wire you must adhere to the intercom manufacturer's specifications to get the best quality sound.

To get all this in one conduit, 1" would be the minimum size that I would use though 11/4" would be an easier pull and allow for additional lines to be added in the future.

Putting the wires in the conduit as you lay them in the ground is not an efficient way to go. You will get dirt inside of the conduit, your wires will be laying in the dirt and picking it up as you go along. It will be very messy and worse if it rains while you are in the middle of this. You will have a hard enough time keeping the conduit clean as you glue each piece. You should also wait until the glue has fully cured before installing any wires as it may affect the insulation of the wire. You may find the wire getting glued to the conduit and you will no longer be able pull it through any more.

My suggestion is to put all of the conduit in the ground first. This is standard practice for professionals. Do not put more than 360 degrees worth of bends in one run without a pull box or condulet. For easier pulling it is recommended that you keep the total bends to 270 degrees per run.

To install the wire in the conduit get yourself some lightweight string and a small lightweight bag such as the kind that you get from stores after a purchase. You could also cut a piece of a plastic bag into a square and make a little parachute by attaching a lightweight string to each corner. You will also need a shop vacuum. Tie the string onto the handles of the bag and put it into end of the pipe. Someone will have to feed the string into the pipe as you go to the other end with the shop vac. Have the shop vac on suction and put the hose over the end of the pipe and let it suck the string through the pipe.

Once the string is out at the shop vac end connect a heavier pull rope to the string and pull it into the conduit. Set up your spools or coils of wire so that they can be unwound easy and without tangles. Spools can be mounted on a steel conduit or rebar and hung between the steps of a ladder to facilitate the pulling. Attach all of your wires onto the rope in a tight compact manner. Put some pulling lubricant into the conduit and continue to apply it as the wires are fed into the conduit. PVC conduit seems to have more friction than metal conduit so be generous with the lubricant.

Good luck,

John Grabowski

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[wayne]

You can get phone and Computer over the CAT5 I am not sure about intercom. I don't think you will get TV for that you need coax.

Make sure you bury deep you may want to invest in some marking foil tape to put in the trench a foot above the PVC or some copper ground wire so the location can be found!. I would be tempted to use black plastic irrigation pipe myself you can get a longer length for fewer splices and it should cost less and care less about how flat the trench is. 3/4 or 1" should still cost less. Make sure you include a pull string in the pipe no matter what you use for future stuff and try to avoid 90 degree angles use 2 45's instead! For 150' I would use a cordless phone myself as well a wireless computer network!

Wayne

[Brad Bruce]

"Ray" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Do it all in one shot with something like

or

Cat5 is fine for a home installation. You probably aren't running too many multimedia files that would require more than 100 Mbps. There are variants of the above that do include Cat6 or 7, but the switches etc are not priced for home use (by most people) yet.

Check out the specs on the cable for pull ratings. Some have an outer jacket that allows for longer "pulls".

NJBrad

[John McGaw]

snip...

Cable TV -- no, you need coax (probably RG-6 IIRC) for "normal" cable connections Phone -- yes, but running phone along with computer networking is not considered proper by many installers Computer -- yes, if you have an ethernet network Intercom -- yes, probably, although there might be some bizarre sort of IC that needs too many conductors (but I've never seen one)

[Ray]

So how big around is this cat 5 ? Is it bigger than regular phone line but smaller than cable coax ?? Ray

45's > instead! > For 150' I would use a cordless phone myself as well a wireless computer > network! >

[Buck Turgidson]

Does CAT-6 give you more bandwidth? I ran CAT-5 in my home about a year ago. I get pretty much full 100 mbps throughput. Any reason for me to upgrade it?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Cable? Time for wireless now. Tony

[John Hines]

1/4 inch or 6 mm.

Yeah, that is about right. It has 4 pairs, instead of the 2 of phone wire.

You can get 2 coax and 2 cat 5 in a 3/4 inch conduit, of that I know.

[natasrof1]

If you do not know the answer, shouldn't you use a bigger conduit and a pull string for later use if you are wrong? Cable TV runs on RG6 coax and you didn't mention if you were putting that in the conduit also. Phone can use cat 5 but not at the same time as the internet, you probably could put the intercom and the phone on the same cat 5 if you wanted to, but best case scenario would be to run two cat5e cables and a coax, put a pull string in the at least 1 inch conduit that you need to run and be worry free knowing that your bases are covered.

nataS

[Buck Turgidson]

Nah. Still not fast enough.

[Dan Hartung]

Nah, but they're trying to get CAT-6 as the standard for new installation. Spec says 200MHz, 1Gb bandwidth, but still a 100m maximum rated length.

Even if you don't attach premium networking products to the cable, or use the bandwidth, the theory is it will be there when you (or the next owner) upgrade.

The residential network cable market is collapsing, though, as many consumers turn to wireless ethernet -- generally 10Mbs, available in

100Mbps. Consumer media devices are starting to appear with built-in wireless connectivity. It's hard to say whether that CAT6 will be needed at all down the road.