Electrical installation tubes

[Pygmalion]

I have recently moved into a brand new appartment. I was amazed to find out that every room is equipped with only one UTP and one coaxial cable - I think two UTP cables would be much more usual these days. Cables are layed into installation tubes of 18 mm diameter. I have two questions:

- Is one UTP and one coaxial cable per room normal, or am I eligible to request cable update from the construction company?

- Since cables are layed into installation tubes, should cables be replaceable? The problem is that installation tubes already hold cables when they were installed, so there is a great possibility that cables couldn't be replaced. And if cables are not replaceable, what to do? Request a whole new installation from the construction company?

Thanks for the answer.

Marko

[Toller]

What do you want to do that isn't possible now? Did they mislead you about the issue, or were you somehow prevented from finding out about it?

Unless I am missing something here, I would like to see their reaction when you request your "cable update".

[John Grabowski]

Consider yourself lucky to have wiring in every room. Communications lines are under the jurisdiction of the FCC. They have recommendations for what the current standards should be, but as far as I know they are not enforceable standards by the local building department. Since the existing wiring is in conduit (I am assuming that is what you meant by "Tubes") it may be possible to pull additional wiring in them, but that depends on the size of the conduit and if they actually go the whole length of the wiring run. I think some builders and owners are installing more wiring to make it appealing to a buyer or tenant while others still go the cheapest way possible.

[gfretwell]

18mm (3/4" for us) should be plenty for just about anything you want to pull through it. You can try pulling on the cable to see if it pulls free but I bet it will. In real life one CAT5 cable will support 2 ethernet LANs but you will need to split out the pairs and punch it down on 2 keystones. I do think they make a splitter adapter though. It is not advised to run phone and data in the same cable but I know people who do. In a residence with limited traffic on each you will never notice but the LAN will see the ring current if you have mechanical ringers. In an office with a heavily loaded LAN and lots of phone calls your data rate will take a hit since most all the packets sent while the phone is ringing may have to be resent. or so they say Your mileage will vary depending on cable length, quality and the type of ringers you have.

[Tim Smith]

But before getting to that point, the natural question is why would you need more than one ethernet LAN?

[gfretwell]

If you have 2 devices at the far end and you don't want to hang a hub down there for whatever reason. I am running 2 as we speak . (Media server PC and an RTV) You may also actually have 2 sides of the router involved, WAN on one set of pairs and LAN on the other. The list goes on.

Of course one might not actually be Ethernet. There are still folks who need Token Ring, S loop, Baseband or some other protocol to support some specialized hardware.

I know most people think windoze PCs on Intel platforms running Ethernet is all there is in the world. Look at all the different adapters you can hang on a CAT 5 sometime.

[Mark Lloyd]

In the past, you might have located the router and modem in the same place. That's gotten more difficult if your router is also a wireless access point. Then it needs to be in a good location for RF, as well as near the modem.

[snip]

[Pygmalion]

Toller je napisal:

I want to have one computer and one TV set on the far end. For each - I was told - you need one UTP cable.

Marko

[Pygmalion]

John Grabowski je napisal:

Conduits present in my flat are 18 mm internal diameter PVC tuboflex conduits for concrete installation. They run all along flat, and they are most probably connected at two places using usual insulating tape (I guess this is not regular installing procedure). I tried to pull one cable out of the conduit and I failed to move it out. Maybe I did not use enough force.

Marko

[Pygmalion]

[e-mail] je napisal:

I try to pull cables out, but I failed. There are ideas that two cables (coaxial and UTP) are entangled between themselves on various places. It is also possible that conduits are layed poorly (to many

90 degree turns and patching conduits using insulating tape). But my question is of principle nature: should conduits be layed in a way that cables are replaceable? If this is a case this is no longer my problem but problem of construction company and I am eligible to request new installation in my flat.

Marko.

[Pygmalion]

Pygmalion je napisal:

I have just realised that conduits used for electric installations in my flat are corrugated conduits.

[gfretwell]

Be careful pulling on CAT5 you don't want to break what you have. You may be right that they installed the wire as they went along and do have too many bends in the raceway. Are you sure they don't have some pull boxes in between? The other thing you can try is to suck some pulling lube in there with a vacuum cleaner. Home stores and electrical suppliers have it. Don't use oil. If you do get it to pull air all the way through, end to end, try sucking a stout piece of nylon string through. 2 or 3mm . Use that to pull in another cable.

[mm]

I can't take it anymore. The word is "laid". No word "layed".

Lie, lay, lain Lay, laid, laid

[John Grabowski]

Instead of pulling on the wire you should try pushing a fish tape through the conduits and see how far it goes and where it goes to. If it comes out some where, put a pull string on the end and pull it through. You can use the pull string for pulling wire through in the future if you are not ready to pull wire at that moment.

Where are you located?

[Pygmalion]

John Grabowski je napisal:

Slovenia.

[Pygmalion]

I have pictures how did they did it. There is no pull boxes between. Except from being "glued" together at two places using insulating tape, it is one tube from one end to the other. So at least air should go from one end to the other.

Marko.

[e-mail] je napisal:

[John Grabowski]

I am only familiar with construction codes and practices in the USA. Do you have a building inspector in your town that you can consult? It is possible that the wire was preinstalled in the tubes and you might not be able to pull additional wires into them.

Something else you could do is stop by construction projects similar to yours and try to see how the wiring is installed or talk to the construction workers.

[Pygmalion]

Wire WAS preinstalled in the tube - I have photos. And one electrical engineer in the field told me that this is wrong - tubes should be laid empty and only later filled with wires. But firms here in Slovenia often ignore customers in hope that since it takes several years to get your way in the court people won't put charges against them. Also corruption is high and they could bribe construction inspector not to give me right.

John Grabowski je napisal: