Just about done wiring two bedrooms for two 14 year old boys in the basement. Each room has 12/2 with ground and a 20 amp breaker. Three wall plugs for whatever they will need in the future. Three more plug outlets for computer, phone, TV in one corner. Even put in a phone outlet, cable, and a cat 5e outlet for a router to be placed later. Am I forgeting anything or have I already reach wiring overkill?
Well, you could always install cat-6 for gigabit Ethernet instead of 5e. You could even add fiber although I don't know what you would use it for or how it would be terminated. So maybe fiber would be the mark of overkill.
You've got all the superfluous needs covered, just don't forget the smoke and monoxide detectors
If you want to get close to code make sure that every wall area has at least one plug. No section of wall should be more than 6 foot to a plug. That is confusing. A 12' wall needs one plug in the center. A 14' wall need two plugs. Wall sections less than 2' do not require a plug.
Did you wire the overhead for a ceiling fan? optional Did you wire for a hard wired smoke detector inter-connected in each BR? required.
I think that is it.
It would not hurt to put a smurf tube or at least a pull string down in one or two appropriate places. 30 years ago many places were not wired with cable, Cat 5, etc. Who knows what the next millennium will bring, although I hope most of it is wireless. ______________________________ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net
Walls less than 2 ft don't REQUIRE an outlet, but I'd recommend putting one there anyway. Nothing worse than having to pull an extension cord around a doorway because that seemingly too-small-for-anything wall was just the right size for a small table with a radio or lamp. There is also always the need to plug in the sweeper or something.
Also, on that 12 foot wall -one outlet might meet code, but 2 would be better. Put the outlet in he middle of a long wall and it's bound to be behind a dresser or bed or something and be inaccessible.
Finally, what about switched outlets? I wired mine so the top recepical was always hot and the bottom was switched. That way the clock stays on even when the lamp is off. I also wired them 3-way, with one switch by the door and the other low on the wall where the bed is located. That way I can be snug in bed an reach down behind the night stand and turn out the light. Next night when I come in the room, on goes the light via the switch by the door.
Are the outlets Arc Fault protected? TB
Yep. Two things, assuming you still have the walls open.
Fiber optic cable now because its the current big thing.
And a pull string in each wall cavity so that you can add whatever is the next big thing 10 years from now.
You say router in the bedrom. You need a router in the garage or elsewhere, with the Cat 6 (not Cat 5, Cat 6) running from it to each room in the house.
And I would not have a computer in a teen aged boy's room hidden away in the basement for all the tea in China.
And the escape hatches, AKA egress windows. 14 year olds love to do stupid stuff, often involving electricity or fire. They are code-required on new construction for basement bedrooms- even if your application is grandfathered, I still wouldn't put kids down there without it. If you don't have the big window wells needed, hand each one of them a shovel. They will appreciate them all the more with some sweat equity. :^/
aem sends...
Good advice all around. Also, make sure all outlets are GFI protected.
If I were doing it, I would run a wire down off the doorbell circuit and install a ringer so they can hear it if someone comes to the door (hint, it'll probably be for them anyway).
Also, I would put a push-botton switch on the top of the stairs, wired to a small bomb or loud bell so you can get them up in the morning without having to run downstairs 14 million times. Maybe even a PA system to keep yelling "hey, it's time to get up".
I would also consider a second phone wire, just in case. Or at least have a 4 wire phone line going down there.
Another post suggested a hard-wired smoke detector in each room. That a great idea because the kids sleep so deeply. Get the kind that have both type of sensors -- radioactive and photoelectric -- because they detect things differently. Also a hard-wired carbon monoxide detector. Finally, make sure that you have a hard-wired detector near YOU so you can hear it if there are any problems.
Most importantly, have the basement checked for Radon before you have them living there.
Finally, do you have heat down there or do you need a bit of electric heat? And what about a circuit for a microwave?
Instead of running cat-5e to that outlet, why not conduit? When you need something later, it will be much easier to add it. When you need something ELSE (like a second cat-5e, or something that hasn't been invented yet!), you will be glad you went with pipe.
Others mentioned wiring for ceiling fans -- we just have overhead light fixtures in all the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and a room we call our sitting room, but they all have overkill structural support AND have three-wire cable to the light switch so that a fan/light unit can have each switched separately if needed.
Yes I would definitely go with Cat 6, as Cat 5e is on its way to obsolescence. You could even go for Cat 7 if you're really ambitious! No one else mentioned some speaker wire too. Guys love to run speakers to the back of the room for surround sound and stuff.
Hmmm, We're going wireless more and more! Ultrasonic, IR, radio, etc.
You're right, your plan is better, but my mother would put an extension cord in, that reached to one side, before the dresser or bed or buffet or breakfront went in. She might go years without using it, but it was there when she needed it.
Of course non-grounded extension cords aren't as obtrusive. It's also harder to get really shallow flat plugs than it used to be.
I have the ceiling fixture like that. It's great. After college, I stayed at dollar a night hotels in Mexico and they had the ceiling light switch right by the bed. If the cheapest hotels in Mexico could do this, why not me, I thought. (they didn't have a switch by the door, but frankly that is less important.)
Absolutely.
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Burglar alarm wires at the windows?
Speaker wires for when they're (grown and?) gone and you want to play the same music throughout the house?
Video and 2 audio cables (L and R) for when they're gone and you want to play the same DVD throughout the house? You can use the RF cable for that, but for some reason there are times I wish I had A and V cables. One reason is that the selection box I got at Radio Shack works with 2A and V, but not cable.
Should be one doorbell in the basement for when the only person home is in the basement, and he wants to be able to hear the doorbell. I finally have bells or buzzers on all three floors and now I don't miss visitors or delivery men just because I have the radio on.
If you do everything everyone suggests, their rooms will be better than my whole house put together, but as long as the walls are open......
I should have thought of that. I wanted to run audio wires from my computer so I could listen to webradio throughout the house, stations I can't actually get on the radio. To save time, I ended up using wireless, but I'm not really happy.
There is nothing like wires to get what you want to go where you want.
Did you hear about the woman who was on the cordless phone with her boyfriend planning to murder her husband. A neighbor with a baby monitor heard the whole thing, taped it, and now the wife and her boyfriend are in jail! (I"m hoping none of you guys are murderers. I don't want to help you out if you are.)
John,
Just to correct the record here, you do not need category6 cable to achieve 1000BaseT (Gigabit Ethernet). 1000BaseT is designed to work on category 5e cable.
Joe Golan, RCDD
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John McGaw wrote:
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One thing I didn't see mentioned. Have 2 different circuits in each room. When they get all their stuff in there and turned on at the same time they aren't as likely to overload a single circuit. Also, it makes it a whole lot easier if you have to work on an outlet and still have power in another outlet in the same room.
Bill Gill
snip...
My understanding was that in the best of all possible worlds, with shorter runs, and when installed perfectly that Cat-5e could manage gigabit and that Cat-6 simply added a bit of insurance. But if I misunderstood it wouldn't be the first time, or even the millionth I suspect.
If I were cabling anything today I'd tend toward the latest standards to ensure a bit of headroom for growth but that is just me. But that doesn't mean I'm going to start rewiring my entire premises any time soon since most of my equipment doesn't understand anything past 100 and I'm not really in _that_ much of a hurry.
Why is that confusing? Standard appliances have 6 foot cords. There shouldn't be anyplace you can put a 2' wide appliance where you can't get to an outlet without crossing a doorway or using an extension cord.
ANyway, I suspect your wiring is adequate, but this seems like an excellent time to think about soundproofing a bit.
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