Communication wiring for a new house

I'll soon be wiring a new house, and I want to install some communication cabling at the same time. It's a small two-bedroomed house, which will be rented out when it's complete, so I'm not looking to do anything exotic or complex.

I'm thinking about TV, network and telephone. My thoughts are:

  1. TV

Standard 75 ohm coax from the loft to a socket in the living room.

I've not used TV for ages, so I assume the new digital TV still uses the same cable and connectors as the old analog TV from 20+ years ago. Or have they finally replaced those horrible belling-lee connectors with something better?

  1. Network

CAT 5e from RJ45 sockets bedrooms and living room to a multi-way socket in one of the bedrooms.

  1. Telephone

Might as well use CAT 5e for this as well I guess, to avoid getting a seperate reel of telephone grade cable.

Can I install a BT master socket and just leave it to BT to connect the A/B pair, or are only BT allowed to do that?

Is it actually worth installing telephone, or does everyone just use mobiles or VOIP now?

Any thoughts or pointers to guides Etc. would be welcome.

I'm looking for anything that would be seen as standard or desirable in a small new build house without adding too much complexity. Bearing in mind that cabling is dead easy at the moment because the plasterboard isn't up yet.

Reply to
Caecilius
Loading thread data ...

I'd put in at least three coax cables, use foil and braid screened coax cable

F-Connectors

Guessing where people will want the sockets is the tricky bit, most people probably just use WiFi for PCs/Laptops within the house, put a couple with the TV aerials or internet connected TVs and games consoles

yep.

Openreach let builders do that, talk to them they'll supply cable and conduit

Most people will want a phone line if only for broadband.

Reply to
Andy Burns

For you or someone else? Were I doing this from scratch I'd be tempted to go for:

- Lots of CT100 equivalent TV/satellite/FM/DAB cable from rooms to central point (and yes, F-plugs are what people use these days not BLs.).

- Similar with Ethernet (at least Cat 5e for 1GB)

- A few phone cables too (can use Cat5e if you like with suitable sockets - which you could swap later if you stop using the phones and want another ethernet socket..., or even a VoIP system).

- Bring them to a central point where they terminate, ideally at a patch panel.

- Bring the phone line, cable feed, satellite, TV aerial feed to the same point.

- Let the new owners connect together however they want using ADSL modem/router, TV/Radio distribution box, satellite distribution etc or if they're only using a small number of outputs, a simple connection cable.

If you use the right Satellite LNB (quattro I think they're called), you can get a box which takes the 4 inputs and allows a large number of satellite boxes/Sky/TVs to share them.

Paul DS.

Reply to
Paul D Smith

Still 75R but the cabling has improved in quality, use CT100 or equivalent. Standrad connector is also the F type (still cheap and cheerful but not a s nasty as Belling Lee). These days also consider installing a dish for satellite reception, they are cheap. I'd fit a Quad LNB (two for the living room for Sky+ or other PVR and one each for the bedrooms). The cables from the LNB would go to their respective destinations via the cable closet, the same place that all the network cables end up. They can just be barrelled through at this stage but it makes life easier to fit a multiswitch later. I'd also run 4 CT100 cables to the living room as a PVR may well need two, the TV another and you'll probably need terrestial there as well. Cable is cheap and easy to fit at this stage perhaps make that 6...

Where ever you think you might need a network point fit two and cable them back to a central point, preferably not in a room where some one might want to sleep. The telly position may need several, TV, PVR, Wii, Xbox etc. 6 again?

Yes keeps things simple. You could terminate some on BT style sockets but I wouldn't just use adapters into the RJ45 sockets.

You can provision the location for the master socket with cable and back box etc. BT will install the master socket. As this is new build try and determine where the line will arrive and make the master close to where that is in the building run two Cat5e cables from there back to the cable closet and make sure there is mains at the master BT socket as well. Enables you to fit the ADSL or FTTC box at the master socket and send the filtered POTS around the house without so much worry about local interference messing up the ADSL. Wireless AP would be a seperate box mouted in the best place for wirless coverage, in the loft? So a couple of Cat5e up there as well.

You need a land line for VOIP (well mostly). I'd mark down a place without provision for a landline and as FTTC rolls out it will be needed for that. Anybody who relies only a mobile hasn't thought it through properly.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I did something like that once. The multiway outlets could be used as a crude patch panel with 20cm leads.

Yep - terminate with Cat5e sockets and use adaptor for phones.

A Dumb (unpowered) phone is essential in emergencies when the power fails and the mobile base station goes out (happened everytime our village blacks out) - only thing that works is a dumb handset powered from the batteries in the BT exchange.

First - just put loads of conduit in (20mm oval will take 2 ELV cables, eg 2 Cat5e, aerial etc). Have an empty backbox next to every socket outlet (or at least every 2nd) with conduit. If lifting the floor to thread cable is hard, then buy a drum of Cat5e and thread cables to everything even if you do not terminate - leave coil of cable in back of box and fit blanking plate.

Reply to
Tim Watts

You can't fit too many ;-) I found BL connectors are adequate for teresstrial TV but F type are "better".

We decided not to install network points in the bedrooms or by the TV. Big mistake. We hadn't anticpated needing so many PCs and that TVs would want a network connection when I installed the cabling many years ago.

You may not get enough signal inside the house.

Reply to
Mark

I agree. We have a total of 27 network points round the house (although

12 of them are in the 'office'). I put three in the living room; there is a whole host of stuff near the TV, including a multicore cable to the roof for antenna rotation, and a telephone socket.

I put them in the bedrooms and one turned out to be useful for an IP camera (no, not what you think, Adam!). We had a vandalism issue outside and the bedroom window was a good vantage point.

May not be worth it for the OP, but I ran multiple pairs to the front door for doorphone/door release, terminating in the big central Krone box for telecoms.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Adding in some random thoughts: If you are renting it out, tenants are capable of ruining anything you build, and stealing anything you install. So have good notes of what you have installed, and make sure it's on the inventory. Take photos of all sockets, dishes etc. Check it ALL before refunding deposit. Don't trust an agent to do this, only you will know what you put in there. Not all tenants are like this, of course, but plenty seem to think that your stuff is fair game for them. Been there, done that.

Reply to
Davey

In new builds BT may use an external NTE5 (XNTE) usually positioned outside near the front door. However, despite only recently being introduced the XNTE is now being discontinued once stocks are exhausted as it doesn't support vDSL.

Reply to
Peter Parry

A multiswitch ideally it'll also take terrestial TV, DAB and FM as well as the four feeds from the LNB and send the whole lot down each of it's outputs. Some multiswitches can drive a Quad LNB to get the right signals on the right inputs others require the connections to be be correct and the use of a Quattro LNB.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

That's clever - how do you demultiplex the FM/DAB/TV/Sat at the other end or do you still need an individual cable per input?

Paul DS.

Reply to
Paul D Smith

I was hoping that by putting cables in the walls and installing RJ45 sockets there would be less liklihood of the tenants drilling holes through walls or gluing cables to skirting boards.

I don't plan to install any equipment like routers, wifi APs, switches Etc. That would be asking for trouble, and I'd end up owning the problem when it goes wrong.

Reply to
Caecilius

Good plan. Be warned that even sockets can go for a walk! Good luck; landlording isn't as easy as it used to be, as the rules keep getting more onerous.

Reply to
Davey

Ours is all cat5e between a hub in the basement and the decoders in the rooms (and also between the hub and the interface box on the wall outside). That was all installed by the TV co though; I'm not sure how happy they are if they come in to set up and find pre-existing cable.

Personally I'd run everything back to a common point somewhere and patch as necessary - but if that were a loft I'd be a bit worried about network hardware cooking in the summer.

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules Richardson

0/10 for forward planning!
Reply to
Andy Burns

And a number of extra Cat5e or better - what's the betting that media systems will move over more and more to networked systems?

Why not just install Ethernet sockets and a patch panel, so that any one can be swapped between Ethernet and phone and the phone can be plugged in with a simple adapter?

Reply to
SteveW

Cable: use only CAI approved stuff suitable for satellite.

Connectors: F plugs and BLs are both used.

wireless is what's popular now

cat5 is the right stuff now, as you're likely to have broadband signals on the phone wiring

landline phone please

Most tenants are clueless about such things, so whatever goes in needs to work without any configuration.

Wiki has articles on LV wiring, tv aerial cable and networking.

NT

Reply to
NT

Just take plenty of piccys of all rooms and contents when you rent it out and give them copies. Then you can compare yours and the ones they have if there is a dispute;!..

Reply to
tony sayer

Done away with that, much cheaper and better:)...

Reply to
tony sayer

Yeah, that's what I said! Must be good advice. We had a friend acting as agent, and we later discovered that he had been very lenient with the inventory checks.

Davey.

Reply to
Davey

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.