Finishing basement - what cabling needed?

[GregoriusM]

Hey!

My girlfriend is going to be finishing off the basement in the house she is moving to starting in April.

It will be fully finished as a basement apartment. Her mother is going to live upstairs for a year or two until she has to move to the left coast for health reasons, at which time the entire house belongs to my girlfriend.

Anyway, I would like to advise her as to what cabling she should put into each and every room in the basement, and also up into the rooms upstairs, because she is "sheet rocking" the basement ceiling, or drywalling as we call it up here.

Or do you have a better idea for the ceiling?

So, alread existing upstairs we have (all fully finished):

Kitchen

Small dining area (dinette) attached to kitchen

Family room (half wall between family room and kitchen dinette area)

Living room/Dining room (dining room is set off slightly with a 2 foot alcove

Master Bedroom with full bath including jacuzzi

2nd bedroom

3rd bedroom

Full bathroom

Three season area out the back door off kitchen dinette

Unfinished garage which will be needed to hook into home automation to insure garage door is closed.


Basement (which is partially framed, but no drywall - only exterior framing with insulation) will have:

Full Kitchen (directly under kitchen above) with one lowered counter for possible computer/phone table/intercom/home automation screen

Open dining area

Master bedroom

Raised living room/family room

Storage/furnace/laundry room

So, in short, in order for her to have the capability for Audio, Video, and Home Automation in every room (including exterior lights, etc.), what cables do I have her put into each room.

We have the choice of cable TV through the phone lines, cable TV through traditional coax, and two Sat TV providers.

I want to automate the home reasonably well using something like HomeSeer running on a separate PC using X-10, or Z-Wave or structured wiring, but I want to be as flexible as possible. The home automation will be done after the basement is finished, but I want to have all options open, within reason $$$-wise.

So, how would you wire this place up?

I don't have any drawings but could make up one that would be from memory, only seeing the house from pictures taken by my girlfriend.

Anything else you need to know?

Thanks in advance.

Greg

(And, no, I'm not taking this away from Custom Installers. She/I/we cannot afford to have them do it. If I could, I would.)

[Kevin P]

At the very least I'd run at least one RG-6 coax and at least two Category 5e/or Category 6 runs to each room. For a larger room, run two or three sets, one to each side of the room. Cat5/5e/6 can be used for Ethernet networking, phone, and home automation tasks. Have all the runs converge at the same location such as a utility closet or where the phone lines or cable lines enter the house. You could run regular phone lines as well, but if you're running Cat5 you can use spare pairs for phone as well (a run of Cat5 can carry 4 phone lines or 1 network connection).

If you're planning on doing whole house audio, you'll need to run speaker wires in-wall too. Run the wire to a low-voltage box near the doorway (where you'd put a volume control or keypad) and then to the speaker locations. Also run Cat5/5e/6 to the box as well. This way you have the flexibility of installing an analog volume control inline with the speakers, or (by using the Cat5) installing a remote keypad for a whole house audio system such as the Russound CA6.4 system. It's a good idea to research the specific system you're planning to install so you'll know the type of cables it requires.

Note that it's always better to run extra cables just in case. You never know where you'll need a hookup later on if you decide to rearrange the room or switch things around between rooms, and it's always easier to run the cables before the sheetrock goes up.

Personally if at all possible I'd put conduit in the walls and/or ceilings (at least 1 inch or better yet 1.5-inch PVC pipes). This allows new cables to be pulled through easily later on when new technology necessitates new types of cable.

One more tip: when stapling the wires to the studs, keep them as far from where the sheetrock will go as possible, to reduce the chance of a misguided sheetrock screw damaging one of the cables. Also make sure to mark or note where the boxes and speaker brackets are in case the sheetrockers forget to cut a hole or two.

[Andrew Pratt]

You've gotten great advice from Kevin already and there isn't too much more to add really. The conduit is a must have if you're planning on drywalling the ceilings. Any reason why she's not considering going with a drop ceiling instead? They're much more flexible in that regard and will give you a little more space for insulation to help cut down on noise upstairs.

If you want to see what I've done as far as inwall's and second zone control you're both more then welcome to drop over one night.

[GregoriusM]

RG6 - is that just standard coax cable?

And RG 5e or 6? Should I go with 6 to be sure?

What is the difference.

Thanks, Kevin.

Andrew: I'll definitely be over before she moves in.

[Kevin P]

RG6 is higher quality coax, and is suitable for satellite as well as today's broadband digital cable. RG59 or whatever the old stuff was doesn't cut it anymore nowadays.

[Lex]

75 ohm coax is what's important. RG6 is 75 ohm, but then so is RG59. Kevin calling the RG59 old stuff, surprises me a bit. RG6 and RG59 are neither old nor new. At least some RG59 is capable of broadband, and generally short of Belden 89259 or 1564A, can be made of higher quality materials than lots of standard off the spool RG6. Example, the Tigress component video is made of RG59. That is not to say that RG6 is not good coax, and in fact may be a better choice for many in wall/ceiling applications because it's a bit more durable due to it's increased volume/size.

Lex

[Kevin P]

When I said "old stuff" what I meant is what is/was often used for cable TV runs, especially in older installations back before the broadband and satellite days (RG59 I think). I found this info on Crutchfield Advisor:

75-ohm coaxial jack

Sometimes called an "RF input," this kind of jack is commonly used for hooking up antennas, cable boxes, VCRs, TVs, etc. A 75-ohm coaxial cable can carry video and stereo audio information simultaneously. RF cable connectors (often called "F-type" connectors) either screw onto the 75-ohm jack, or just push on to connect.

There are different types of coaxial cable. Standard coaxial cable is stamped "RG-59"; higher-quality "RG-6" cable features better shielding, and exhibits less high-frequency loss over longer runs. (For connecting DBS satellite systems, it's essential to use RG-6 cable to correctly pass the entirety of the digital signal.)

So their description matches mine. RG59 is good stuff and fine for cable, but it's not recommended for satellite. By using RG6 you know the cable will work whether you go with satellite or cable.

[GregoriusM]

So, what do I need to look for when I buy the RG6 coax?

Name brand? Certain types of materials used?

[Bent]

I believe the U meand for direct burial. "Underground".

at the data rates that this stuff will ever be required to carry, RG-59 will be plenty good enough, unless you are talking "stacked output lnb" frequencies in a DTH system - whisch can be in the 2.2.Ghz neighborhood, where RG-6 is the norm.

I use all RG-59 for my component video cables.

[Bent]

Gregor, localy you would find CommScope or Belden RG-6 for about 15 cents per foot at HD. Ask for Quad Shield.

[GregoriusM]

So, if I'm going to be having a sat system, would it be best to have RG6 going to all rooms?

[Kevin P]

Satellite operates at higher frequencies than cable TV service, which is why you need RG6 for satellite. RG59 is plenty suitable for cable TV or component/composite video cables (which of course don't carry frequencies as high over long distances).

For cable, run to a central point where a splitter/distribution amp can be installed (this can be where the cable service enters the house, but is not required). If you're going to have a cable modem, you'd install a 2 way splitter where the cable enters the home, and run one line directly to the room where the modem is, and the other line would go to an additional splitter to send cable service to the remaining rooms. If you have a large number of rooms, a signal amp may need to be installed.

For satellite runs, you'll want to run the RG6 to the location where the dish(es) will be installed. Unlike cable, satellite signals can't be split; you'll need a separate RG6 run from the dish to each room and a LNB on the dish for each receiver. Chances are you won't actually use the satellite service in every room, but run the cables anyway in case you want to move a receiver/TV. Then when you install the dish(es), terminate and connect the cables as appropriate for each room you're going to place a satellite receiver.

[basementjack]

Conduit, Conduit Conduit....

Hey just another vote for conduit....

One thing I'll add.

If you're using metal conduit, 3/4 is probably enough, and it's much easier to bend than 1", plus the condit's cheaper, and the bender's cheaper too.

I did 1" when I built my house and for most rooms it was complete overkill, not to mention very very hard to bend in the middle of a Chicago winter. I would have been just fine if I had used 3/4. (1/2 inch however is way too small for all but single runs of cable)

I haven't seen any conduit made of PVC, it's not code anywhere near where I live so no one carries it here. But we do have plumbing PVC and I want to share my experience with that so you don't waste your money to find out...
I bought 1.5" PVC commonly used for drain pipes along with some 90degree elbos or sweeps as they are sometimes called. I found that I could not fish wire through them - the elbos's are too sharp, and the large size of the pipe gives the fish tape too much room to bind up, plus the pvc and most cables bound also (not like slipping the cable through a metal conduit). So if you try PVC, just be aware of that - straight runs would be fine of course - for any other runs, you might want to run a length of rope throgh to help you fish wire later.

I'll also back up the other posters - RG6 - quad shield is the type of wire you want for antenna and sattelite - if you don't run conduit, then be sure to run 2 RG6qs to each location - Sattelite based Tivo's use the to record two things at once.

Oh and from personal experience, avoid the "twist on" ends for the RG6 - go right for the crimper.

- Jack

[GregoriusM]

Thanks everyone! RG6 is where it'll be!

[taz13]

One downside to RG6 is that the bend radius of RG6 coax is much less then the bend Radius of RG59. Think of RG59 as a lighter gauge then RG6. Both have there own place when it comes to use. Try to get true metal braid sheild rather then the cheaper foil shield. Makes for a better connection. Having said all that I would use RG6 for the installation because of the overall lower signal loss.