Re: Structured Wiring Questions.

["wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Two separate lines for phone, one line will be a phone line so that I
could still
> dial 911 in case the power goes out.  The other will be dedicated for
voip.  The
> voip line will plug into a Linksys VoIP adapter.  Granted for the voip
line, I only
> need 2 of the 8 conductors, but you never know ...

Hmmm, bear in mind that VoIP is just IP.  Once you 'convert' from one to the
other you're freed up from the wiring that might be needed.  As in, convert
from IP to POTS using a VoIP ATA (like the linksys) and then you can use
plain old telephones anywhere in the house.  Many VoIP adapters support
clever methods of 'falling back' to POTS should power go out or 911 dialing
is needed.  You can basically leave the house wired for POTS and simply use
VoIP devices at the central wiring location.  Bear in mind that you can use
VoIP in the same way as a shared POTS line or you could use each handset on
it's own VoIP extension.  The latter gets a little complicated and usually
involves a PC running something like the Asterisk free PBX software.

Wire's cheap and running it 'all at once' is usually a good idea.  But
running more than you need, or to 'too many' locations is just a waste.
Sometimes it's better to plan to make it 'easy' to add more wire into places
that "probably won't need it" any time soon.

> The one foot diameter hole is for an access hole so that I could drill a
1"-2" hole
> between the walls to the next floor.  For example I would cut out a 1ft
diameter
> hole out of the drywall at the base of the wall.  Then I could use a spade
bit
> to make the 1" - 2" hole to run the pvc piping to run the cables ...

Ohhhhh, yeah that makes sense.  I was envisioning some 1' holes through the
floor...  You're talking about just making some holes in the drywall to
facilitate drilling the through-floor holes.  That's normal.  Drywall can be
patched pretty easily.

And once you embark on the 'break holes in the wall' process it really isn't
that much harder to fix one hole or a half-dozen...

> There are drops that I want to put on the exterior walls that reach to the
bottom
> floor, and these are the walls I am most concerned about ...

As in, run them to the outside and then down to avoid going through the
house?  It's do-able but there aren't that many situations where it's really
necessary.  Any time you start whacking holes through the exterior walls you
introduce any number of complications (like bugs, rodents, water, cold,
etc).  That and the conduit needed to meet code it pretty pricey compared to
running it inside.  But every house varies and yours might need it.

> I'll need to find where are the joices in my house and avoid getting near
them.  I guess
> my next step is to find the building plans for my house.

Having the plans or talking to another neighbor that has the same floorplan
is *always* a good idea.