Re: New Home Construction

["wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Fishing wire in a US stick-built house is not as hard as it would seem. So
> running everything in conduit is probably not worth it. But do make a
> conduit/chase from the basement to the attic so (assuming a 2-story house
> with basement and attic), you can get to the first floor rooms from the
> basement and the second floor from the attic.

I'll second this recommendation and note that the riser should be as large
as you can accomodate.  A 4" conduit would be good.  I ran a 3" and filled
it much quicker than expected.  Either a larger one or a pair of them would
be a VERY good idea.

As Marc points out it's really not all that hard to fish a wire up/down a
wall in most modern US homes.  The wall cavities are generally pretty easy
to get through.  Putting a hard conduit in the room itself locks you into
running the wires to THAT location.  As in, if you put it down at outlet
level you're screwed for entrance area keypads.  Likewise, if you just ran
it to the entrance area keypad you'd be stuck for PC, telco or ethernet
hookups.  Granted, you can generally be sure that something setup near the
door will always be 'useful' but it's hard to predict where on the other
walls you'd want things placed.

For 1st floor rooms if you can get to the floor below via the space in the
joists you're set.  For 2nd floor rooms you can usually go up to the attic
space.  But if you've got spaces that aren't going to be accessible then
some creativity is in order.  Either by simply knowing the 'run' of the
joists (front/back or right/left) or having access panels installed in
places that will be known trouble spots.  As in, the closet under the
stairs.  If you really know how the rooms will be used the most difficult
thing to wire is ceiling speakers.  Having wire installed for them ahead of
time, and fished to the entrance keypad area will save you a lot of trouble.
Most audio distribution systems these days suggest pulling the speaker wire
to the keypad and then back to the central amp (when used).  This way you
only run a single 4-conductor home run instead of two 2-conductor speaker
wires.  Just splice them in the keypad junction box (eurostyle terminal
strips are good for this).

If you've not already hired one, seriously consider paying a local high-end
audio shop for a placement plan for in-room speakers.  They generally have a
bit more experience in the guess-work of placing them in the right
locations.