Re: New Home Construction

[Mitch <sumcoolgai@xxxxxxxxx>]

Although conduit throughout the house is probably not a "solution" to
the wiring issue (and it does add expense), there are some situations
that do benefit from conduit:

1.  Rooms with cathedral ceilings on slabs -- very common in California.
2.  In and around metal studs.
3.  Masonry walls
4.  "Feed" locations strategically placed for rooms that would require
long runs of "fishing" to get to.

Running conduit to a few extra low-voltage "boxes" in these situations
makes it fairly easy to fish up to keypad height (or down to outlet height).


wkearney99 wrote:
>>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.
>