The office sent me to do a rough-in yesterday so I took some pictures and share some tips. To many people this would be common sense but it isn’t.
Always mark out where you’re gonna run cables. Supers and even customers don’t know what they are looking at but with it marked on the stud they will know “Oh, this is for the TV”.
Dunno how this happened but for our company we started to use the Delta symbol for Data. Some guys will write CAT6 or CAT5.
After marking out the house you should drill it out next. Be sure you go in the middle of the top plate or studs. It’s by code for one and two you don’t want a screw or nail to end up in your wire.
Always label your cabling. This house I did only had three cables ran so I labeled them with a sharpie. If it was a typical home that has many cables I would of used a numbering system with proper labels.
Since a Coax was going to the same location I taped both cables together. Also do not label them at the tip but measure out from the thumb and index fingers to your elbow.
With low voltage you don’t have to use a standard electrical box. We call these mud rings or backless boxes. Measure a existing electrical outlet and use that as your measurement.
If you’re going side by side like one side of a stud has a electrical outlet and you’re putting a box on the opposite side use a level to get the exact height. Reason being when drywall goes up and put put that plate on and it’s just ever so slightly off it will look like it’s off by a whole inch.
The LVP or SMC depending the market you need to make sure it will fit and know how the panel deals with strain.
As you can see the panel is floating on the right side. If I added a 2×4 as a backer the panel would sag and look like total crap when it comes to trim. These panels from Legrand have a trim ring so it it’s installed it will sandwich the panel to the drywall making it solid. However if there was a long enough 2×4 on site I would of added a whole stud.
Make sure the cabling in the panel is away from the outer edge. Also be nice and pull the electrical whip into the panel. The electricians won’t come back until trim and they will screw things up trying to pull that whip out. It’s not fun replacing a panel with drywall up.
Securing the wires is not optional. It has to be done. For one it’s by code but not as strict but you don’t want any cables smashed by drywall or anything like that. You just need them to stay out of the way.
Notice the bottom staple is hardly in. This just keeps the tips of the cables in place. When the drywall is up I just have to snip the zip tie and pull the cables out and terminate them.
The staple is in enough to lightly touch the cables. RG6 Coax fails easily when crushed with today’s broadband that uses DOCSIS 3.1 and 4.0.
Typically that is it but this day since we were late to the party I had to put in fire foam on all of the holes I drilled. It’s hard to find the proper foam in a big box store. The Boss went to a few stores to find the correct foam. The inspector wants to see orange or red foam.
Speaking of drilling holes don’t go too small or too big. I used a 3/4inch paddle bit for the coax and cat6 and a 1 1/4 inch for the fiber conduit. Also you noticed I didn’t staple the cables down going to the SMC. Reason being I’ve always done this. It’s personal preference really. As for the conduit this stuff is very flexible and I didn’t want to add a sharp bend in it. There was already a mild sharp bend on the DMARC side since the exterior walls are 2×4 instead of the typical 2×6.