Pulling wire
Saturday I decided that I needed to finish pulling the wire (cat-5 coax, cat-5e, and cat-6) to all of the bedrooms so that I could close up the walls and get on with things. It didn't hurt that the weather was in the mid 60s so working in the attic was actually quite pleasant.
Pulling wire, however, wasn't. The knockouts through the engineered wood I-beams were nearly full of the wire pulled for previous rooms, which made it rather difficult to pull new wires. Fishing the wires up through the holes in the walls was even more difficult as those holes are even smaller than the knockouts. Furthermore, going from the first floor to the second floor means that you have to drill past the second floor's engineered wood I-beams and fishing a fish tape through two 1" holes nearly a foot apart can be trying. However, I have all the right tools, and with Sara's help it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
Every room is getting 6 wires, two cat-5 coax, two cat-5e, and two cat-6, which means that I have to pull a bundle of those three wires twice to each room (I had thought about buying two boxes of each, but decided that I wouldn't need that much wire). The first pull went reasonably smoothly, including the part where I had to drill into the wall, bang the bit around inside the wall, and have Sara mark it's location so that I could later cut into the wall and install the wiring box. The second pull wasn't quite as nice since I didn't pull enough wire to make it all the way to the wire box, which meant I had to go back down to the basement and pull another 10' of wire through all those knockouts and up into the attic.
The third pull of wires went into the same wall, but for the next room, and that went smoothly enough after I knocked out a new path of knockouts. The fourth pull, however, stopped about 10' short of being long enough because I ran out of the cat-5 coax. Argh! I still have plenty of cat-5e and cat-6 wire, but I didn't complete the pull as I was tired and dejected, and Sara was really bummed out.
I'll order new cable tomorrow, hopefully I'll get it by the weekend. Hopefully the weather will still be nice (not too hot or cold in the attic), and I'll be able to finish the final three pulls without running out of the cat 5 or 6 wire. The remaining spools seem to still have a decent amount left on them, but maybe they don't. I certainly don't want to have an extra 900 (or even 400) feet of cable left over, but the thoughts of getting most of the way through a pull and running out of wire haunt me. I guess I'll take the gamble.
Pulling wire, however, wasn't. The knockouts through the engineered wood I-beams were nearly full of the wire pulled for previous rooms, which made it rather difficult to pull new wires. Fishing the wires up through the holes in the walls was even more difficult as those holes are even smaller than the knockouts. Furthermore, going from the first floor to the second floor means that you have to drill past the second floor's engineered wood I-beams and fishing a fish tape through two 1" holes nearly a foot apart can be trying. However, I have all the right tools, and with Sara's help it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
Every room is getting 6 wires, two cat-5 coax, two cat-5e, and two cat-6, which means that I have to pull a bundle of those three wires twice to each room (I had thought about buying two boxes of each, but decided that I wouldn't need that much wire). The first pull went reasonably smoothly, including the part where I had to drill into the wall, bang the bit around inside the wall, and have Sara mark it's location so that I could later cut into the wall and install the wiring box. The second pull wasn't quite as nice since I didn't pull enough wire to make it all the way to the wire box, which meant I had to go back down to the basement and pull another 10' of wire through all those knockouts and up into the attic.
The third pull of wires went into the same wall, but for the next room, and that went smoothly enough after I knocked out a new path of knockouts. The fourth pull, however, stopped about 10' short of being long enough because I ran out of the cat-5 coax. Argh! I still have plenty of cat-5e and cat-6 wire, but I didn't complete the pull as I was tired and dejected, and Sara was really bummed out.
I'll order new cable tomorrow, hopefully I'll get it by the weekend. Hopefully the weather will still be nice (not too hot or cold in the attic), and I'll be able to finish the final three pulls without running out of the cat 5 or 6 wire. The remaining spools seem to still have a decent amount left on them, but maybe they don't. I certainly don't want to have an extra 900 (or even 400) feet of cable left over, but the thoughts of getting most of the way through a pull and running out of wire haunt me. I guess I'll take the gamble.
posted by Mark at 12:20 PM
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