Matt, as a low-voltage nerd, this video is giving me conniptions. The whole point of running Carlon tubing is to give you the option of pulling cables when the walls are closed up. You can't do that if you cut the Carflex short inside the wall cavity! Why even run it if that's the case? Your cables don't need any more protection in there! If you're going to use Carflex (or any conduit, but Carflex is the best because it gives you long, swept curves) then run it from your central LV panel/closet/wall out through your exterior sheathing and terminate it into the back of an exterior LV box which you or the customer can buy. This will be the main service entry point into the house. Pull into this enclosure the cables for the services you'll be installing, or at least draw some pulling twine through and tie it off. If the cable/phone/fiber company terminates to their own exterior box then you can run a patch from their box to yours. Also, if you're already running fiber and coax (and gluing everything in place) then do yourself a favor and run *at least* one shielded Cat.6 cable in the bundle because it's cheap and you'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. (StarLink, video doorbell, exterior AP, patio speakers, security cams, analog phone line, etc). Think of it as cheap insurance. If you're concerned about air or vapor coming in through the open end of the conduit then take a piece of closed-cell foam rubber and cut it into a round plug to fit the conduit ID. Drill through this plug one hole for each cable penetration. Make a slit from each hole to the outer perimeter of the plug. Now you can insert your terminated cables into the plug and stuff the plug into the conduit. The pressure will seal the plug around the cables. I got the idea from a company called Icotek. Check them out.
Yes! All of this! And they didn't even run pull strings either in any of the smurf tube or conduit... really easy to blow or fish that through real quick and make it easy/ready for the next guy. Also at this point when wiring up a home for CAT6, I don't see why folks aren't stringing fiber up at the same time to each room too. Makes full-home 10G (or 2.5 or 5G) networking easy, and can be easily done at the same time with the other, and the costs aren't crazy... I'm now wishing I ran fiber in a couple spots a few years ago when I was running cat6.
A few comments as a network engineer in the commercial and high-end residential space: Yes, running fiber was great, but many proiders depending on your area will refuse to put equipment inside the home unless you have an enterprise account - that being said, I would've included at least two Cat6A that can be used to connect to an outdoor fiber ONT and/or analog telephone lin (yes, many people DO still get these). Ethernet will also be useful in the event that a customer wants starlink or to eventually run a line to an out-building. Yes, you added the conduit for future expansion, but the cost to run the additional lines is much lower at this point in the build and not when the home is occupied. Lastly, for coax you need to be using quad shield RG6 to help against signal loss and interferance especially over long runs.
About 3 years ago, AT&T converted my existing fiber (which was to the outside of the home, and then ethernet to the inside) to fiber all the way into the inside of my home connected to a BGW320 fiber router/WiFi modem. It's a townhome community.
Completely agree; I'd also push for a box outside as a demarcation point, complete with a 120V outlet and ground bus. If you really want to go nuts, extend the 2" conduit to an in-ground box so you don't need providers slapping cables on the side of your house. Last comment... maybe don't use plumbing pipe and fittings for the low voltage.
@@patrickkenny2077 That's a good point about the 120V outlet. Thankfully, the builder of our house (2020) put an open-back box inside the wall where communications conduits for both coax and fiber enter our house, the demarcation point. There is a piece of plywood inside this space to allow for items to be mounted to. They also included a GFCI outlet inside the wall to power an ONT. The outside of the demarcation point in the wall is covered by a ~16"x24" metal plate with four screws.
Matt, don’t forget to run pull string in all of your conduit that is twice the length of the run. It makes so there’s a permanently attached “fish tape” already installed by securing each end of the line to the conduit’s point of entry. Makes doing future stuff incredibly easy.
Yep standard practice is to include pull strings in every single conduit run, it makes things way easier for the next person who comes along. A properly wired house shouldn't require fishtape at all to make changes to the communication wiring.
With conduit that big and short, fish tape isn't really necessary. You can just push fishing tape without any issue, or if cable is hard enough (like coax) just push cable through.
@@lambition right, but you would probably be surprised by how often I have come across a situation where someone said the same thing but it was a real pain to get a fish tape through and get a cable run. That would take a few seconds and cost nearly nothing to put a pull string in there, so why wouldn't you just follow the standards and put one in?
I am a cable installation and repair technician. The standard coax used by my employer is RG6 tri-shield with 77% braid. If you want to go better, get quad-shield coax.
I think the tri-shield is plenty enough. It's also a lot easier to work with. The main point of the shield is as a ground to block RF signals. As long as the installer uses the cutting tool properly and doesn't cut the inner shield and braid, it should be fine.
@KevinSmith-qi5yn in most cases tri-shield is adequate. The only time I have really recommended someone look to rewire with quad is when they live in close proximity to a cell tower and I can see rf bleeding into the line.
Matt needs to bring on a pro LV installer and do an episode how to properly wire a home build for networking/smarthome. He ran conduit to the outside and didnt run the fiber thru it - That's like putting in a header for a door and have people enter the house thru the window.
tl;dr Install conduit from the street. It's worth it. My parents got Quantum fiber this year. They previously had Cox. When they replaced the driveway many years ago they buried 1 1/2" conduit between various points (without a definitive use at the time). The installers for both ISPs were able to install their respective cables in said conduit from the street all the way to the house without tearing up the yard or doing a janky, exposed install that is so often seen. They both commented about how much faster it was to do in existing conduit, and that that is not the norm, but they wished it was.
@@dbarrington1 My dad bought the conduit, and the contractor that redid the driveway installed them for no additional cost. I couldn't tell you offhand how much the driveway itself cost. Some of the conduit has also gone to landscape lighting and Christmas lights. A couple of them have been repurposed for irrigation.
AT&T runs fiber in many places (including my home) all the way into the inside of homes connected to an AT&T fiber router/WiFi modem such as the BGW320, which appears to be what Google does. For some older AT&T fiber installs, they run fiber to the outside of the home, and then ethernet into the inside of the home (especially if the home already has an outside ethernet connection). In places that AT&T doesn't run fiber yet in the area, I don't think they use RG6 coax (as is used by TV providers like Comcast, etc that require coax for the old fashion cable signals), but probably uses the old copper telephone wires.
Any time I put in "future conduit", I also cut a length of paracord that's twice it's length of the conduit and run it through, securing it on each end. Leave the excess in the attic or somewhere out of the elements. This gives a way to pull new lines without needing to run fish tape through.
THANK YOU for bringing attention to runnjng network before the walls are closed up. Please keep going woth this... You got the internet into the house but don't forgrt the next step. You still have to find a way to spread it throughout the house. Imo you'd run a network cable to every location that has a TV/media/consoles, 2-3 spreadout locations for internet access points, a run to wherever an office might be or where your kids might be gaming and want to hardwire instead of being on wofi, a network cable to your doorbell for a poe hardwired doorbell cam, maybe a run to each corner of the house plus wherever else you could or would want a security cam in the future. It's so easy to do before the walls are up. Very deatructive to do after the fact. Speaking of where your homerun will be, not a bad idea to make sure that breaker if on the backup power. Nice to have workkng cameras or anything you still want functuoning in a power outage.
This is the one thing that whomever built our house 20 years ago had the foresight to do. They ran a bundle of coax, 2x fiber and cat 5e from a box on the outside wall to the mechanical room in the basement. ATT was able to splice into it on the outside of the house and then again on the inside were the modem sits next to my server rack. Only one of the strands supported 1Gb but the other was able to go up to 5Gb with minimal loss from the curb.
Why not run conduit from the outside all the way to your tech area then you can pull what ever you want at any point in the future? 1” PVC conduit is cheap enough to run all the way and you can seal the exterior with duct seal.
I even did this on my old house - just buried 2-inch SCH40 from the nearby telephone/power pole where all the services do their drops. Currently occupied by my old coax from when I had Comcast, now a fiber line too in addition to a CAT6 POE run coming out of the house for WiFi coverage in the back yard.
I did the same. Our provider ran the jumper from their outside box and mounted the their media converter inside. I worked in telecommunications on fiber networks, microwave backbone and a gateway earth station.
Definitely get that Google Fiber. I got it and it has been so much better than cable internet ever was. Even the base 1GB speed is worlds better than the best cable internet I have ever used. Some might show a faster speed test, but do you care about a fast speed test or actually getting a fast connection on the things you actually use? By that metric, it is not even close.
I work for a cable company. Sometimes builders use the corrugated conduit to get us across whole basements and into a shared mechanical room in duplexes. It can be a little annoying to fish around curves if no pull string. I think the best thing to do is to use the 1-1/2 or 2" PVC or straight grey PVC conduit. 3/4 is not big enough for the evolution of technology. I really like the idea of the PVC pipe nice and easy to get through and many companies can utilize it.
Run network cable inside conduit pipe (pipe from a central hvac,etc.) Makes running new and/or replacing existing cables easier. Typically in the middle of the home and branch it out to multiple ethernet drops per room.
I own a house which was built in 2008 and was surprised that it didn’t come with any Ethernet in the walls. It took a ton of effort routing Ethernet to all the rooms after the fact. My house is a 2 story, wood frame, slab house, so no crawlspace to make it easier. My moms house flooded a few years ago and they had to redo all of the drywall so I went in over a weekend and ran two cat 8 cables to every room from a central junction box in the storage room under the stairs. It was 100x easier to do this without drywall on the walls and only cost around $200. I just don’t understand why this isn’t standard in every house…
Btw, I wish this video had been out before I did all that work. I would have added conduit to make it easier to run cables in the future. I manage a performing arts theatre and they use conduit for everything and have pull lines in each one. Being able to run a cable in minutes is a godsend! You should add pull lines to your conduit! :)
I would recommend 2x RG-6 Coax, 2x Cat6 Ethernet, and 2 fibers. at a minimum 1 of each. This way you can support DSL/POTS, Docsis, Satellite, and Active Ethernet or XPon... But at the end of the day the addition of a conduit covers you very well.
This. Folks ignore the fact that many home owners still prefer copper telephone. And this clean install will be ruined the same week the owners get the keys by an ATT guy running a surface line around the whole house
You also need to be careful handling fiber ends as the glass can splinter off into your fingers. Also planning for external termination can be a little difficult. Some carriers want to do SC or LC UPC while others want to do ACP. Most commercial carriers use a single fiber and BiDi optics while some municipal networks just go duplex cables with a more simple optic. So leave plenty of spare service loop on both ends so the fiber can be re-terminated over the years if needed. Also, I don't think I've ever known AT&T to use coax cabling for outside plant (could be wrong). They've pretty much always been twisted pair copper for various forms of DSL and now are heavily investing in fiber to the home. Finally I know some carriers refuse to install their hardware inside a residence and their external gear will need electricity from your house. So it wouldn't be a terrible idea to get a 15A outlet or a way to pull their tiny wallwart power supply's cable to the exterior. I believe some of those carriers also require a surge strip for their little PSU to plug into but that's a YMMV topic.
As usual, great advice. Absolute best thing to do is to run a 1” conduit and a pull string from outside to your utility or media room. Personally, I wouldn’t run cable for the provider and instead, make it super easy to pull their wire in to the house.
Admire your intent, but there’s a better way than single cables through the exterior wall that will surly get abandoned. I would also prefer the utility cable run directly to the mechanical space. I recommend mounting an a 8” x 8” weatherproof electrical box with (2) 2 conduits to the underground supply as well as to the interior mechanical space. I mostly use 2” conduits. This is my current method, before for slab on grade builds. For builds with a basement run (2) 2” conduits through foundation walls with link seals before foundation waterproofing. Those conduits are then extended to the street & the mechanical room. With this you are ready for any Internet system now & in the future.
8:49 “And we used a street 90.” I think Matt means a SWEEP 90, which is a gentle 90-degree swept bend. A STREET fitting is a plumbing fitting with a built-in hub so you can extend a pipe without a coupler. Street != sweep.
I think the only thing I would do different is I would have the pipe going under ground. When it’s in the plumbing phase just have some pipes go under footer or through an underground wall and then up into the room. on the outside I would have a small wall or area with plants to hide the pipes. That would avoid making any holes . I would do that with the hose bib as well.
I came in thinking, oh a builder talking about cables. Let's see how wrong they get it. Thankfully you brought in an expert. The only issues I have is the flex conduit and running a copper cable so close to high voltage.
No, they still got it pretty wrong still. They were using plumbing pvc pipe instead of electrical conduit, (which is a code requirement) not also pulling cat6 to the demarc. Not running conduit all the way to the demarc. Not running a pull string through the conduit, just to name a few.
@@shelms488 Yes they could have done more, but it wasn't a case of them running Cat3 and RJ59 because it's thinner and cheap. Then stapling it to the studs.
10:00 that looks meesy! U NEED a House connection room, wall, niche ARRANGEMENT, REQUIREMENTS, CONNECTIONS In order to be able to install and maintain all connection equipment in a building clearly and properly, the establishment of house connection rooms has proven to be useful. In addition to the house connection box, the house connection box can also be used Telecommunications connection Water connection Gas connection District heating connection and the drainage be accommodated. In addition, main distributors, meter cabinets, control devices, etc. can also be arranged here.
I am amazed that the US still uses coax for delivering internet... even for NEW buildings. Here in Switzerland it is standardized, when you build a new and put in fibre, you (the ISP) has to adhere to standard they agreed on back in the 2000s. We've had a little hiccup regarding that, but the involved ISP is getting a fine for not doing as he should have. Essentially what it entails is, that every new home with fibre is FTTH, the demarcation point is an OTO (optical-termination-outlet) INSIDE your home. It provides up to 4 singlemode fiber (BiDi) connections for the different providers and fault tolerance. The fibre then is run in a P2P (Point to Point, a dedicated line for every subscriber) topology back to the point of presence (POP). From there the equipment of the ISP takes over. The above mentioned ISP wanted to run P2MP, which he now has to rebuild to P2P. This ISP would have put optical splitters at the curb, which essentially would have meant that this incumbent ISP would have had a monopoly on L1. This is bad for a number of reasons. Now with P2P, a different ISP can come and rent the L1 fibre and provide competitive internet access to the subscriber. One of the ISPs even supports 25 Gbit/s for those P2P lines, neat and actual competition!
You definitely need two Ethernet cables, cat 6a or above. It can be used for data or POE. If ut was my house, I'd terminate it into an insulated box (~30 x ~18) and run conduit from there all the way to the attic. I'd close both ends of the conduit, but with pull tees in a chain across the top of the inside of the box, then you can add a waterproof seal for each cable that runs through. That would give you a lot of flexibility for the future and multiple layers of protection against water, air, and insects.
You definitely don't ned more than CAT 6A, there aren't even NICs out there for consumers to take advantage of CAT 8. Don't blow your money on something that's unnecessary at best. If you must go for a longer distance or more speed, just use the widely available singlemode or multimode fibre stuff. Oh and the chance to get f*ed on Amazon when buying "CAT 8" or "CAT 7" stuff is way to big.
Matt, I would love to see more "future proofing" videos like this as I wonder if all the work you do to air seal and bug proof your homes gets destroyed once the homeowner calls some sub 5-10 years later to add something and they just destroy the envelope because they just don't understand how the home was built. Case in point: My neighbor added a mini split to their newly built, albeit a "builder grade home," and some subcontractor ran the 8 ga.(?) wire from the indoor panel to the outside and then attached it with clips and screws right through the crappy vinyl siding, crappy paper WRB and into the OSB for at least 25 feet to the unit. Same with the cable company. Is there any company that makes some sort of box that would accommodate this or is your solution with PVC the only game right now?
Demarc. Is always on the outside of the home. Not inside. The “utility” always stops on the exterior where they have access. Running fiber inside is a waste. Nothing in your home will utilize fiber. Just run coax or Ethernet inside. The only place you may connect hardwire is a computer or Tv. Maybe not even then since most TVs are Wi-Fi and some don’t even have Ethernet ports anymore. Also no one under 80 has a hardwired land line so no “phone(cat3)” needs to be run. POTS have gone the way of the Dodo as have cordless home phones. If anything, just run coax or Ethernet wherever you think you may need a network/wifi extender so you don’t need a bunch of Wi-Fi plug in or those mesh connections. I’m having my home restuccoed and painted. Just disconnected the old single pair drop from my home two days ago leaving only the FO service. If you ever watch cable tv service provider commercials. They never compare themselves to whatever FO service in the area. They can’t compare a shared network which they are to a single fiber to each home. Sure other communications guys have said the same. Just repeating it.
this is an interesting point of view....lots of stuff IMO that would NOT do like cutting the conduit. The other thing would be to run each of the Fibers and CAT6E cables and COAX that way it is all ready to go but Nine times out of ten most installers like At&T will still run it themselves if you have conduit GREAT if you don't then they will run it. I mean when we got fiber installed the tech came in and ran a fiber line ALL the way into the attic and then to the room we wanted it in and do a wall plate and everything so the thought that they would "Just use a masonry bit and go where ever." just isn't really true....imo Its better to have a locked outdoor network box that can be accessed and has hookups for fiber, coaxes and Cat cable as well as a free conduit so anything can be run to where all your networking is going to located in the home. And also this doesn't even go over running thing to rooms and offices as well and security and AP thru the home.
Homes need to have a good 18U rack space in a utility closet for networking hardware (not in a bedroom, the stuff is noisy). I think being in the room with a heat pump water heater would be good, as it will help cool the electronics.
They don't run fiber in conduit? Many places run fiber optic in microduct conduit. Verizon FiOS runs it in large orange conduit (probably 1") with aerial/direct burial fiber optic, but they bury it just a few inches deep.
@@lambition they have mainline in conduit for the street run trunk but at each address termination in my neighborhood they connected curb to home demark just burying the fiber in the yard. They did such a poor job burying my neighbors install that the fiber worked its way back up to the point where my lawnmower clipped it once. Seems they install connects as cheaply as possible, playing the numbers that call backs are low by chance.
@@gentlemanbirdlake Cable companies around here used to do that, but they began putting all new lines in conduit about 10 years ago. My guess is they just had too many damaged lines and didn't want to bury cable deeper. I believe Verizon used to run fiber optic in conduit from the beginning. Both buries cable very shallow, but conduit is doing their job.
The best way to do this on a new build is run electrical conduit to the back of an Extreme Broadband enclosure mounted to the side of the house. Install fish tape in the conduit and let the installer run whatever type of cable they need to. This creates an airtight way to get any number of cables to the interior of the house. Many installers are sent with premade fiber cables and my not have the termination or splicing equipment. There are also several different types of single mode fiber and although you may be able to convert one to the other the installer may not have the connectors to do so. Many companies are also only running fiber to the exterior and cat5e/6 to the interior. Its best to let them bring the install materials they are used to working with and giving them and easy path to run them. Same with cable or satellite providers. They have a certain spec cable they use and it's best to just let them use it.
Matt - how would you detail the wire penetrations with a Tyvek house wrap? Closing on a new house in 30 days and want to avoid the sins I’ll get if the service providers are left to their own devices. I can remove vinyl siding but I make a similar mounting block (probably going with PVC) but properly sealing the cables is my main concern to avoid insect and air / water infiltration.
Smurf tube and flexible conduit is such a ball ache to pull through. PVC or emt is so much easier. As other techs have said, pick up some pull string or thin mule tape. Klein makes 1/4" mule tape that works a dream
This is cool, I like the install on the outside with the good seals. I know your not there yet, but if you are going completely wireless then fiber is a waste as your limited by the wires tech. If you plan to run fiber to each room then don't make my mistake on the "which wall" does the room connection go on. I learned that running a spider, basically connect each wall connection back to the incoming line keeps the wired connection clean. This way no running the wires half way around the room to connect the equipment, because where you want it and where you kids want it won't match :) -MG
I'm curious why you didn't run the two homerun cables in a conduit (to the outside) instead of drilling the holes. Also, will you run a conduit from the 2" that you left empty up to the conditioned space, or did you just leave that small stub sitting there, to be added to later?
I install fiber internet for a telecom company in ontario canada, what i don't understand is why are you bringing fiber and coax to a random corner of the house, older houses is different (retrofitted) but all new build comes in where the electrical service comes in, i wouldn't want what you're doing on my new house
Almost seems like an afterthought, can't see a good reason to not put in another conduit(or two) next to the electrical line in the slab for a new build. Unless google fiber absolutely refuses to put the media converter inside the home.
AT&T doesn't use coax, they never have. They are a phone company and will use fiber or twisted pair like that cat6. Coax is used by cable companies not phone companies. I would put an outdoor electrical box to run the cables into. I have seen plenty of those cables left exposed and go to use them only to find that they are corroded quite far in, and in some cases completely unusable, a sealed box would provide protection from the weather and help prevent that. It is also the correct way to do it.
@@KevinSmith-qi5yn as far as I have known the phone networks have always only been twisted pair or fiber. Of course there could be parts that I am unaware of, but it doesn't change anything about my comment because they don't run coax to the home which is what this is about.
@@jeffreyparker9396I think there are some legacy coax systems where ATT bought an existing cable system that had cable Internet where this applies. Otherwise the ATT system is either DSL or fiber.
I assure you that AT&T Broadband previously ran coax from the pole to the modem in my home. More recently, they ran fiber from the pole to my home. AT&T is more than a phone company. A weatherproof box is a great recommendation. A homeowner can choose the best place to install it in advance.
@@DynamicBits how do you know? Did you cut open the cable? I have only been working in the industry for 20 years, unless it was a cable TV network that was acquired by AT&T it would have been trusted pair because it was DSL which is literally run over phone lines and only over phone lines. They also did fiber to the street or fiber to the outside of the house for many years now.
Have to admit I was expecting to see the Smurf conduit connected to the pass thru conduit so new lines could be run end to end. Would be nice to see or mention how you are planning to leave the interior of the conduit connections. Does the pvc simply run to a capped off end buried in a finished wall. Is the end of the Smurf duct also buried in the same finished wall or will you be providing a access hatch on the inside of the house to get to both. I truly fail to see the advantage of the pipe if all it does is run from one side of the vapor barrier to the other. It a future upgrade happens they might simply pull the old wire out of the simple hole in the wall and run the new wire thru the existing hole and reseal it.
I am an electronics engineer. I switched to electrical contractor years ago. Spent most of my 62 years doing electrical work. One thing I learned early on is you cannot wire for the future. I watched people do this over the years and guess what? It’s an ever changing world. What ever they are saying today is obsolete tomorrow. Always has been. Always will be. Wire for what you need today and save yourself time and money plus all the headache. You can thank me later. 😁 Terry
I’m a little confused. You installed a cable chase but put the cables through the siding? Also seems having the cables so close together, mounting boxes would be problematic. Like the idea of future proofing.
I hope you also ran power out there!! The ONT needs power, and any other cable box or media converter usually does, too. Unless you are putting the ONT in the attic and have an unpowered splice mounted to that board.
@@lordgarth1 Google is the only provider in my area that will land (residential) equipment inside. Most others will refuse unless you have an enterprise account
I won't mount anything on the house any more. I install a few posts with a little roof about a foot away from the house and I have a 2 1/2 " piece of conduit going into a small IT closet.
Love the idea of future proofing cable runs of whatever may come. But, how do you seal that pipe once a cable is run/house in it. Manufacturers need to innovate a solution. Same basic idea could work with a Cable-Gland of sorts🤷🏾♂️
Crew training Tip: it's common sense one should never step on extension cords Hoses particularly at a job site. Matt's pointing how fragile communications cables are. Significant number of fires have been caused by damaged extension cords that's why they're outlawed in commercial buildings.
One thing to consider when you run cable in walls is risk of fire from the wire itself overheating (e.g. PoE power over Ethernet). Network cable put in walls should plenum rated "CMP" which has a fire retardant regular CAT5/6/7/8 are not unless you specifically order plenum grade. I'm not sure if fiber has the same it's light not electricity but the Aramid cover it's most likely flame proof. The coax cable they ran should also be CMP rated. edit: CMP in any enclosed space has benefits not just for the off gassing reduction.
CMP is only needed when using in a plenum. It’s also not fire retardant, the rating just ensures that in the event of a fire the cable won’t release toxic fumes. Never heard of PoE igniting Ethernet cables either…
That is NOT the point of the plenum rating. It's to prevent off-gassing during a fire when cables are ran through a plenum space, which 99% of residences don't have.
Matt why didn’t you go under and thru the foundation so there is no hole in the envelope. In my project in Texas I drilled in the foundation and put in conduit from the outside to the inside.. no holes in the envelope.. :)
If this was in Verizon FiOS area, installer wouldn't know what to do with that fiber cable unless it is pre-terminated. Most installers (at least in DMV area), don't know how to splice fiber. They will just run extra long cable and make like 20 ft of service loop. I asked fios installer to clean up this long extra fiber optic, and he declined. :( Even at my house, I have like 8 ft of service loop outside and 20 ft of service loop in the attic.
when inter provider connects to either the fiber or coax they will do so using connectors,. I'd like those connectors to be protected from the weather, therefore I'd like to see an enclosure/box on the outside that those connector can be placed in.
I would have run two conduits, you don't want to be pulling any future cable against your fiber lines if you are still using them. Also, even if fiber is still the standard for high speed Internet in 10-20 years its likely that the standards for the fiber to handle the "new" speeds will be different, requiring new cable pulls.
More design considerations need to be made, every home nowadays should have a designated space where all the technology can live and work for the rest of the house. Beyond tiny media panels, a space set aside in a utility closet or a nook like they used to do for telephones (Studpack had a decent idea). This looks like it going to be at the baseboard in some random room on the far side of the house.
Gotta say, Im a bit disappointed that there isn't some other cool entry box that lets you elegantly run exterior lines to the interior. If Risinger is just drilling two holes in the exterior sheathing, then I guess it doesnt exist!
Yeah it was pretty laughable. Extreme broadband enclosure is what you're looking for. It will mount on to the side of the house, provides multiple conduit connection on the back. Makes for the very clean install.
You can run at least 1Gbit with that cable with current tech and they can probably bring that up even further in the future. 1Gbit is far more than you need as a private citizen, you can run a commercial internet service on that with no problem.
Speaking of future proof I would run a box to a gable end. I actually reinstalled my over the air antenna. 56 channels for free hobeslty mainly for sports. plus free streaming and $25/mo for 5G internet means very low bills. But yea def prepare for satellite or mast services. 12GHz satellite calling will be here soon.
I wish we had a fiber option. Even fast cable, 1 Gbps+ download, has slow upload speeds, 30 Mbps. Not great for working from home when you need to upload large files. And we are 30 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley.
I would put a note inside both caps stating what the PVC line is for, or it may end up being like one of those light switches you have no idea what its for lol....
You missed the easiest and most obvious cable to run to the outside, cat6 or cat6a. I can almost guarantee google fiber won’t utlize that fiber line you ran, because they don’t want to deal with issues on that literal last mile of unknown product. They will deal with a cat6 Ethernet cable, because that has far more industry standard (believe it or not) than fiber. The Ethernet cable can also deliver about 100w of power to anything right on the outside wall. (I guess the coax could to)
I'm confused what the pipe was for if the wires are not going through it. He implied they were running the wires through the pipe but at the end they didn't. I was hoping they'd have a solution with a real slick box or enclosure to make the connection in outside rather than the junk the Internet company uses. I also couldn't find Lee's website. There's a ton of companies called Volt Tech.
8:35 Matt said it's just for future-proofing in case it's needed for some new networking technology he's putting in the pipe now for whatever new technology may exist decades from now.
mentioned early in the video. during construction it is possible to properly seal holes drilled through, after completion this is not as easy, that is the reason for the PVC conduit.
No, they were correct. Internet or cable providers will install a surface mount box. Unfortunately, the wires were way too close together. Those boxes are usually 8"x10".
The 2" pvc? No, it wouldn't be as bug, air, or leak proof then. The coax and fiber are in their finished places. The 2" is for future wires/connections
With the new WiFi 6 and even newer WiFi 7 router technologies the fiber in the house isn’t really necessary anymore. The speeds over the air are tremendous now and I’m sure they’ll increase exponentially every few years
very timely .... THANK YOU. Always use shielded line to protect from EMF exposure. We are also NOT using Romex.... only metal-clad electrical as it reduces exposure from electrical fields that mess with hormones and cell biology.
You shouldn't be walking on CAT5 or CAT6 either. Very common for my team to go find a client has kinked or broken pairs in their CAT5 or 6 cable pulls by bad installers or not proper care.
New build, new house. I would not run cat5, cat5e, or cat6 I would run fiber, but you can also opt to run fiber with cat5e or cat 6 Up each run, then you should not need to run conduet and or 2 cat5e or cat6 and fiber. Lay out your system a central location and distribution point. You can run phone, alarms, and data and audio and vedio over cat5e and cat6 It all can run over fiber.
Neat, but I don't like how it was done. I would have run a 2 gang or even a 4 gang box and sealed that. Then run the cables though a face plate. That would let you pull these two cables if they get broken as well as run anything else. I think it would look cleaner and also be more future proof. I would also do the same thing on the corners under the eves for future security cameras.
Where is this Risinger build videos located? I sub to two channels, Build show hasn't had a new video in two years and they're not on this channel? What am I missing?😢
Matt, as a low-voltage nerd, this video is giving me conniptions.
The whole point of running Carlon tubing is to give you the option of pulling cables when the walls are closed up. You can't do that if you cut the Carflex short inside the wall cavity! Why even run it if that's the case? Your cables don't need any more protection in there!
If you're going to use Carflex (or any conduit, but Carflex is the best because it gives you long, swept curves) then run it from your central LV panel/closet/wall out through your exterior sheathing and terminate it into the back of an exterior LV box which you or the customer can buy. This will be the main service entry point into the house. Pull into this enclosure the cables for the services you'll be installing, or at least draw some pulling twine through and tie it off.
If the cable/phone/fiber company terminates to their own exterior box then you can run a patch from their box to yours.
Also, if you're already running fiber and coax (and gluing everything in place) then do yourself a favor and run *at least* one shielded Cat.6 cable in the bundle because it's cheap and you'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. (StarLink, video doorbell, exterior AP, patio speakers, security cams, analog phone line, etc). Think of it as cheap insurance.
If you're concerned about air or vapor coming in through the open end of the conduit then take a piece of closed-cell foam rubber and cut it into a round plug to fit the conduit ID. Drill through this plug one hole for each cable penetration. Make a slit from each hole to the outer perimeter of the plug. Now you can insert your terminated cables into the plug and stuff the plug into the conduit. The pressure will seal the plug around the cables.
I got the idea from a company called Icotek. Check them out.
Yea I agree, this kinda just seemed like an after thought quick video.
This is the way!
Yes! All of this! And they didn't even run pull strings either in any of the smurf tube or conduit... really easy to blow or fish that through real quick and make it easy/ready for the next guy. Also at this point when wiring up a home for CAT6, I don't see why folks aren't stringing fiber up at the same time to each room too. Makes full-home 10G (or 2.5 or 5G) networking easy, and can be easily done at the same time with the other, and the costs aren't crazy... I'm now wishing I ran fiber in a couple spots a few years ago when I was running cat6.
For real hard core penetration solutions like Icotek, also check out Roxtec. Can't be beat!
A few comments as a network engineer in the commercial and high-end residential space: Yes, running fiber was great, but many proiders depending on your area will refuse to put equipment inside the home unless you have an enterprise account - that being said, I would've included at least two Cat6A that can be used to connect to an outdoor fiber ONT and/or analog telephone lin (yes, many people DO still get these). Ethernet will also be useful in the event that a customer wants starlink or to eventually run a line to an out-building. Yes, you added the conduit for future expansion, but the cost to run the additional lines is much lower at this point in the build and not when the home is occupied. Lastly, for coax you need to be using quad shield RG6 to help against signal loss and interferance especially over long runs.
yup, i agree, i also would have out in a pull cord, but he definitely should have also ran shielded cat 6/a
About 3 years ago, AT&T converted my existing fiber (which was to the outside of the home, and then ethernet to the inside) to fiber all the way into the inside of my home connected to a BGW320 fiber router/WiFi modem. It's a townhome community.
Completely agree; I'd also push for a box outside as a demarcation point, complete with a 120V outlet and ground bus. If you really want to go nuts, extend the 2" conduit to an in-ground box so you don't need providers slapping cables on the side of your house. Last comment... maybe don't use plumbing pipe and fittings for the low voltage.
@@patrickkenny2077 That's a good point about the 120V outlet. Thankfully, the builder of our house (2020) put an open-back box inside the wall where communications conduits for both coax and fiber enter our house, the demarcation point. There is a piece of plywood inside this space to allow for items to be mounted to. They also included a GFCI outlet inside the wall to power an ONT. The outside of the demarcation point in the wall is covered by a ~16"x24" metal plate with four screws.
Yes! 💯! I have Verizon FiOS. The fiber converts on the outside of the house. Cat5/6 is run to the "inside equipment"
Matt, don’t forget to run pull string in all of your conduit that is twice the length of the run. It makes so there’s a permanently attached “fish tape” already installed by securing each end of the line to the conduit’s point of entry. Makes doing future stuff incredibly easy.
I forgot that! Great call!
Yep standard practice is to include pull strings in every single conduit run, it makes things way easier for the next person who comes along. A properly wired house shouldn't require fishtape at all to make changes to the communication wiring.
With conduit that big and short, fish tape isn't really necessary. You can just push fishing tape without any issue, or if cable is hard enough (like coax) just push cable through.
@@lambition right, but you would probably be surprised by how often I have come across a situation where someone said the same thing but it was a real pain to get a fish tape through and get a cable run. That would take a few seconds and cost nearly nothing to put a pull string in there, so why wouldn't you just follow the standards and put one in?
@@aweisen1 it’s called mule tape :) plus it tells you how long the run is so you know how much material to purchase..
I am a cable installation and repair technician. The standard coax used by my employer is RG6 tri-shield with 77% braid. If you want to go better, get quad-shield coax.
I think the tri-shield is plenty enough. It's also a lot easier to work with. The main point of the shield is as a ground to block RF signals. As long as the installer uses the cutting tool properly and doesn't cut the inner shield and braid, it should be fine.
@KevinSmith-qi5yn in most cases tri-shield is adequate. The only time I have really recommended someone look to rewire with quad is when they live in close proximity to a cell tower and I can see rf bleeding into the line.
Matt needs to bring on a pro LV installer and do an episode how to properly wire a home build for networking/smarthome. He ran conduit to the outside and didnt run the fiber thru it - That's like putting in a header for a door and have people enter the house thru the window.
Also wasn’t even conduit. It was pvc plumbing pipe. 😂
tl;dr Install conduit from the street. It's worth it.
My parents got Quantum fiber this year. They previously had Cox. When they replaced the driveway many years ago they buried 1 1/2" conduit between various points (without a definitive use at the time). The installers for both ISPs were able to install their respective cables in said conduit from the street all the way to the house without tearing up the yard or doing a janky, exposed install that is so often seen. They both commented about how much faster it was to do in existing conduit, and that that is not the norm, but they wished it was.
did the price reflect the simplicity?
@@dbarrington1 My dad bought the conduit, and the contractor that redid the driveway installed them for no additional cost. I couldn't tell you offhand how much the driveway itself cost.
Some of the conduit has also gone to landscape lighting and Christmas lights. A couple of them have been repurposed for irrigation.
AT&T runs fiber in many places (including my home) all the way into the inside of homes connected to an AT&T fiber router/WiFi modem such as the BGW320, which appears to be what Google does. For some older AT&T fiber installs, they run fiber to the outside of the home, and then ethernet into the inside of the home (especially if the home already has an outside ethernet connection). In places that AT&T doesn't run fiber yet in the area, I don't think they use RG6 coax (as is used by TV providers like Comcast, etc that require coax for the old fashion cable signals), but probably uses the old copper telephone wires.
Any time I put in "future conduit", I also cut a length of paracord that's twice it's length of the conduit and run it through, securing it on each end. Leave the excess in the attic or somewhere out of the elements. This gives a way to pull new lines without needing to run fish tape through.
THANK YOU for bringing attention to runnjng network before the walls are closed up. Please keep going woth this... You got the internet into the house but don't forgrt the next step. You still have to find a way to spread it throughout the house. Imo you'd run a network cable to every location that has a TV/media/consoles, 2-3 spreadout locations for internet access points, a run to wherever an office might be or where your kids might be gaming and want to hardwire instead of being on wofi, a network cable to your doorbell for a poe hardwired doorbell cam, maybe a run to each corner of the house plus wherever else you could or would want a security cam in the future. It's so easy to do before the walls are up. Very deatructive to do after the fact.
Speaking of where your homerun will be, not a bad idea to make sure that breaker if on the backup power. Nice to have workkng cameras or anything you still want functuoning in a power outage.
This is the one thing that whomever built our house 20 years ago had the foresight to do. They ran a bundle of coax, 2x fiber and cat 5e from a box on the outside wall to the mechanical room in the basement. ATT was able to splice into it on the outside of the house and then again on the inside were the modem sits next to my server rack. Only one of the strands supported 1Gb but the other was able to go up to 5Gb with minimal loss from the curb.
Why not run conduit from the outside all the way to your tech area then you can pull what ever you want at any point in the future? 1” PVC conduit is cheap enough to run all the way and you can seal the exterior with duct seal.
This is exactly how I did it on mine, with pull chords.
I even did this on my old house - just buried 2-inch SCH40 from the nearby telephone/power pole where all the services do their drops. Currently occupied by my old coax from when I had Comcast, now a fiber line too in addition to a CAT6 POE run coming out of the house for WiFi coverage in the back yard.
I did the same. Our provider ran the jumper from their outside box and mounted the their media converter inside. I worked in telecommunications on fiber networks, microwave backbone and a gateway earth station.
It looks like that's the purpose of the 2" PVC he put in for future needs.
@@BryanA3115 that’s a short run into the wall cavity. definitely not a home run
Definitely get that Google Fiber. I got it and it has been so much better than cable internet ever was. Even the base 1GB speed is worlds better than the best cable internet I have ever used. Some might show a faster speed test, but do you care about a fast speed test or actually getting a fast connection on the things you actually use? By that metric, it is not even close.
Why would you drill hole for wire and not put the tube right upto outside and run the wires in that.
I work for a cable company. Sometimes builders use the corrugated conduit to get us across whole basements and into a shared mechanical room in duplexes. It can be a little annoying to fish around curves if no pull string. I think the best thing to do is to use the 1-1/2 or 2" PVC or straight grey PVC conduit. 3/4 is not big enough for the evolution of technology. I really like the idea of the PVC pipe nice and easy to get through and many companies can utilize it.
Run network cable inside conduit pipe (pipe from a central hvac,etc.) Makes running new and/or replacing existing cables easier. Typically in the middle of the home and branch it out to multiple ethernet drops per room.
I own a house which was built in 2008 and was surprised that it didn’t come with any Ethernet in the walls. It took a ton of effort routing Ethernet to all the rooms after the fact. My house is a 2 story, wood frame, slab house, so no crawlspace to make it easier.
My moms house flooded a few years ago and they had to redo all of the drywall so I went in over a weekend and ran two cat 8 cables to every room from a central junction box in the storage room under the stairs. It was 100x easier to do this without drywall on the walls and only cost around $200. I just don’t understand why this isn’t standard in every house…
Btw, I wish this video had been out before I did all that work. I would have added conduit to make it easier to run cables in the future. I manage a performing arts theatre and they use conduit for everything and have pull lines in each one. Being able to run a cable in minutes is a godsend! You should add pull lines to your conduit! :)
I would recommend 2x RG-6 Coax, 2x Cat6 Ethernet, and 2 fibers. at a minimum 1 of each. This way you can support DSL/POTS, Docsis, Satellite, and Active Ethernet or XPon... But at the end of the day the addition of a conduit covers you very well.
This. Folks ignore the fact that many home owners still prefer copper telephone. And this clean install will be ruined the same week the owners get the keys by an ATT guy running a surface line around the whole house
Some of us are still using 30 year old multimode fiber (industrial strength).
Why not use the "future conduit" for running the current fiber in the first place???
You also need to be careful handling fiber ends as the glass can splinter off into your fingers. Also planning for external termination can be a little difficult. Some carriers want to do SC or LC UPC while others want to do ACP. Most commercial carriers use a single fiber and BiDi optics while some municipal networks just go duplex cables with a more simple optic. So leave plenty of spare service loop on both ends so the fiber can be re-terminated over the years if needed.
Also, I don't think I've ever known AT&T to use coax cabling for outside plant (could be wrong). They've pretty much always been twisted pair copper for various forms of DSL and now are heavily investing in fiber to the home.
Finally I know some carriers refuse to install their hardware inside a residence and their external gear will need electricity from your house. So it wouldn't be a terrible idea to get a 15A outlet or a way to pull their tiny wallwart power supply's cable to the exterior. I believe some of those carriers also require a surge strip for their little PSU to plug into but that's a YMMV topic.
Apparently ATT bought out some legacy cablecos that had internet, which probably explains the coax Internet for some ATT subscribers.
As usual, great advice. Absolute best thing to do is to run a 1” conduit and a pull string from outside to your utility or media room. Personally, I wouldn’t run cable for the provider and instead, make it super easy to pull their wire in to the house.
Admire your intent, but there’s a better way than single cables through the exterior wall that will surly get abandoned. I would also prefer the utility cable run directly to the mechanical space. I recommend mounting an a 8” x 8” weatherproof electrical box with (2) 2 conduits to the underground supply as well as to the interior mechanical space. I mostly use 2” conduits. This is my current method, before for slab on grade builds. For builds with a basement run (2) 2” conduits through foundation walls with link seals before foundation waterproofing. Those conduits are then extended to the street & the mechanical room. With this you are ready for any Internet system now & in the future.
8:49 “And we used a street 90.” I think Matt means a SWEEP 90, which is a gentle 90-degree swept bend. A STREET fitting is a plumbing fitting with a built-in hub so you can extend a pipe without a coupler. Street != sweep.
Oh that was a street 90° because that was plumbing pvc. Not actual pvc conduit. & a sweep 90 is a lot bigger radius than that one he used.
I think the only thing I would do different is I would have the pipe going under ground. When it’s in the plumbing phase just have some pipes go under footer or through an underground wall and then up into the room. on the outside I would have a small wall or area with plants to hide the pipes. That would avoid making any holes . I would do that with the hose bib as well.
5:50
make sure whatever you caulk pvc with doesn't contain plasticizers.
CenturyLink ran fiber to my house and used a standard fiber coupler. I ran my own armored fiber through my attic to my communication room.
I came in thinking, oh a builder talking about cables. Let's see how wrong they get it. Thankfully you brought in an expert. The only issues I have is the flex conduit and running a copper cable so close to high voltage.
No, they still got it pretty wrong still. They were using plumbing pvc pipe instead of electrical conduit, (which is a code requirement) not also pulling cat6 to the demarc. Not running conduit all the way to the demarc. Not running a pull string through the conduit, just to name a few.
@@shelms488
Yes they could have done more, but it wasn't a case of them running Cat3 and RJ59 because it's thinner and cheap. Then stapling it to the studs.
10:00 that looks meesy! U NEED a House connection room, wall, niche
ARRANGEMENT, REQUIREMENTS, CONNECTIONS
In order to be able to install and maintain all connection equipment in a building clearly and properly, the establishment of house connection rooms has proven to be useful.
In addition to the house connection box, the house connection box can also be used
Telecommunications connection
Water connection
Gas connection
District heating connection
and the drainage
be accommodated. In addition, main distributors, meter cabinets, control devices, etc. can also be arranged here.
I am amazed that the US still uses coax for delivering internet... even for NEW buildings.
Here in Switzerland it is standardized, when you build a new and put in fibre, you (the ISP) has to adhere to standard they agreed on back in the 2000s. We've had a little hiccup regarding that, but the involved ISP is getting a fine for not doing as he should have.
Essentially what it entails is, that every new home with fibre is FTTH, the demarcation point is an OTO (optical-termination-outlet) INSIDE your home. It provides up to 4 singlemode fiber (BiDi) connections for the different providers and fault tolerance. The fibre then is run in a P2P (Point to Point, a dedicated line for every subscriber) topology back to the point of presence (POP). From there the equipment of the ISP takes over. The above mentioned ISP wanted to run P2MP, which he now has to rebuild to P2P. This ISP would have put optical splitters at the curb, which essentially would have meant that this incumbent ISP would have had a monopoly on L1. This is bad for a number of reasons. Now with P2P, a different ISP can come and rent the L1 fibre and provide competitive internet access to the subscriber. One of the ISPs even supports 25 Gbit/s for those P2P lines, neat and actual competition!
When in doubt, fiber throughout!
You definitely need two Ethernet cables, cat 6a or above. It can be used for data or POE. If ut was my house, I'd terminate it into an insulated box (~30 x ~18) and run conduit from there all the way to the attic. I'd close both ends of the conduit, but with pull tees in a chain across the top of the inside of the box, then you can add a waterproof seal for each cable that runs through. That would give you a lot of flexibility for the future and multiple layers of protection against water, air, and insects.
You definitely don't ned more than CAT 6A, there aren't even NICs out there for consumers to take advantage of CAT 8. Don't blow your money on something that's unnecessary at best. If you must go for a longer distance or more speed, just use the widely available singlemode or multimode fibre stuff.
Oh and the chance to get f*ed on Amazon when buying "CAT 8" or "CAT 7" stuff is way to big.
Always leave a pull string in your low voltage conduits.
When pulling cable with that string later, always pull a new string.
Make sure the coax is copper and not copper clad steel, i would still run a single cat6 as well
Matt, I would love to see more "future proofing" videos like this as I wonder if all the work you do to air seal and bug proof your homes gets destroyed once the homeowner calls some sub 5-10 years later to add something and they just destroy the envelope because they just don't understand how the home was built. Case in point: My neighbor added a mini split to their newly built, albeit a "builder grade home," and some subcontractor ran the 8 ga.(?) wire from the indoor panel to the outside and then attached it with clips and screws right through the crappy vinyl siding, crappy paper WRB and into the OSB for at least 25 feet to the unit. Same with the cable company. Is there any company that makes some sort of box that would accommodate this or is your solution with PVC the only game right now?
Demarc. Is always on the outside of the home. Not inside. The “utility” always stops on the exterior where they have access.
Running fiber inside is a waste. Nothing in your home will utilize fiber. Just run coax or Ethernet inside. The only place you may connect hardwire is a computer or Tv. Maybe not even then since most TVs are Wi-Fi and some don’t even have Ethernet ports anymore.
Also no one under 80 has a hardwired land line so no “phone(cat3)” needs to be run. POTS have gone the way of the Dodo as have cordless home phones. If anything, just run coax or Ethernet wherever you think you may need a network/wifi extender so you don’t need a bunch of Wi-Fi plug in or those mesh connections.
I’m having my home restuccoed and painted. Just disconnected the old single pair drop from my home two days ago leaving only the FO service. If you ever watch cable tv service provider commercials. They never compare themselves to whatever FO service in the area. They can’t compare a shared network which they are to a single fiber to each home.
Sure other communications guys have said the same. Just repeating it.
this is an interesting point of view....lots of stuff IMO that would NOT do like cutting the conduit. The other thing would be to run each of the Fibers and CAT6E cables and COAX that way it is all ready to go but Nine times out of ten most installers like At&T will still run it themselves if you have conduit GREAT if you don't then they will run it. I mean when we got fiber installed the tech came in and ran a fiber line ALL the way into the attic and then to the room we wanted it in and do a wall plate and everything so the thought that they would "Just use a masonry bit and go where ever." just isn't really true....imo Its better to have a locked outdoor network box that can be accessed and has hookups for fiber, coaxes and Cat cable as well as a free conduit so anything can be run to where all your networking is going to located in the home. And also this doesn't even go over running thing to rooms and offices as well and security and AP thru the home.
Homes need to have a good 18U rack space in a utility closet for networking hardware (not in a bedroom, the stuff is noisy).
I think being in the room with a heat pump water heater would be good, as it will help cool the electronics.
I would bury schedule 40 conduit to the curb so the fiber drop is not just loose in the ground, which is how google will install it.
yup, and many times only 3-6" deep
They don't run fiber in conduit? Many places run fiber optic in microduct conduit. Verizon FiOS runs it in large orange conduit (probably 1") with aerial/direct burial fiber optic, but they bury it just a few inches deep.
@@lambition they have mainline in conduit for the street run trunk but at each address termination in my neighborhood they connected curb to home demark just burying the fiber in the yard. They did such a poor job burying my neighbors install that the fiber worked its way back up to the point where my lawnmower clipped it once. Seems they install connects as cheaply as possible, playing the numbers that call backs are low by chance.
@@gentlemanbirdlake Cable companies around here used to do that, but they began putting all new lines in conduit about 10 years ago. My guess is they just had too many damaged lines and didn't want to bury cable deeper. I believe Verizon used to run fiber optic in conduit from the beginning. Both buries cable very shallow, but conduit is doing their job.
Doesn't matter, it's on the other side of the demarc, if it doesn't work it's up to the ISP to fix
The best way to do this on a new build is run electrical conduit to the back of an Extreme Broadband enclosure mounted to the side of the house. Install fish tape in the conduit and let the installer run whatever type of cable they need to. This creates an airtight way to get any number of cables to the interior of the house.
Many installers are sent with premade fiber cables and my not have the termination or splicing equipment. There are also several different types of single mode fiber and although you may be able to convert one to the other the installer may not have the connectors to do so. Many companies are also only running fiber to the exterior and cat5e/6 to the interior. Its best to let them bring the install materials they are used to working with and giving them and easy path to run them. Same with cable or satellite providers. They have a certain spec cable they use and it's best to just let them use it.
Wired cat6 everywhere now. Will need cat6 for security and av gear. Have a heat map created for the placement for WiFi access points.
Matt - how would you detail the wire penetrations with a Tyvek house wrap? Closing on a new house in 30 days and want to avoid the sins I’ll get if the service providers are left to their own devices. I can remove vinyl siding but I make a similar mounting block (probably going with PVC) but properly sealing the cables is my main concern to avoid insect and air / water infiltration.
Is the thought to only put this in spec build to sale homes and rentals or just build to sell homes
Smurf tube and flexible conduit is such a ball ache to pull through. PVC or emt is so much easier. As other techs have said, pick up some pull string or thin mule tape. Klein makes 1/4" mule tape that works a dream
This is cool, I like the install on the outside with the good seals. I know your not there yet, but if you are going completely wireless then fiber is a waste as your limited by the wires tech. If you plan to run fiber to each room then don't make my mistake on the "which wall" does the room connection go on. I learned that running a spider, basically connect each wall connection back to the incoming line keeps the wired connection clean. This way no running the wires half way around the room to connect the equipment, because where you want it and where you kids want it won't match :)
-MG
I'm curious why you didn't run the two homerun cables in a conduit (to the outside) instead of drilling the holes. Also, will you run a conduit from the 2" that you left empty up to the conditioned space, or did you just leave that small stub sitting there, to be added to later?
I install fiber internet for a telecom company in ontario canada, what i don't understand is why are you bringing fiber and coax to a random corner of the house, older houses is different (retrofitted) but all new build comes in where the electrical service comes in, i wouldn't want what you're doing on my new house
Almost seems like an afterthought, can't see a good reason to not put in another conduit(or two) next to the electrical line in the slab for a new build. Unless google fiber absolutely refuses to put the media converter inside the home.
AT&T doesn't use coax, they never have. They are a phone company and will use fiber or twisted pair like that cat6. Coax is used by cable companies not phone companies.
I would put an outdoor electrical box to run the cables into. I have seen plenty of those cables left exposed and go to use them only to find that they are corroded quite far in, and in some cases completely unusable, a sealed box would provide protection from the weather and help prevent that. It is also the correct way to do it.
AT&T uses Coax to go from the MPOE to Demarc with certain equipment.
@@KevinSmith-qi5yn as far as I have known the phone networks have always only been twisted pair or fiber. Of course there could be parts that I am unaware of, but it doesn't change anything about my comment because they don't run coax to the home which is what this is about.
@@jeffreyparker9396I think there are some legacy coax systems where ATT bought an existing cable system that had cable Internet where this applies. Otherwise the ATT system is either DSL or fiber.
I assure you that AT&T Broadband previously ran coax from the pole to the modem in my home. More recently, they ran fiber from the pole to my home. AT&T is more than a phone company.
A weatherproof box is a great recommendation. A homeowner can choose the best place to install it in advance.
@@DynamicBits how do you know? Did you cut open the cable? I have only been working in the industry for 20 years, unless it was a cable TV network that was acquired by AT&T it would have been trusted pair because it was DSL which is literally run over phone lines and only over phone lines. They also did fiber to the street or fiber to the outside of the house for many years now.
Have to admit I was expecting to see the Smurf conduit connected to the pass thru conduit so new lines could be run end to end. Would be nice to see or mention how you are planning to leave the interior of the conduit connections. Does the pvc simply run to a capped off end buried in a finished wall. Is the end of the Smurf duct also buried in the same finished wall or will you be providing a access hatch on the inside of the house to get to both. I truly fail to see the advantage of the pipe if all it does is run from one side of the vapor barrier to the other. It a future upgrade happens they might simply pull the old wire out of the simple hole in the wall and run the new wire thru the existing hole and reseal it.
what do you do when you want to run some cables into that 2 inch conduit to seal off airflow?
Thank you.
You're welcome!
Good to see a builder thinking about networking and not just relying on what the sparky thinks
I am an electronics engineer. I switched to electrical contractor years ago. Spent most of my 62 years doing electrical work. One thing I learned early on is you cannot wire for the future. I watched people do this over the years and guess what? It’s an ever changing world. What ever they are saying today is obsolete tomorrow. Always has been. Always will be. Wire for what you need today and save yourself time and money plus all the headache. You can thank me later. 😁
Terry
I’m a little confused. You installed a cable chase but put the cables through the siding?
Also seems having the cables so close together, mounting boxes would be problematic.
Like the idea of future proofing.
Id run those initial wires outside the orange conduit leaving it empty for when walls aren't accessible
I hope you also ran power out there!! The ONT needs power, and any other cable box or media converter usually does, too. Unless you are putting the ONT in the attic and have an unpowered splice mounted to that board.
ONT is usually indoors.
i assume they will fuse the fiber and place the ONT inside
@@lordgarth1 Not always. A lot of providers use an exterior mounted ONT with an ethernet connection to the inside of the premise.
@@lordgarth1 Google is the only provider in my area that will land (residential) equipment inside. Most others will refuse unless you have an enterprise account
ATT has their ont/gateway inside the house
I won't mount anything on the house any more. I install a few posts with a little roof about a foot away from the house and I have a 2 1/2 " piece of conduit going into a small IT closet.
Love the idea of future proofing cable runs of whatever may come. But, how do you seal that pipe once a cable is run/house in it. Manufacturers need to innovate a solution. Same basic idea could work with a Cable-Gland of sorts🤷🏾♂️
very good video much appreciated. but how are insects and varments dissuaded from using these nice big openings as a way to get into the house?
Cap it off....
Duct seal
Matt, how will the 2 inch conduit get sealed should you need to run cables through it in the future?
Duct seal putty
Crew training Tip: it's common sense one should never step on extension cords Hoses particularly at a job site. Matt's pointing how fragile communications cables are. Significant number of fires have been caused by damaged extension cords that's why they're outlawed in commercial buildings.
One thing to consider when you run cable in walls is risk of fire from the wire itself overheating (e.g. PoE power over Ethernet). Network cable put in walls should plenum rated "CMP" which has a fire retardant regular CAT5/6/7/8 are not unless you specifically order plenum grade. I'm not sure if fiber has the same it's light not electricity but the Aramid cover it's most likely flame proof. The coax cable they ran should also be CMP rated. edit: CMP in any enclosed space has benefits not just for the off gassing reduction.
plenum cable isn’t needed for wall cavities.
CMP is only needed when using in a plenum. It’s also not fire retardant, the rating just ensures that in the event of a fire the cable won’t release toxic fumes.
Never heard of PoE igniting Ethernet cables either…
That is NOT the point of the plenum rating. It's to prevent off-gassing during a fire when cables are ran through a plenum space, which 99% of residences don't have.
Matt why didn’t you go under and thru the foundation so there is no hole in the envelope. In my project in Texas I drilled in the foundation and put in conduit from the outside to the inside.. no holes in the envelope.. :)
Potential leak path in high water table areas?
@@MorryBI sealed around the conduit on the inside.. if your water table is that shallow I think you have bigger issues. :(
If this was in Verizon FiOS area, installer wouldn't know what to do with that fiber cable unless it is pre-terminated. Most installers (at least in DMV area), don't know how to splice fiber. They will just run extra long cable and make like 20 ft of service loop. I asked fios installer to clean up this long extra fiber optic, and he declined. :( Even at my house, I have like 8 ft of service loop outside and 20 ft of service loop in the attic.
when inter provider connects to either the fiber or coax they will do so using connectors,. I'd like those connectors to be protected from the weather, therefore I'd like to see an enclosure/box on the outside that those connector can be placed in.
I would have run two conduits, you don't want to be pulling any future cable against your fiber lines if you are still using them. Also, even if fiber is still the standard for high speed Internet in 10-20 years its likely that the standards for the fiber to handle the "new" speeds will be different, requiring new cable pulls.
I doubt new fibres would be required, no speed imagined would require different fibre.
just get new SFP modules with the requested speed
More design considerations need to be made, every home nowadays should have a designated space where all the technology can live and work for the rest of the house. Beyond tiny media panels, a space set aside in a utility closet or a nook like they used to do for telephones (Studpack had a decent idea). This looks like it going to be at the baseboard in some random room on the far side of the house.
Modern fiber is mostly bend insensitive, pretty darn durable (more so than the coax or cat cables)
This is a strange one. Run Smurf into conduit with LB or JBOX and run the lines through it
You can get armored fiber and worry less about damaging it
Gotta say, Im a bit disappointed that there isn't some other cool entry box that lets you elegantly run exterior lines to the interior. If Risinger is just drilling two holes in the exterior sheathing, then I guess it doesnt exist!
Yeah it was pretty laughable. Extreme broadband enclosure is what you're looking for. It will mount on to the side of the house, provides multiple conduit connection on the back. Makes for the very clean install.
Yeah.. should've been a poly NEMA locking cabinet for everything to land on the outside wall
You can run at least 1Gbit with that cable with current tech and they can probably bring that up even further in the future. 1Gbit is far more than you need as a private citizen, you can run a commercial internet service on that with no problem.
Speaking of future proof I would run a box to a gable end. I actually reinstalled my over the air antenna. 56 channels for free hobeslty mainly for sports. plus free streaming and $25/mo for 5G internet means very low bills. But yea def prepare for satellite or mast services. 12GHz satellite calling will be here soon.
10:14 strong "do not touch me" vibes.
lol. 100%. Noticed that too
The pipe was a good idea but for the love of god don’t use plumbing pipe for low voltage lines, use electrical pvc like code requires
Glad I wasn’t the only one who caught that
You would think someone who claims to build houses would have dealt with this before and know better.
10:14 don't touch me 😂
I wish we had a fiber option. Even fast cable, 1 Gbps+ download, has slow upload speeds, 30 Mbps. Not great for working from home when you need to upload large files. And we are 30 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley.
Why not a weatherproof panel with as many grommets as needed
It's best to have a conduit installed... 32mm would be the size I would use
8:34 - you don't need a 2 inch pipe to future proof the Internet. You could totally do a 1 incher.
It would help in situations with pre-terminated cable but Inch and a half would do fine.
For the less savvy homeowners or installers it is MUCH easier to pull pre-terminated fiber through a 2"
That's what she said.
Dunno why they didn't use the grey stuff but oh well
Run all the comm lines to the steeple at the top of the house and broadcast it to the neighbors for free. Google Air!
I would put a note inside both caps stating what the PVC line is for, or it may end up being like one of those light switches you have no idea what its for lol....
Yes. Good call. I planned to do that but forgot to show/mention in the video
It's a shame you didn't show connectors for the fiber at all. Hopefully this will happen in a future episode.
You missed the easiest and most obvious cable to run to the outside, cat6 or cat6a. I can almost guarantee google fiber won’t utlize that fiber line you ran, because they don’t want to deal with issues on that literal last mile of unknown product. They will deal with a cat6 Ethernet cable, because that has far more industry standard (believe it or not) than fiber. The Ethernet cable can also deliver about 100w of power to anything right on the outside wall. (I guess the coax could to)
I'm confused what the pipe was for if the wires are not going through it. He implied they were running the wires through the pipe but at the end they didn't. I was hoping they'd have a solution with a real slick box or enclosure to make the connection in outside rather than the junk the Internet company uses. I also couldn't find Lee's website. There's a ton of companies called Volt Tech.
8:35 Matt said it's just for future-proofing in case it's needed for some new networking technology he's putting in the pipe now for whatever new technology may exist decades from now.
@@dg-hughes Ah, thanks. I guess I thought he'd run the other cables through the pipe also... There's plenty of room.
mentioned early in the video. during construction it is possible to properly seal holes drilled through, after completion this is not as easy, that is the reason for the PVC conduit.
@@coreysuffield I did catch that, Just still why not use the conduit/pipe. Seems like a cleaner install.
prettyy sure your coax and fiber go INSIDE the conduit, not next to it.
No, they were correct. Internet or cable providers will install a surface mount box. Unfortunately, the wires were way too close together. Those boxes are usually 8"x10".
WHYYY didn’t you run the fiber and coax through a conduit??😮
The 2" pvc? No, it wouldn't be as bug, air, or leak proof then. The coax and fiber are in their finished places. The 2" is for future wires/connections
@@tedspradleydid you even watch the video? The pvc is for FUTURE CONNECTIONS
With the new WiFi 6 and even newer WiFi 7 router technologies the fiber in the house isn’t really necessary anymore. The speeds over the air are tremendous now and I’m sure they’ll increase exponentially every few years
The fiber cable is used to deliver internet service to the modem/router.
NICE !! Thanks for this Video !! Loved it ! Liked and sub'd too.
Fantastic! Welcome to my channel!
Finally, a super nerd version❤
Don’t do what they just did, they have no clue what they’re doing.
Using plumbing PVC pipe instead of electrical PVC conduit? Not smart, the bend radius in that 2" 90 is capable of snapping fiber.
very timely .... THANK YOU. Always use shielded line to protect from EMF exposure. We are also NOT using Romex.... only metal-clad electrical as it reduces exposure from electrical fields that mess with hormones and cell biology.
Are your walls a Faraday cage to prevent satellite, TV and cell signals from entering?
You shouldn't be walking on CAT5 or CAT6 either. Very common for my team to go find a client has kinked or broken pairs in their CAT5 or 6 cable pulls by bad installers or not proper care.
Its a shame that builders don't run a conduit out to the right of way.
Why not to install tech can and run all lines to it?
New build, new house.
I would not run cat5, cat5e, or cat6
I would run fiber, but you can also opt to run fiber with cat5e or cat 6
Up each run, then you should not need to run conduet and or 2 cat5e or cat6 and fiber.
Lay out your system a central location and distribution point.
You can run phone, alarms, and data and audio and vedio over cat5e and cat6
It all can run over fiber.
Coax and fiber are too close together. Both providers will have their own exterior enclosure and there isn't enough space
Copper is faster than fiber over distances of 200 feet or less. The fiber just runs to the modem, and then everything after that should be copper.
Fiber techs, are going to want to get and get out. Having it layout makes it go much easier for install.
Neat, but I don't like how it was done. I would have run a 2 gang or even a 4 gang box and sealed that. Then run the cables though a face plate. That would let you pull these two cables if they get broken as well as run anything else. I think it would look cleaner and also be more future proof. I would also do the same thing on the corners under the eves for future security cameras.
There has to be a dang box made for this. I install low voltage as a business and I am sick of trying to come up with a way to do this.
So why not run all of this inside to a room/utililty closet.
Where is this Risinger build videos located? I sub to two channels, Build show hasn't had a new video in two years and they're not on this channel? What am I missing?😢
th-cam.com/play/PLDYh81z-RhxjSuCfjHdlIMWpqhyt5jNPX.html&si=QLgqnOiAueBXiIw4
@@buildshow Good Lord, how have I missed this? Been working too much all summer, I have some catching up to do. 😳