Advice on Data Cables please

amckay · Aug 2, 2015

Hi all I'm gonna be buying my first house within next 12months, and as a money saving exercise me and my better half have decided to get a run down old place at a good price and do the work myself with assistance of my father in law (who I surprisingly get on really well with) doing jobs I give him whilst I'm at my day job.
I will be gutting the place and starting from scratch btw.
BT lines - I know pretty much naff all about these except in my current house I've got a master in the living room and a slave in the kitchen. I would like three or four points (2 down stairs and 2 upstairs) how do I arrange the wiring?
Cat5e or 6- I'd prob run these to the same "point" as the BT for wireless routers etc but how do I arrange the wiring?

Thanks in advance for help!
Also the 230v set up will be arranged (not in this order tho) as follows all on RCBOs in the DB.

Ground sockets
Ground lights
Ground outdoor lighting (pretty much all over the property)
Kitchen cooker
Ground outdoor sockets
First floor lights
First floor sockets
Loft lights
Loft sockets
Shower circuit
(Possible 2nd shower circuit)
Dedicated interconnected smokes circuit
Burglar alarm circuit
Shed/Garage/outbuilding supply
(Extractors will be fed off local lighting)

I'd like to get it all sorted like this as dependant on the house I buy I may wish to extend at some point in the future and want to make it as easy as possible to extend circuits if necessary.

Will also be doing 90% of the plumbing work too so no chance of them messing up my work lol

Is there anything I may have overlooked (except bonding lol) ?

Thanks

Darkwood · Aug 2, 2015

TBH - with everything been wireless now just run a telephone cable to where you want to put your router from the master, wiring connections are on info supplied with your secondary telephone outlet you buy... I was going to do the same but Telephones, PC's Printers etc etc are all Wi-Fi now, just avoid internal plasterboarding with foilback as this is a bugger for your signal to get around.

amckay · Aug 2, 2015

Thanks dark wood I'll bear that in mind I was going for the pink fire rated board (not sure if it has foil on the back). I think the main concern with WiFi was I wanted 2-3 routers that would cover all areas in the house including my man cave at the bottom of the garden lol

Paul.M · Aug 2, 2015

Sky hub with TV points in each room? CCTV system? Surround sound speakers in the living room? Ceiling speaker in the bathroom with a built in Ipod next to the tap for those romantic nights in together

. Are you going to be converting the loft into another bed room in the future? Get a supply cable up to the loft now so it can have it's own local DB. Outside sockets and lights? Under ground feed for any garden lights/pond pumps etc......

Really depends on what type of house you buy and how much you want to put into it. Wish I did all this 20 years ago, saves the hard work later down the line.

amckay · Aug 2, 2015

Hi Paul, yeah pretty much everything! I'm running a 1.5 for loft lighting to just a single lamp fitting of some kind, and just the one double socket in loft but that'll be a ring final as its easier to extend if I decide to whack a dormer and set of stairs in for the future.
I doubt I'll ever take a bath with her... Its not her its me! I've got big shoulders and am a 50inch chest! I've not had a bath in 6 years I just can't fit! Should have laid off the weights a bit.
I was deffo going to install a CCTV system but was thinking its not much power its only a DVR a TV screen and a few 12v cameras so was going to double that up on the burglar alarm circuit (both will have local fused Isolation Units anyway.
Outside there will be a sh!t load of lighting, but I may build my man cave first, run a SWA in u/g ducting into a second DB in the cave to feed all garden stuff that is not connected to the house(such as spots on the soffits)
TV points in each room is a given! Each room is going to have at least 6 DBL skt outlets for any future re-layouts.
All cables will be run in 20mm oval conduit to make future rewires / amendments easier.
Sure its gonna cost a bomb, but it'll save me so so much more in the long term. She won't realise the cost but hey ho!

Paul.M · Aug 2, 2015

Amckay, buy a bigger bath mate lol. As for the cctv, run the shotgun cable in whist your doing the building works.

Leesparkykent · Aug 2, 2015

Run a 4mm or 6mm up to the loft space incase you ever decide to chuck PV on the roof. I would zone the heating system, maybe upstairs and downstairs on separate zones and use something like the heatmiser neo kit 1 or 2.

Leesparkykent · Aug 2, 2015

Also a cat5 up to the loft back to the hub position so the pv can be monitored remotely if you ever choose to install pv.

amckay · Aug 2, 2015

Shotgun cable check.
I don't think I'll go for solar PV Lee. I won't make a return for 25 years and by then the FIT will be crap, plus there's the cost of maintenance if components go down. I don't know that much about PV tho. I am currently looking in to making an off grid generator tho I can see it not being finalised for many many years as when I'm not working I split my time between foreigners, spending time with my lad and shooting, then there's the new house that's in the pipeline (albeit a very long pipe) and no doubt 'er indoors would want to reproduce again! There's just no enough time in the day lol!

Cheers, Andy

amckay · Aug 2, 2015

As for heating system.... I need to research this further! In an ideal world I'd go for a ground source air pump but my pockets are too shallow!
What are views on underfloor heating?
May still throw some radiators up but not 100% if I want them to be fed by leccy or combi.
With me doing maintenance work on outdoor billboards and bus shelters now I'm not up to date with heating systems and types and before maintenance I was doing installs on communal areas of blocks of flats (flats were subbed out at 600per flat 1st & 2nd fix test n cert, materials supplied. Didn't want to get involved in that side of the gig).

Leesparkykent · Aug 2, 2015

I would install a heat only boiler like a Worcester Bosch RI and an unvented cylinder wired as an S-plan+ with upstairs and downstairs on different zones. The same could be achieved with a combi but not as good IMO.

D00DY_T00DY · Aug 3, 2015

amckay said:
Hi Paul, yeah pretty much everything! I'm running a 1.5 for loft lighting to just a single lamp fitting of some kind, and just the one double socket in loft but that'll be a ring final as its easier to extend if I decide to whack a dormer and set of stairs in for the future.
I doubt I'll ever take a bath with her... Its not her its me! I've got big shoulders and am a 50inch chest! I've not had a bath in 6 years I just can't fit! Should have laid off the weights a bit.
I was deffo going to install a CCTV system but was thinking its not much power its only a DVR a TV screen and a few 12v cameras so was going to double that up on the burglar alarm circuit (both will have local fused Isolation Units anyway.
Outside there will be a sh!t load of lighting, but I may build my man cave first, run a SWA in u/g ducting into a second DB in the cave to feed all garden stuff that is not connected to the house(such as spots on the soffits)
TV points in each room is a given! Each room is going to have at least 6 DBL skt outlets for any future re-layouts.
All cables will be run in 20mm oval conduit to make future rewires / amendments easier.
Sure its gonna cost a bomb, but it'll save me so so much more in the long term. She won't realise the cost but hey ho!

If you end up installing PoE(power over Ethernet)make sure that you use the correct pin outs. We made that mistake once. Took forever to figure out why the cameras at the far end wouldnt work...

amckay · Aug 3, 2015

Cheers toody doody, I think I have an app for id'ing pinouts.

Whilst I'm thinking along the lines of "future proofing" what would you lot say to 4mm radials instead of 2.5mm rings?