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Wiring my home with fiber

sschueller.github.io

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Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#181

Post by whiddershins »

latchkey wrote: post #66
mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

I'm currently in the process of literally tearing down walls in my old house (built in the 40's). I used to fear smashing into walls. Once you do a bit of drywall and mud yourself, you realize it isn't that big of a deal. Everything I've learned has been off YT videos and there are some excellent channels with all of the professional tips and tricks. It isn't rocket science by a long shot.

Unless your walls are plaster on lathe. Hah we took 150 large bags of rubble out of the apartment last week. No, it wasn’t a gut reno, just 2 walls and 2 closets.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#182

Post by thatfrenchguy »

lazide wrote: post #163
_zoltan_ wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe where you live. All of our walls (and I mean all) are solid concrete.

Hence one reason why DIY is nearly unheard of in most of Europe and Asia (that and lack of space for tools).

Come on most Americans are completely clueless DIY wise compared to most French people.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#183

Post by pmontra »

mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

I just spent a couple of weeks putting conduits in my brick walls. I couldn't reuse conduits in place for power (regulations, EU) and they are too small anyway. I used Cat6A, not fiber. I don't think an ISP will ever bring fiber to my home. Cat6A is 10 Gb/s so it should be OK for a NAS for a long time. I only have 1 Gb/s network cards now.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#184

Post by sokoloff »

sponaugle wrote: post #51
uncanneyvalley wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A plastic bag tied to pulling twine works really well and is less likely to get stuck than a ball or plunger. I always leave a length of twine in my conduits so I only have to use the vacuum method once.

Indeed the plastic bag trick works very very well in a lot of different use cases. I was able to pull twine over 500 feet with this technique while doing my driveway conduits.

I had about 50 feet and 270° of bends in some PVC conduits I'd buried under a section of yard. I'd gotten everything done and asked my wife to come help me get the poly string and then mule tape into the conduits. The poly line practically leapt into the conduit chasing the plastic bag. It was one of the greatest ratios between how hard I thought something might be and how hard it actually was.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#185

Post by kelnos »

pooper wrote: post #42
mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

> I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls. I don't own a house and have never owned a house. This will probably sound stupid and I am sorry if this is something obvious. Is it that my spouse will leave me or my parents will disown me if I run a conduit…

I wouldn't run conduit on my walls and around doors because I would think it looks awful. People's aesthetics are different. If yours (and those of anyone else who might live with you) allow for such a thing, then sure, go for it.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#186

Post by nullify88 »

DeathArrow wrote: post #169

Is there a cheap as in < $1000 router with 10GbE (for fiber or copper) ports?

Mikrotik has some very affordable & capable routers under $1000 with SPF or SPF+. Depends on how many ports, but they'd start with RB5009UG+S+IN which has a suggested retail price of $219.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#187

Post by mr_sturd »

pooper wrote: post #42
mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

> I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls. I don't own a house and have never owned a house. This will probably sound stupid and I am sorry if this is something obvious. Is it that my spouse will leave me or my parents will disown me if I run a conduit…

We do have some conduit in place to run cables. One running up to a wall-mounted TV, and another running Ethernet up in to the loft. I don't mind the one under the TV, but I wouldn't like to use it for everything.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#188

Post by y04nn »

akvadrako wrote: post #108
latchkey wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently in the process of literally tearing down walls in my old house (built in the 40's). I used to fear smashing into walls. Once you do a bit of drywall and mud yourself, you realize it isn't that big of a deal. Everything I've learned has been off YT videos and there are some excellent channels with all of the professional tips and tricks. It isn't rocket science by a long shot.

I agree it isn't rocket science, but plastering if one of those things best left to professionals, much more so than plumbing or electrical for instance. They usually make near minimum wage, are just so much faster and produce a better result. I've started plastering a few of my walls and after wasting a couple days doing a few square meters ended up hiring a couple guys to do the rest of the house. There is just no…

It just take practice, my first try was not perfect but acceptable, the second time was much better and the third on a larger wall with lots of defects looks good, but I probably spent too much time on it, although I am confident that I can now do it much faster.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#189

Post by zippergz »

latchkey wrote: post #109
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve done a lot of drywall work and I still avoid it whenever possible. Doing basic drywall and paint isn’t rocket science, but getting a professional level fit and finish actually takes a lot of practice and experience. It’s also a completely different experience when you’re trying to match old specialty paints from a previous homeowner, blending repairs to match the wall texture, and other complexities that don’t s…

I just redid my whole kitchen to the studs. You're making it out to be a bigger deal than it is. Now I'm onto a bedroom where I removed two whole walls that had been weirdly built to cut the room into a smaller room. This is going to require a bunch of repair work, all the way to the ceilings. Certainly, if you're looking for perfectly smooth walls, then you're never going to be happy regardless. My place is Santa Fe…

By removing and replacing entire walls, you are missing out on most of the difficult parts of texture and paint matching (and "just paint the whole wall" quickly turns into "paint the whole room" in some cases). I suppose you could make the argument that we should then just rip out the entire wall to run a single cable, but I personally think that's extreme both in cost and disruption.

I'm glad you had such an easy time of it, but cutting, patching, and matching is a pain in most homes I've done it in. And don't even get me started on lath and plaster.

Re: Wiring my home with fiber

#190

Post by mr_sturd »

latchkey wrote: post #66
mr_sturd wrote: post #23

I always end up green with envy that people seem to have pre-existing conduits in their walls for running new cables. There's no way, in my old house, of doing this without some invasive smashing in to walls.

I'm currently in the process of literally tearing down walls in my old house (built in the 40's). I used to fear smashing into walls. Once you do a bit of drywall and mud yourself, you realize it isn't that big of a deal. Everything I've learned has been off YT videos and there are some excellent channels with all of the professional tips and tricks. It isn't rocket science by a long shot.

We had our loft converted last year, and after watching the builders construct the partitioning walls, I think I would probably manage that. We also had to have some walls removed and re-built and made the house too dusty for the kids to be around. This house is an old English terraced house, and lots of the non-retaining walls are wooden lath and plaster, with horse hair mixed in for good measure!
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