I live in a one-story ranch with an unfinished basement and attic, in the middle of a project where I’ll have access to a bare, un-drywalled wall. I know that eventually I’ll want to run low voltage/Ethernet cable from the basement out to my attached garage, probably through the attic as the garage is only separated from the rest of the attic by Sheetrock.
I just don’t know how much Ethernet cable I’ll be wanting to run.
I think conduit would probably be the best for traversal/future proofing this, but I have no clue what kind to get.
Any suggestions? Things I should look out for?
If you are able to terminate Ethernet yourself or plan on being able to in the future (the hardest part is probably buying the crimping tool), you could just buy a spool of Ethernet and run it now. Either leave the ends loose, or you could terminate them into female jacks in wall plates (just find a good way to label them for your future self).
Depending on your budget, Cat5e would probably be fine, but if you want future proofing you could do Cat6. Technically you can go higher but that’s probably more than you’ll ever need.
Conduit can also work, but you need to make sure you’re able to fish wires through. Could be useful to think about how you’re going to do that, and it kind of depends on the setup. Some way of leaving a string, or perhaps fixing a string into a loop so you can use it as a pulley to pull things through. If it’s a short, straight shot that might not be necessary.
Thanks for the heads up. I intend to terminate the Cat6A myself after successfully wiring the rest of the main house. (I overbought a giant spool and have been looking for ways to use it). I have a cable snake that I’ve used in the past - but it’s quite annoying to deal with - sometimes the snake comes loose, it’s a fiberglass/plastic rolled snake so it is hard to get going in a straight line, etc.
That’s where I’m hoping the conduit will make things easier - it’s a straight line where there shouldn’t be much room for torquing or bending the cable snake.