Running Cat6 from the basement question

[jds62f]

Due to the layout of my house, it makes a lot more sense to do my cat6 runs in the basement rather than the attic.

The drops themselves will be on the first and second floors of my house. Do I need to worry about the weight of the cable causing too much bending at the keystones?

Normally when you come down from the attic, the attic supports most of the weight of the cable. Since I'm coming up from the basement, I've got a situation where I'm essentially picking up one end, putting it 15/20 ft in the air, and permanently attaching one end to a keystone. I am specifically concerned about the cable near the keystone... anyone have any words of wisdom here? Am I concerned about nothing?

 

[thiggins]

You should be securing the cable at some points in the vertical run. Doesn't the outlet box that you're mounting the plate to have some sort of strain relief.

 

[jds62f]

I guess it doesn't. Can I find a picture of something that does somewhere?

I've got a secondary problem at one of my drop sites. The previous homeowner actually ran a 2" PVC pipe as conduit for upgrades. I plan to use this pipe to run some cable but its more than just a verticle pipe, they put a 90* elbow at the end where it comes out of the wall. Imagine a PVC pipe coming right up to the wall plate with the keystones... no box with strain support is going to be able to get into the pvc pipe, and i'm not sure how much of it I can cut away...

TIA!

 

[thiggins]

I'm still not clear. The wall plates with the jacks are not mounting to outlet boxes?

 

[claykin]

tie wrap the wires for support and protection. Where you have the 90 degree elbow, just get a dremel tool and cut it out so its not directly in back of the wall plate. This should give you room to work.

If you need advice to get the cable through the 2" pipe, consider getting a pull string in the pipe first. Use a shop vac on one end to suck the string through.

 

[jds62f]

I thought it might be hard to visualize.

Theres a piece of 2" pvc mounted vertically in the wall. This allows me to easily go from floor #2 down into the basement. In my room on the second floor, there is a wallplate, and if I take it off I can see this PVC pipe. But its not a single piece of PVC, they capped the top of it with a 90* elbow. I had to cut off some of the elbow already just to put a box in.

This is what the wall plate attaches to:

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...roductId=3128745&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=sim

This is the best picture I could find to give you an idea of what I'm talking about (since I can't just take a picture at the moment).

http://www.kisbuild.r-a-reed-assoc.com/BldrManual/Image106.gif

My PVC pipe doesn't come out of the wall that far, its flush with the drywall. But after going into the wall, it makes an immediate right angle and heads down to the basement.

 

[thiggins]

Ok, got it. All you need to do is take some strain directly off the keystone jack. Could be as simple as leaving enough cable for a strain relief loop then stuffing something into the pipe. Might be a lot simpler if you just cut the 90 deg elbow off.

 

[jds62f]

Ok now you're going to make me sound like an ignoramous.

What is a strain relief loop? I did a google search... I'm thinking that I coil some extra cable, and I get how stuffing something into the pvc pipe would help this situation, but:

Do I bound the coiled wire with somthing (like a zip tie?) or hang it on something? If neither, then what would prevent the cable from slipping down over time? Any recommendations on what to stuff with, or where you thinking anything (like a cotton tshirt or something)

 

[thiggins]

All you're trying to do is create something that takes the weight of the whole cable off the keystone jack connections. Even if you just coiled the cable large enough to create a loop that is bigger than the PVC pipe opening and tied the loop with a zip tie, that would work.

Think creatively (and cheap!) and I'm sure you'll come up with something. The only thing you don't want is to create any kinks or sharp (90 deg.) bends in the cable.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Commonly used methods....mountable head zip ties...larger ones that come with a recessed/skirted whole for securing to a surface with a self tapping screw.
Look about 35 items down on this page and you'll see a bunch of them

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10520

 

[Pugs_KDC]

Commonly used methods....mountable head zip ties...larger ones that come with a recessed/skirted whole for securing to a surface with a self tapping screw.
Look about 35 items down on this page and you'll see a bunch of them

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10520

wrap the cat6 in a velcro tie and then attach that to the zip tie....


not good for the cat6 to be crushed by the zip tie

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

not good for the cat6 to be crushed by the zip tie

Correct, not good to zip the zip tie so strongly as to choke the cables. But professionals learn to use these products "loosely"...at the most you barely just snug it up. I actually leave it a bit loose...as often down the road you may have a need to run a few more cables and if the loop is left a bit loose..you can slip a few more cables in there. Or just fasten in a few more zip ties and remove the old zip ties.