ᐅ Network Planning in an Existing House – Cable Ducts or Conduits?
Created on: 1 Sep 2021 13:00
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OrandusHello everyone,
There are 4 of us living here (2 adults, 2 children) in a terraced house built around 1980.
Basement: 2 storage rooms, 1 guest/music/hobby room.
Ground floor: Living room, kitchen, guest toilet
First floor: Children's rooms, bathroom, laundry room
Attic: Bedroom, office
The problem: We haven't been able to establish a stable Wi-Fi network. There are constant drops or fluctuations in speed. When it does work, I get about 80 Mbit download and 40 Mbit upload in the office/attic, but it’s not stable.
Previous solutions: Several attempts with Wi-Fi repeaters, then additionally Powerline adapters, and currently 4 Telekom mesh repeaters plus a Telekom Wi-Fi router are in use.
Planned solution: Switching to the Ubiquiti Unifi series including Dream Machine Pro (DMP), a 24-port PoE switch, and various Wi-Fi 6 access points. TVs, printers, PCs, NAS, and smart home bridges are to be connected by cable, while mobile devices will be served via the access points.
I would now like to ask for your opinion:
The plan is to set up a small network cabinet with the DMP and switch in one of the basement storage rooms. From there, two holes will be drilled through the ceiling into the living room (where a new floor will be installed anyway) so that I can reach both sides of the living room and install 2 or 4 sockets. On one side, an additional hole will be drilled from the living room into one of the children’s rooms, through which 2 more duplex cables will be routed upstairs to provide LAN to both children's rooms (the two rooms are next to each other, I would then drill another hole through the wall).
To supply the attic and to mount the access points, which are intended to be installed on the corridor ceilings of the ground, first floor, and attic, I can’t think of a better solution than running cables through the open staircase and using a long cable trunking there, from which individual cables will be distributed via smaller cable trunking to the corridor ceilings. The staircase is located right next to the storage room with the network cabinet, so a simple hole can be drilled there as well.
All cables will be concealed in screwed cable trunking since otherwise too many rooms would require renovation. They will terminate in dual keystone surface-mount boxes or directly in the access points on the ceiling.
I don't like the many cable trunkings. Possibly, I can route the cables in the living room through chases in the screed since, as mentioned, new flooring will be installed anyway. In the children’s rooms, the trunkings don’t bother as they will be installed close to the floor along the wall and mostly hidden by furniture. What bothers me most at the moment is the long run through the stairwell using trunking, but we currently lack the time and budget for a full renovation including in-wall cabling. If nothing better comes to mind, it will have to be done this way. The stairwell is fairly dark during the day, so possibly I can paint the trunkings to match the wall color.
Is there anything important I should be aware of? The holes drilled from the basement into the living room on both sides will each carry 3 duplex cables, so 6 cables in total, which means quite large holes through the reinforced concrete ceiling. I will have these drilled professionally. Is there anything to consider when selecting the cable trunking? At most, 4 duplex plus 3 single cables—that is 7 cables—will run through one trunking. What surprises me is that trunking apparently only comes in 2-meter lengths. Longer pieces would be better for the stairwell to avoid connectors in the middle…
Can you think of anything I might overlook or should keep in mind during the planning?
Best regards,
Orandus
There are 4 of us living here (2 adults, 2 children) in a terraced house built around 1980.
Basement: 2 storage rooms, 1 guest/music/hobby room.
Ground floor: Living room, kitchen, guest toilet
First floor: Children's rooms, bathroom, laundry room
Attic: Bedroom, office
The problem: We haven't been able to establish a stable Wi-Fi network. There are constant drops or fluctuations in speed. When it does work, I get about 80 Mbit download and 40 Mbit upload in the office/attic, but it’s not stable.
Previous solutions: Several attempts with Wi-Fi repeaters, then additionally Powerline adapters, and currently 4 Telekom mesh repeaters plus a Telekom Wi-Fi router are in use.
Planned solution: Switching to the Ubiquiti Unifi series including Dream Machine Pro (DMP), a 24-port PoE switch, and various Wi-Fi 6 access points. TVs, printers, PCs, NAS, and smart home bridges are to be connected by cable, while mobile devices will be served via the access points.
I would now like to ask for your opinion:
The plan is to set up a small network cabinet with the DMP and switch in one of the basement storage rooms. From there, two holes will be drilled through the ceiling into the living room (where a new floor will be installed anyway) so that I can reach both sides of the living room and install 2 or 4 sockets. On one side, an additional hole will be drilled from the living room into one of the children’s rooms, through which 2 more duplex cables will be routed upstairs to provide LAN to both children's rooms (the two rooms are next to each other, I would then drill another hole through the wall).
To supply the attic and to mount the access points, which are intended to be installed on the corridor ceilings of the ground, first floor, and attic, I can’t think of a better solution than running cables through the open staircase and using a long cable trunking there, from which individual cables will be distributed via smaller cable trunking to the corridor ceilings. The staircase is located right next to the storage room with the network cabinet, so a simple hole can be drilled there as well.
All cables will be concealed in screwed cable trunking since otherwise too many rooms would require renovation. They will terminate in dual keystone surface-mount boxes or directly in the access points on the ceiling.
I don't like the many cable trunkings. Possibly, I can route the cables in the living room through chases in the screed since, as mentioned, new flooring will be installed anyway. In the children’s rooms, the trunkings don’t bother as they will be installed close to the floor along the wall and mostly hidden by furniture. What bothers me most at the moment is the long run through the stairwell using trunking, but we currently lack the time and budget for a full renovation including in-wall cabling. If nothing better comes to mind, it will have to be done this way. The stairwell is fairly dark during the day, so possibly I can paint the trunkings to match the wall color.
Is there anything important I should be aware of? The holes drilled from the basement into the living room on both sides will each carry 3 duplex cables, so 6 cables in total, which means quite large holes through the reinforced concrete ceiling. I will have these drilled professionally. Is there anything to consider when selecting the cable trunking? At most, 4 duplex plus 3 single cables—that is 7 cables—will run through one trunking. What surprises me is that trunking apparently only comes in 2-meter lengths. Longer pieces would be better for the stairwell to avoid connectors in the middle…
Can you think of anything I might overlook or should keep in mind during the planning?
Best regards,
Orandus
Hi,
we only just finished wallpapering the walls before the idea of changing the floor came up.
If possible, I’ll cut a slot into the screed and at least lay one cable bundle inside a conduit there, so the cables can come up at the correct spot on the wall. The flooring installer has to remove or level the floor in the living room anyway… I’ll talk to them again. The other socket in the living room and the cable run to the upper floor are hidden behind the curtain or the sofa, so they’re not noticeable.
The only real problem is in the stairwell, because we definitely can’t redo that at the moment.
Good luck,
Orandus
we only just finished wallpapering the walls before the idea of changing the floor came up.
If possible, I’ll cut a slot into the screed and at least lay one cable bundle inside a conduit there, so the cables can come up at the correct spot on the wall. The flooring installer has to remove or level the floor in the living room anyway… I’ll talk to them again. The other socket in the living room and the cable run to the upper floor are hidden behind the curtain or the sofa, so they’re not noticeable.
The only real problem is in the stairwell, because we definitely can’t redo that at the moment.
Good luck,
Orandus
Schimi17912 Sep 2021 16:06Good thing we only opened up our facade for this last weekend and installed CAT 7 cabling, among other things. Are you also planning to renovate your facade?
Orandus schrieb:
Hello everyone,
Planned setup: Switching to the Ubiquiti Unifi series including Dream Machine Pro (DMP), 24-port PoE switch, and various WiFi 6 access points. TVs, printers, PCs, NAS, and smart home bridges will be connected via cable, while mobile devices will be served by the access points.
Is there anything important to consider when choosing cable ducts? At most, 4 duplex cables plus 3 single cables, so 7 cables total, will run through one duct. What surprises me is that it seems there are only 2-meter (6.5 feet) long ducts available. Longer ones would be nicer in the stairwell to avoid having a connection joint in the middle...
Best regards,
Orandus For this relatively "small" network, a 24-port PoE switch is not necessary. These consume a lot of power, are expensive, have fans, and especially with Ubiquiti, tend to run quite warm. What PoE devices do you have? A few access points, maybe a camera or a phone? Then an 8-port PoE switch should be sufficient in my opinion. I have one from Aruba powering 3 long-range WiFi 6 access points, and it doesn't even have a fan.
Additionally, you can add a non-PoE switch if needed (the Dream Machine also has 8 ports). The switches are connected to each other via fiber optic cables, and the cables and GBIC modules were really affordable.
As for cable ducts, I am only aware of ones with a maximum length of 2 meters (6.5 feet).
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