Having just moved into a (old) new house I'm looking at networking the house properly with Cat6 while I can still justify the work/mess seeing as we'll be redecorating and doing work anyways. I'd rather not have someone in to do it, I think I'm handy enough to channel into the walls and do the actual work (from a physical point of view).

 

My biggest confusion at the moment is whether there's any regs that I need to be aware of. I can't figure out if Ethernet (LV) cable needs to follow the same wiring regs as power cables do? (Permitted zones / earthed conduit etc.) or if it's more relaxed with the low voltage/DC nature of comms cable?

 

I'm cabling everything into a network cabinet on the top floor, so should be able to go up into the loft and then round and down to most of the house from there, but can go outside of the house and back in if needed (using outdoor cable obviously).

 

Anyone know if this is possible to DIY properly without knowing the ins-and-outs of the 18th Edition?

We had ours done professionally several years ago.  I don't think there was anything of note.  Most of our internal walls are solid so much of the cabling is on the outside of the house with ethernet sockets in 5 rooms.  

 

My son then extended the system last year by running a cable to the bottom of the garden so that there's now Internet access in the cabin down there.

Permitted zones are 15cm in the corners and horizontal/vertical to an accessory outlet (socket/light switch etc).  These are the standard wiring regs.   So In general you would come up straight into a network port back box, so that comes under the normal horizontal/vertical to an outlet rule.   There is no need to earth conduit.  I would recommend the use of plastic oval conduit as it makes running the cable in and more so pushing excess down as the front plate is screwed on easier, but there are no rules there, you can just plaster in the cable as is if you want. But as said I would always recommend oval pvc conduit.

According to BS7671 Wiring regs low voltage wiring should be run separately to your LV Mains cabling, in practice that means don't run both in the same conduit or strap together.

You need to think where you network switch will be located, and run all the cables to/from that point. The normal network connection in this country is 568-B. So you would krone both ends to 568B. Normally to a patch panel at the network switch location.
I used a 9U 19" Network cabinet in my side room for my network switch, but that cabinet also contains a network NAS drive, media server and ADSL Router.  Don't forget the network run to your router or the ADSL BT run to the master socket depending on where you plan the router position.

You state about coming down walls, considering the outlets would be nearer the bottom it is far simpler to come up from under the floor.  My 1930's house had a top to bottom gap in the side of the chimney breasts, I think designed for central heating pipes. But it meant I could bundle all my network cables together with tie wraps and run down that channel. Or make a new bigger channel floor to ceiling in the corner to bring all the cables down in one go. You will then find going up into each room from the floor easier that coming down to each separate outlet. You say an old house so I'm assuming  floor boards and not a solid concrete floor. Coming all the way down to almost floor level, although allowed by regs is not good practice as if the cable run was not considered in the future it could be drilled though.  Switch drops to light switches normally come downwards but socket outlet run upwards.  Your network outlets I would imagine would also be low and hence run upwards would be better.  I would not consider running outside and in, that is messy, would look bad and be open to the environment/corrosion.
(I do have C&G 2382 and 2391 so am aware of BS7671) 

Edited 3 May, 20224 yr by aubrey
added last paragraph

Drifting away from the original intention... I just use one of those Wi-Fi extenders with an ethernet cable plugged into the PC running from the extender. Would save putting cabling in, IMO.

Might be worth running Cat7 if you can. The pairs are shielded so less loss and 'crosstalk' than Cat6. Plus if faster fibre comes Cat7 can handle 10 gigabit/second over 100m as opposed to Cat6's 1 gigabit/second.

16 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Drifting away from the original intention... I just use one of those Wi-Fi extenders with an ethernet cable plugged into the PC running from the extender. Would save putting cabling in, IMO.

I'm really after a wired connection, both for speed and the reliability. But also means i can set things up on separate VLANs and keep my IoT/CCTV/Main Network from intermingling.
 

16 hours ago, @Lee said:

Might be worth running Cat7 if you can. The pairs are shielded so less loss and 'crosstalk' than Cat6. Plus if faster fibre comes Cat7 can handle 10 gigabit/second over 100m as opposed to Cat6's 1 gigabit/second.

Cat6 will give me 10Gig if I keep lengths below 50m, and I don't think I'll have a single run up to/over that if I plan carefully. I don't think the extra cost/hassle/tooling for terminating shielded Cat6a/7/8 in regular backboxes (as opposed to office trunking) is worth it for a home network. If I can avoid too much interference and keep runs short then I should be able to get a mostly 10Gig network from the Cat6 which will be futureproof enough for me I think.
 

19 hours ago, aubrey said:

You need to think where you network switch will be located, and run all the cables to/from that point. The normal network connection in this country is 568-B. So you would krone both ends to 568B. Normally to a patch panel at the network switch location.
I used a 9U 19" Network cabinet in my side room for my network switch, but that cabinet also contains a network NAS drive, media server and ADSL Router.  Don't forget the network run to your router or the ADSL BT run to the master socket depending on where you plan the router position.

I'm think I'm all good with the networking side, I have a 9U wall mounted cabinet that will house the Patch Panel, Router, Switch, NAS, and NVR. Still debating a UPS or not however. My main blank is the physical networking – I'm a happy DIY'er but not really done much with routing cables as opposed to just terminating them/swapping wallplates/light switches etc. I didn't want to do my best and then end up having to rip it all out once the house is decorated because of any wiring regs or code I had no idea exists (Just sold my house that had some raised decking that was 3cm too high and apparently should have had planning permission, which caused a bit of a headache).
 

19 hours ago, aubrey said:

You state about coming down walls, considering the outlets would be nearer the bottom it is far simpler to come up from under the floor.  My 1930's house had a top to bottom gap in the side of the chimney breasts, I think designed for central heating pipes. But it meant I could bundle all my network cables together with tie wraps and run down that channel. Or make a new bigger channel floor to ceiling in the corner to bring all the cables down in one go. You will then find going up into each room from the floor easier that coming down to each separate outlet. 

Yes, my plan was to pull down all of each room's cables in the 15cm zone from a corner, where possible, and then go below skirting/floorboards to the location in the room I needed sockets. I just need to watch for where the power socket ring is routed so I can avoid interference from being too near that. I didn't know whether, if I needed to be outside the permitted zone, I'd need to sink more than 5cm or use metal conduit like with power cables or if LV is exempt from that?

 

From experience I've never had any issues with interference, I've run cat 5e all round my house, even gone though the same joist holes that already existed for the mains wiring.   I agree with you avoiding Cat7, I run that once thinking it was a good idea but as you say it is a pain to terminate and takes up so much more room when multiple runs run together. I didn't even bother with earthing the shield on that cat7 as I read it's only needed in industrial environments. Wired network is much more reliable than wireless. Although I did install Cat5e runs to a ceiling POE AP on each floor as well, but they are just for mobile devices.  You may want to think about adding an AP or two to your setup.   I still say you would find it easier running all the cables downstairs in one go, a larger chase, but once under the floorboards it would be all empty to just fan out to each location. Overall it would be less work than having to chase and fill every room corner. You won't have any building reg issues with network cabling, that is all extra low voltage (ELV). Still run it in approved BS7671 zones as that is safer for future drilling, assuming the driller knows about zones. There are also regs on drilling joists, mostly practical issues like making big holes close to the sides and weakening the joist. You'll be able to look them up on the web but for small holes for threading a network cable through you would be very unlikely to hit problems there but look them up nether the less. As mentioned earlier I used holes already in the joists where I could even when run with the LV wiring too.
I use a long 8mm SDS bit (450mm long) and I find I can drill from above the skirting down behind and then push the cable down that. I've put loads of wiring to back boxes in that way. A multitool is good for cutting in the actual boxes too.

Network cabling is ELV (<50v AC),  LV is the mains wiring - Low Voltage is <1000V AC.  Not that I'd call your 240v House Wiring Low Voltage but officially LV is the term for it.

That 5cm rule depth and protection is for LV (240v) cabling. In practise it is not achievable, so that is why RCBOs, RCDs etc are now added to all circuits including lighting circuits from the 18th edition wiring regs. These would not apply to your ELV Network wiring anyway. 

Edited 4 May, 20224 yr by aubrey
Added a bit

18 hours ago, aubrey said:

I did install Cat5e runs to a ceiling POE AP on each floor as well, but they are just for mobile devices.  You may want to think about adding an AP or two to your setup.

Yeah, I have two ceiling mounted APs to run the cables to as well. Trying to figure out the best placement for them with the layout of the house, but having a nightmare trying to plan in 3d. I'm not sure if Americans only have single-floor houses or if businesses ignore the floor above/below them when planning or not but all the advice I read and every planner seems to only talk about single floor layouts. Might just have one up, one down at opposite ends of the house at this rate. Won't be using the wifi much in the kitchen anyways, may as well have that end on the floor above near the bedrooms. Next decision is whether I need to put an AP on the side of the house for garden coverage, or whether to run an armoured ethernet cable underground to the end of the garden and have a point there to cover any dead spots from the house APs (I want a PoE camera in the shed but the Mrs isn't too happy with me digging a trench for a cable amongst the precious plants).

 

Good to know the ELV/LV distinction from a regs point of view. Means I can probably run mostly on common sense and best practice without worrying about doing anything really wrong 👍🏻

Having done many installations of 5e, 6 and 6a, I'd say if you want an easy life stick to 6.

6a is a bugger to get right at the ends and has a much wider bend radius due to the very solid core.

 

FYI Cat7 isn't a successor to Cat6, it's an alternative attempt to standardise copper 10GbE which didn't even use RJ45.

I imagine people are making "Cat7" cable, but what it is is anyones guess as it's not an official standard for RJ45 copper ethernet.

 

Essentially:

 

 - Cat 5e

 - Cat 6 = 55m feet limit for 10GbE

 - Cat 6a = full length for 10GbE

 - Cat 8 - successor to Cat 6a, 40GbE @ approx 20m, 25GbE@approx 30m, beyond 30m (100ft) it's the same as 6a, so save the money.

CM -not trying to teach granny about eggs, but  I sort of drifted into CAT wiring , helping very experienced Bloks on install, and picked up a few tricks of trade.

ong time since I did any CAT installs and that was all factory units. In that time we never came across runs getting close to 60metre. 

But something not everyone knows( Id expect practice still continues) in that rolls/ buses of CAT5 had distance markings on the sheath. We simply wrote starting measure on box to ensure we did not exceed spec, and gave each cable a number to save confusion. 

I would expect later CAT are twisted pair. Trick is to keep twists as close to termination point to cut back on crosstalk.

There is also a recommendation about parallel runs close to mains wiring, but that went years ago.

For testing there's a simple GO/No go tester available. Plug it in at hub and check at socket