Before and after I started pre-wiring for smart home stuff in 2020

I used to just pull coax and Cat5e to one wall plate in each room and call it done. Now I'm running three Cat6 drops to every TV location plus power for the blinds and sensors, and it's cut my callback rate from like 15% to maybe 2% over three years. Has anyone else seen their rework jobs drop after adding extra runs upfront?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_fox5017d ago

Wait, are you running power for the blinds to the same box as the network cables? That can cause interference if you're not careful with separation. I get why people do extra runs, but three Cat6 per TV seems like overkill. Most folks only use one at a time anyway. I've seen too many jobs where homeowners pay for all this extra cable and then never use half of it because they end up going wireless for everything except the TV and maybe a game console. Plus coax is still useful for OTA antenna signals, so ditching it completely might leave you with headaches later if someone wants local channels.

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graceblack16d ago

Respectfully disagree on the coax thing - most people I know haven't touched an OTA antenna in years and streaming covers everything they watch. Three Cat6 per TV makes sense if you're running a media server, game console, and TV all hardwired at once, which a lot of gamers actually do. Maybe it's overkill for some folks, but isn't it better to have extra cable in the wall than kicking yourself later when you wish you'd run just one more?