{"id":322,"date":"2010-03-08T17:02:41","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T23:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/?p=322"},"modified":"2010-03-08T17:02:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T23:02:41","slug":"the-conduit-to-future-proofing-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/cisncuser\/audio-systems\/the-conduit-to-future-proofing-your-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The Conduit to Future-Proofing Your Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want that killer home system upgrade? Lay the groundwork for it now by installing conduit for your future cabling needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might know that your house needs plenty of Ethernet cabling and speaker wire, but what about five years from now? We\u2019ve already experienced the transition from component to HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface), so chances are a wiring upgrade is in your future.<\/p>\n

To fish new cabling behind the walls of your finished house can be a real pain. A lot of cutting, drilling, and marring will occur, and for every hour your custom electronics (CE) pro spends snaking cabling around ducts, studs and other obstructions, your wallet takes a hit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can minimize the time and effort it takes to pull in new wire by having your CE pro install plastic conduit behind the walls. Naturally, it\u2019s better to do this while a home is being constructed.<\/p>\n

Conduit is basically a hollow plastic tube through which wiring can be channeled. It installs inside the walls much like plumbing, and comes in various lengths and diameters to suit your needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll usually put in conduit that\u2019s at least 3\/4-inch in diameter, and go with something larger, like a 1-1\/2-inch tube when we need to run a bundle of various different wires, like to a home theater,\u201d says Jeff Cooper of Simply Sight & Sound in Menifee, Calif.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, conduit isn\u2019t meant to hold every piece of wire that goes into your house. In fact, it may hold no wire at all. Its main purpose is to provide an open avenue for additional cabling once your house is finished. In a matter of a few minutes, instead of hours, your CE pro will be able to route fiber from the attic all the way down to the theater in the basement, for example.<\/p>\n

How much conduit your home needs and where it should be installed depends a lot on the preferences of your pro. Cooper, for example, installs anywhere from 500 to 1,000 feet of conduit on most jobs, and relies on it as his main future proofing tool. \u201cWe\u2019ll run conduit from a central equipment rack to all TV locations and from the satellite dish to the main distribution hub. We\u2019ll even put it in rooms, like guest bedrooms and bonus rooms, where we think the homeowners might someday add a theater or a home office.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Lynch of Quality Sound & Video in Fayetteville, N.C., takes a more minimalist approach. \u201cWe\u2019ll typically put run conduit from the attic to the crawlspace and between equipment racks,\u201d he says, \u201cand that\u2019s about it.\u201d With Lynch\u2019s plan, you\u2019ll spend a couple hundred of dollars; Cooper\u2019s will run closer to a couple of thousand.<\/p>\n

Cooper and Lynch both agree, however, that running conduit from the house to outbuildings, swimming pools and other popular outdoor destinations is a great idea. Buried in the ground, the conduit protects wiring from damage and lets you wire up new equipment, like a weatherproof TV, rock speakers or an intercom at the front gate, without having to trench into the lawn to lay additional cabling.<\/p>\n

Good Ideas
\nPull strings: Lynch puts a few \u201cpull strings\u201d inside each piece of conduit that\u2019s installed. It makes fishing new cabling though the conduit a snap. Just attach the wire to one end of the string and carefully tug on the other end of the string to bring the cabling though.<\/p>\n

Color coded: Conduit from manufacturers including Carlon and Homepath Products are orange in color to make it easy to locate and discern from other pipes in the wall.<\/p>\n

A real stud: The eXpath system from Homepath Products looks and installs like a wall stud, making it a nice addition to your home building plans.<\/p>\n

by Lisa Montgomery<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.electronichouse.com\/article\/the_conduit_to_future_proofing_your_home\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Custom Installation Services, LLC <\/a>–\u00a0Audio\/Video Sales, Service and Installation\u00a0in North Carolina and South Carolina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C.I.S.: Charlotte, NC’s source for Structured Wiring, retrofit and new construction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,117,43],"tags":[521,84,514,520,513,517,519,518,516,319,86,515,17],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}