Most complicated wired setup?

[wax 0]

What was the most complicated wired setup and how did you deal with it?

 

Basically, I'm trying to figure out if there are any tricks to routing wires so they can't be seen? I'm assuming you just drill a hole into the attic and wire it up there?

[FranciscoNET 0]

Based on my observations, most CCTV installers prefers to do outside-the-wall installations rather than putting all cables inside the walls due to many reasons, one of them is too problematic and without the proper instruments, you cannot easily determine if there is a blockage in any given pathways inside the walls leading to your desired target, and the other reason, it just takes way to much time doing it that way than doing an "all cables outside" installations. (I have spoken with CCTV installers that have done hundreds of jobs and they say that none of them dealt with passing cables inside the walls).

 

If you would like to make your cables not visible as possible, you can purchase a very thin white CCTV cable being sold on Ebay, it will give you a perfect neat image quality up to a maximum of 300 feets. If your walls are white and the small, thin, cables are white and routing them carefully in the top edge of the ceiling will make them almost invisible to the normal eye and almost less noticeable.

 

If you need more than 300 feets of distance and would like to keep the thickness of the cables as small as possible so they wont notice that much, you can also go the RJ-45 ethernet cable way, it will give you longer distances (I believe up to 1,000 feet if I am not mistaken).

 

If there is not a problem seeing the standard "bulky" cables up in the walls, then you can always go with the industry grade RJ-59 to RG-6 Coax cables, if you pick them white and the color of your walls are white, then it will match better than using black cables. If you rout them neatly, then it should NOT be much of a problem and even better if you rout the cables inside a pipe.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Guest

[shoreviewsecurity 0]

I certainly appreciate your question and will be very difficult to answer. I recall when I started in my Cable TV career, I thought to myself " I am NEVER going to learn all this stuff " Well, after 20+ years I managed to learn it and succeed.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that it takes time to learn the tricks. I like to say I learned from the school of hard knocks. I am a member of the 110 club ( you become a member when you drill into an electric line in the wall ). Fortunately not a member of the 220 club but by only a 1/2".

 

Today’s construction is in some ways easier than the older construction. Always approach each job as if it were your own home. Never install lines on the front of a house or business and with CCTV you will want to enclose or secure cables that will be easily tampered with. I assume you mean run the wires from the cams into the attic to the DVR. Yes, that is typical BUT a challenge when the customer wants a cam on the first floor of a home that is built on a slab and the DVR is on the 3rd floor.

 

I really can't and I believe no one will be able to answer your question completely. Trial and error and as time passes, you will become a pro and you will be able to look at a property and know exactly what you will need to do.

 

Actually this was a good question and I'm sure others have thought about it. We just take it for granted and forget we were new once before as well.

 

Good luck

[scorpion 0]

The hardest jobs I have are flat roofed houses. There is no attic space to crawl around, and the customers do not want to see the wires exposed.

 

Those customers who are on a budget may not have a choice if they do not want to spend money.

 

I love houses that have large air vents. I can take a screw driver, and try to get through 15 layers of paint to get them out. Once I have all of the vents open then I can drill horizontally.

 

I use 12" extensions that link together.

 

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/detail.jhtml?prodId=IrwinProd100181

 

The smallest paddle bit that you can use is 3/4 because of the size of the "chuck" that links the extensions.

 

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/detail.jhtml?prodId=IrwinProd100186

 

You can use the 6 foot drills, but they may be to flexible, and I prefer the extensions because I can press down on it to get a bit through a knot. The flexible ones will bend, and the curve will change the "trajectory" of the bit direction, and you might come out where you do not want to.

 

Once I have bored through the rafters, then it is just a matter of running the wiring through the holes, and getting it to the camera.

 

I have hidden the wiring exposed but behind the edge of the soffit, or the top of rain gutters zip tying them to the nail supports.

 

One of the hard ones is only having to run wires down a wall but you have horizontal water pipes. You do not want to run your wires against the hot water pipes.

 

I think the hardest part is finding your way in an attic.

 

Before I go up in to an attic I look at the room where I want to be, and I memorize where the A/C vents are located, the can lights, and to see if there are any ceilling fans located in the center of the room.

 

For simple houses this is very easy, but on custom houses with angled walls, and having to get to your destination by turn, by turn, by turn to get there may leave you thinking you are in the right spot, and you may be in the wrong spot.

 

I take steel center coax, and I strip it down, and I use the center wire as a "stinger", and I either shove it from the room up in to the attic, and try to find it, or shove in the attic down in to the room. I then go and find the stinger.

 

Insullation can be a pain. You move the rolled up insullation, and there should be your stinger, but it is not! You dig around, and you will finally find it. There are times where you cannot find your stingers in the attic at all! Just about the time you are overheated, and dying then you finally find it.

 

I ask my employees to use stingers! I had one employee last year who did not, and he drilled down the wall to run the wiring. Turns out that he drilled right through the door frame. Lucky no one was standing in the door way to the room, or they would have had a headache!

 

He was 6 feet to the right. It was a hard attic to read, and I will give him that one, but if he had poked a stinger through, and then checked it he could have prevented us from going to Home depot, and buying wood, and paint to make the repairs. Later he step on a water pipe! It sprung the smallest of leaks, but we had to call out a plumber to resolder the 90 bend back together.

 

I tell them, and I tell them "watch where you walk". You might think it is the 2x4, but it might be a can light. Step on that and see what happens.

 

Always assume the framer did not use nails! One day you will step on a stud, and you will find that it was not nailed properly. If you are prepared for it, then you can recover rather fast as long as you are using your arms, and hands to hang on as you go.

 

Cathedral ceiling ar the worst. Attic access is from the garage, but you might have to cut an attic access in the closet on the other side of the house so that you can run your rods across the top to pull your wires.

 

Running difficult jobs is not the hard part. It is having the right tool, or knowing construction techniques, (or knowing the shortcuts that framers take).

 

When you go to run wiring always think of the worse! Hey! There is 110 wiring, or plumbing behind this wall.

 

Hey there are two rows of fire blocks rather then one down this wall.

If you look at the shape of drywall sheets then imagine how they are placed against the wall. They may lay them 4 feet high, and 8 feet wide, or they may place them 8 feet tall, but 4 feet wide.

 

You will always find a 2X4 in the wall going horizontal at the 8 foot mark. If the room is taller then this, then be prepared to drill a hole in the wall to get your wires down to the floor level.

 

What do you think?

Edited August 26, 2009 by Guest

[scorpion 0]

http://www.cctvforum.com/cms_view_article.php?aid=48

 

http://scorpiontheater.com/tool.aspx

 

http://scorpiontheater.com/wiring.aspx

 

http://www.accesspanel.com/

 

http://www.divplastics.com/

 

http://www.plumbersurplus.com/Prod/Acudor-PA-3000-Plastic-Access-Door-12-x-12/136222/Cat/607

 

 

 

 

Do not forget that you can hide wiring up against the wall, and the ceiling, then hide it with crown moulding.

 

You can pull the baseboards off the floor, and hide wiring in the space between the floor, and the bottom of the drywall. You can cut the bottom of the drywall to accomodate more wiring.

 

In the plumbing section they have plumbers plastic access panels. These are great for cutting in to dry wall.

 

I look on the back side of the wall where I need to run wiring, and I check to see if I have a closet, or something can hide an access panel. From the back side I cut in to the drywall, and then I can get my arm in there to run wiring.

 

For small holes you can just put a single gang low voltage ring, and a blank wall plate to hide a hole.

 

For inside runs with no attic then you can ask if you can use the plastic plumbers access panes, and mount these in the ceilings. Now try to find a way to run the wires, but find a place to hide the access panels.

[wax 0]

Thanks for the responses guys. Yes, I am pretty new at this. Last week I spoke with my cousin about setting up a CCTV system in his store. I told him to let me do the research and wanted to see how far I could take this venture.