It's definitely been asked.

If I were wiring it, I'd be recommending 2 Cat 6 and 2 Coax at a minimum, to each known TV location. Major areas, like the Theater Room or Family Room, I'd run at least 2 more Cat 6's than the currently known number of devices, like Roku, AppleTV's, etc. Coax rocks, because you can easily add a MoCA device later if necessary.

A Matrix for the Devices would be an easy way to get the devices to 'follow' you from Rom-to-Room and you probably wouldn't need 8 TiVo devices.

-KP

 

If I were wiring it, .. and 2 Coax at a minimum,

Two Coax cables to each room??? I definitely disagree with this reco. One for legacy TV should be more than adequate.

 

Both.

 

1 Coax 2 Cat 6.

And if you really want to future-proof things you can run 1.5" conduit to each TV location. Don't forget a pull string inside each conduit.

 

If you want to do it right, put at least one coax and one ethernet outlet on each wall of every room (probably can do just one each to the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry room). Home run each to a central location. That way, you can patch in whichever runs are active with a splitter for coax and a switch for ethernet, each with the appropriate number of ports. Use RG-6 quad shield coax and CAT 6 UTP.

 

I would actually suggest that you double the number of Cat6 cables. If you think you may need 2, you'll probably at some point in time want 4. Plus, you can use one of them for a phone line (if your parents use land lines). One trick I've seen and used (depending on the sturdiness of the cabling) is when pulling the cable - especially if drywall isn't up yet - is to pull (using a separate wire) from the "center" of the source cat6, so that with one pull, you get two cables, by cuttting the "center" into two once you have reached the final location. Any I wholeheartedly agree with runnng a chase. I also suggest setting up good ethernet patch panels and "junction boxes" in a basement if you have one, and label EVERYTHING. Lastly, I suggest checking out Monoprice.com for some of the best prices on both raw cabling as well as pre-done cables which you will need for linking the patch panel work into routers, etc.

 

Like others said I think you'll be more than fine with 1 coax and 2 Cat 6 to each main room. If you want to get more involved you can run 1 cat 6 to the closets and bathrooms, but that's probably overkill. You can add them later by hand if you inherit the house and decide that you really, truly, can't miss Netflix while pooping.

As far as needing more than 2 Cat 6 in a room after the build is completed, you can always add a small switch if necessary in the room. They're so tiny now that they're not a big deal.

When building a house the big question is how many electrical outlets you'll need. You can run ethernet yourself. Most DIY guys can't run electrical. (I said most, so calm down you die hard DIY'ers! )

 

When building a house the big question is how many electrical outlets you'll need. You can run ethernet yourself. Most DIY guys can't run electrical. (I said most, so calm down you die hard DIY'ers! )

It's not about running electrical.... It's about getting a permit and having it inspected. In some jurisdictions, a DIY'er cannot run eletrical cable, it must be performed by a licensed contractor / electrician.

 

Good:1x coax, 1x Cat.6
Better: 1x coax, 2x Cat.6
Best:2x coax, 2x Cat.6

 

Even "bester": 2xRG-6 and 2xCAT5 or CAT6 inside conduit (as @DigitalDawn suggested) or smurf tube.

I had a local network contractor retrofit my existing house with double coax and CAT5 runs to each room, 10 connections in all. Pushing conduit or smurf tube would have been impossible without major structural work, so we ended up using a combination of separate cables to some rooms and the combo cable in others. Fortunately, we were able to use the HVAC chase for some of the cables going from the basement to the second floor.

Total cost was around $4.5k, including the cable I already had on hand and the drywall work required, but not including the cost of painting that I was going to do anyway.

(edit: included extra project description)

 

As a lurker on this issue (1985 slab house with a cathedral ceiling--cable retrofitting is not going to happen), what is a "ballpark figure" for the cost of putting in coax and ethernet wiring when building a house? I know that there are many variables, but let's say a mid-size house with a moderate amount of cabling (e.g. no closets). Just curious as to the magnitude of this--are we talking 4 figures, 5 figures, ?

 

"My" cost is the capital costs of the cabling, plus my time.

New construction? That's when it takes a couple of hours to do.

It took me a weekend to pull six home runs of cat5e, cat3, and RG-6 to each bedroom in my house during a refit when the pipe chase was open... (Yes, cat3 for POTS because I had a spool of it gratis.)

 

Definitely two COAX, and one CAT6 should be fine, as you can just add a switch to give you more ports. With the COAX, you might want to have OTA and Cable/Satellite. It's not easy to get OTA and Sat on the same piece of COAX.

 

This is what is in my house (built in the early 2000's). We are the 3rd or 4th owners but what I don't understand is why they split the wires in each CAT6 half each to two separate plugs in the same wall plate? To get anything to work I need to remake the wall plate connection and abandon a jack.

 

Minimum of two coax and two Cat6 to each room. But Ideally I would run four Cat6 and two Coax. But if it were my place I would be doing two coax and four Cat6.

 

Another thing to consider is whether or not you will want / need more than just your "standard" network in any given room. With HDMI over ethernet (which I don't believe can use a standard switch), and the potential desire to have a separate IoT / Device network from your "computer" network, having 2-4 CAT6 (or greater) runs makes a lot of sense. And while I recognize there is indeed extra cost, the other question is how much would it cost to have to retrofit / correct it. (this should also include the "cost" (loss of utility) of not doing it at all, and having to live without something they would want / enjoy.

 

I would build the house so every wall was at least 2 feet "thick" and had an interior passageway you can get to and run wiring or fiber or plumbing or duct or whatever else comes up, as needed, in the future. Then I'd look at ceiling and flooring requirements for wiring.

Almost every time I have drywall down for some project, I'm running huge amounts of cabling, almost always home-running it to someplace appropriate. In my office-room-comverted-to-theater I had to add Dolby Atmos speaker wiring, subwoofer wiring, wiring for controlling projector screens, wiring for HDMI to ceiling locations, power in odd places, not just along the lower few feet of walls, even ended up routing some plumbing and up to other floors near the exterior to get me water spigots on every balcony. I ducted a closet to provide an exhaust path for servers, including the addition of a fan to suck the hot air out of it. I've usually put at least 4 drops of network cabling in locations, where there's any chance of future higher-bandwidth needs, like a server location where I might aggregate multiple connections to increase bandwidth. I also added network wiring through the space to the ceiling of the patio outside and to an external wall for cameras and other devices.

Never underestimate your future needs.

 

You will regret not having enough cable runs a lot more than you will regret spending a little more money than absolutely necessary during construction. The cost is a minimal component of the overall cost of the house.

We built a 2-story with basement in 1999. I paid the electrician a grand total of $75 extra (!!) to install five 1" plastic pipes running from the basement straight up inside the walls to junction boxes, 2 to the 2nd story and 3 to the first floor. Then I ran Cat5 from router/switch in basement and installed sockets in the junction boxes. My only regret is not having more pipes installed. It's never been necessary to "pull" the cat5 through these straight vertical conduits.

 

You can buy a cable that has two coax's and a cat 5 under one sheath.

https://www.amazon.com/CAT6-QUADSHIELD-CABLED-feet-Made/dp/B0042L3CTY

 

When you drill through a coax or some critter dines on it, you will kick yourself for now running a couple dollars worth of extra rg6.

 

I went through this process in 2016. I wound up with a coax and Cat6 cable to every room. I also had them put 8 Cat6 drops to points outside and garage for POE security cameras. Additionally, they ran speaker wires for 5.1 in the living room and family room.

All the network and coax was home run wired to a closet, and a Cat6 and coax were run to the side of the house for provider access. The guy was supposed to run a coax to the attic for an OTA antenna, but didn't. I repurposed the last bedroom's coax for the attic antenna, but left a fished stub in case I change my mind.

The only coax I use is the feed from TWC, the living room (TWC), family room (OTA), and the attic antenna run. The living room has a Bolt, and the family room has a Roamio OTA. The bedrooms have minis.

The only thing I'd like to change is the solid door on the network closet; it needs better ventilation.

 

So we just moved into our new house a few months ago. It was built new in 2006. We bought it from the architect and builder -- a young guy in his late 30's or so. It's a really great house. But he only ran *one* COAX cable to pretty much every room -- and DIDN'T run ANY CAT6 in the entire house (except for one room -- more on that later). Luckily, I can use MOCA for it with two Tivo's and one Tivo Mini to get TV in the rooms we need, as well as MOCA->Ethernet to the rooms we need wired internet access (two home offices). We can't get Verizon FIOS here, so I had to create my own MOCA network with one MOCA bridge and four re-purposed FIOS routers acting as MOCA bridges. But it would have been really nice to have CAT6 runs to the rooms where we need it most instead of COAX+MOCA bridges.

I asked him 'why no CAT6?' and he response was basically 'we just used wifi throughout the house for internet access'. Ugh. He also said the library next door 'lights up the whole house with their wifi' (even though you actually need a passcode to get on their wifi). I also need dedicated internet access (for VPN), not some random bandwidth from the library!

The one room he did run some CAT6 was the media room in the basement. And it was only between the back wall junction box, and the media closet on the side of that same room (basically an "L" run of 3 or 4 CAT6 cables.) And for half of those, he clipped off the RJ45 ends and used the bare wires for RF remote control extenders (he had a few of these in the different basement rooms using CAT6). But no networking AT ALL. Oh, yeah, except he did run one CAT6 cable from the utility/power room to the outside utility box where the cable and power enter the house. Neither end of that cable has an RJ45 on it, either. I have no idea what he thought that would be used for-- there's just this bare Ethernet cable hanging outside the house.

You'd figure building a new house in 2006, you'd run at least one CAT6+COAX to every room. Nope.

Luckily, it's not much of a hindrance for our needs.

 

You'd figure building a new house in 2006, you'd run at least one CAT6+COAX to every room. Nope.

Our house was built in 2005 and no Ethernet cabling either. Just coax to every room.

Scott

 

Our house was built in 2005 and no Ethernet cabling either. Just coax to every room.

Scott

How easy it is to forget the amazing pace of technology! 2005 or 2006 was ancient history --- no iPhone, no digital cable enabled TiVo's, etc.

 

How easy it is to forget the amazing pace of technology! 2005 or 2006 was ancient history --- no iPhone, no digital cable enabled TiVo's, etc.

My boss from the 90's built a new house in 1994 and had home-run CAT5 run to every room terminating in a basement network room.

 

I think it has more to do with the builder than anything else. A friend of mine built a new house 5 years ago and this was no starter house. Every single run was an option at $150 EACH (I think I am in the wrong business...)

 

To clarify -- a run of 2xRG-6 and 2xCAT-5 would be $600, regardless of distance? I think that looks like a contractor signaling that they're really not interested in doing the work. Then again, I get a nosebleed looking at some of the "option" costs in other areas of new construction...

 

You can buy a cable that has two coax's and a cat 5 under one sheath.

https://www.amazon.com/CAT6-QUADSHIELD-CABLED-feet-Made/dp/B0042L3CTY

Sheath!

 

You can buy a cable that has two coax's and a cat 5 under one sheath.

https://www.amazon.com/CAT6-QUADSHIELD-CABLED-feet-Made/dp/B0042L3CTY

Thats what I have in addition to a patch panel in the garage. This allowed me to have a backhaul mesh network, put my receiver and various boxes in my LR closet and my BR closet. I have also switched from Dish to DTV to Comcast, and ISDN, DSL to Comcast over the years and for periods of time I had both. Of course in my case I was able to crawl under my house.

 

The bare minimum today is 2x RG6 and 2x CAT-6. It's actually gotten simpler, as in the late '90s, the bare minimum was 2x RG6 and 3x CAT-5 with 1 terminated for phone lines. Go figure. 2x RG-6 is very important because you might want DBS and OTA or DBS and cable or OTA and cable, and with any combo, you need 2 RG-6 cables. With structures wiring and 2x RG-6 and 2x CAT-6, you can have DBS, OTA, and cable internet, with the OTA TiVo in a different room from the cable modem connected via Ethernet to Minis, and DBS in every room, and not run out of cabling.

Don't skimp on the wiring, or the construction methods themselves. Insulation should be at least double code at a bare minimum, preferably triple code especially in a northern climate, a focus more on air sealing in a southern climate, properly sized HVAC equipment that is the highest efficiency available is another place not to skimp. If budget is a concern, skimp on the cabinets and counters and stuff that doesn't matter as much. Unfortunately, most builders do the opposite, they throw up cheap, crappy houses with substandard wiring, substandard insulation, substandard HVAC equipment and generally lousy construction, but spend a bunch on flashy stuff like granite countertops and fancy cabinets.

If I were retrofitting a house today, I'm not sure I'd actually run any wiring anywhere, due to the advancements in wireless, which seems to be the way everything is going, but when building new, there is no excuse for not doing it right. For existing houses, I think the direction everything is going in is wireless. You can do voice, data, and phone today with a single coax cable to a modem and router, and wireless from there to Ooma for phone and a streaming TV service. However, I'd much rather add a bunch of extra wiring, use it for a few years, and then not need most of it then need wiring that I don't have.

 

Right now, I am doing some renovations. Since I will be painting and patching anyway, I will run two RG6 and two Cat6 cables from the attic to the basement. I will also run two of each from a wall where I plan to hang a television and two of each from the closet on the other side of the wall. And I will have hdmi connects between the closet and the wall with the TV. I will put a TiVo and a Genie in that closet to support the TV on the other side of the wall. The thing is, you cannot really future proof. Install a lot of everything because running cable is cheap until the walls are up.

 

HDMI isn't a bad idea, but it's not future proof at all, so I'd run at least a pair of CAT-6 along with it, or conduit for pull-through later. CAT cable is relatively future proof, the only thing today that can't run on CAT-5 cable from the 1990's is the higher-end HDBaseT stuff, any phone, Ethernet, etc, is just fine on CAT-5 including gigabit (technically 5e, but there really isn't much difference between the two).

 

Speaking of HDMI... when we moved into this house, the previous occupants (renters) had a bad break-up, and apparently the boyfriend/husband left in a rage, and (I am not making this up), instead of disconnecting the TV from the wall mount, he CUT all the wires clean through, and broke the HDMI cable end (see photos). These cables are run inside the walls to the media closet about 12 feet away, and there are two angled bends in the wall. I asked the guy who installed it if it's possible to snake a new cable through, and he didn't think so without taking down drywall.

The RBG cables I can fix myself... but is there any way to fix the HDMI cable connector?

 

The RBG cables I can fix myself... but is there any way to fix the HDMI cable connector?

You could try splicing a new cable to the end of the cut off one. I don't think the splice would cause a problem in the signal.

 

No.

Which is why the message above yours further reiterates why you run more than enough wire.

-KP