How to route cable from one floor to another?


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Old 02-07-05, 09:26 AM
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How to route cable from one floor to another?

I want to network two computers in my condo, one on the 1st floor and one on the second. I really dont have much idea on how my interior walls line up. I need to measure and get the exact design. Was just hoping someone could give me some pointers on how to do this.
 
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Old 02-07-05, 11:25 AM
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You will need to locate a point where you can drill from one floor to the other through the base of the wall in the upper floor into the wall of the lower room. Through this you can run cat5 cable and attach RJ45 receptacles to the cable to use to join the network.

The process is covered generally in this article. http://k4ay.org/cat5

Hope this helps.
 
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Old 02-07-05, 12:16 PM
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Originally Posted by chfite
You will need to locate a point where you can drill from one floor to the other through the base of the wall in the upper floor into the wall of the lower room. Through this you can run cat5 cable and attach RJ45 receptacles to the cable to use to join the network.

The process is covered generally in this article. http://k4ay.org/cat5

Hope this helps.
thanks for the link.

The house has plaster over gyprock wall. That means that the wall sheathing is 1.25" thick I cut the box apertures in the plaster walls, then drilled the holes through the triple top plate of the walls. The triple plate is 60 year old pine. Not be confused with concrete. I had to use a brace and bit to drill the holes as my 12 volt cordless drill would not develop enough torque to cut the rock hard heart pine. The two by fours in this house are actually two by four. So the top plate was six inches of pine. Needless to say, I did not drill the holes without being sure of the proper location.
Is there another place that goes into a little more detail on how to drill through the base of the second floor wall to the first floor wall? I really have no idea how to do this. How would I reach the base of the wall with a drill without completely ripping out a section of the second floor wall? Lemme guess, completely rip out a section of the second floor wall?
 
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Old 02-07-05, 12:39 PM
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In order to drill through the wall base from above or below, use a bellhanger's drill bit. This type of drill bit varies in length up to about 6 feet and is flexible. It has a hole formed in the tip of the bit so that when you drill through to a point, you can attach a pull cord to it and pull the bit back through the hole retrieving the cord with it. The cord can then be used to pull a wire or cable through where you have drilled. This avoids having to open the wall to route the cable manually.

You could open an aperture where you want to have the box upstairs and drill down through the base of the wall into the cavity below. Open an aperture for the wall box in the lower room, then drop a weighted line down the hole. Retrieve the line in the lower cavity, and pull the wire up or pull it down.

If there is sufficient distance involved and the hole is in the right relative position, you can use one or two fish tapes to feed a pull cord through the wall opening, through the hole in the wall base, into the wall opening below. Fish tape is a relatively stiff, flexible, flat, metal tape with a hook formed in the end. It is fed through a hole or series of holes to retrieve a pull cord or to catch the hook end of another fish tape coming from the other end to complete a circuit for pulling wire or such. Both the bellhanger's bit and fish tape are commonly available from hardware stores and box stores.

If you are drilling in a wall cavity where electrical lines may be installed, turning off the power to the house might prove to be a prudent action to prevent damaging equipment or electrical shock.

Hope this helps.
 
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Old 02-07-05, 12:49 PM
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Thanks Chris,
Exactly what I was looking for. As for the bell hanger drill bit, some are flexible in some way? All the ones I just quickly googled were just one solid piece.
 
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Old 02-07-05, 01:04 PM
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They are one solid piece, but are flexible. There's a steering tool that is used with it to produce the bend. If you look at the bottom of this page you'll see the tool.
 
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Old 02-07-05, 02:05 PM
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Thanks I think I got it now. Does Home depot carry any of this stuff? Just kinda sucks I'll spend 40$ on a drill bit and guide tool I'll probably use once, but I do love tools
 
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Old 02-07-05, 03:58 PM
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why not just go wireless ?
 
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Old 02-07-05, 07:40 PM
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Originally Posted by jamesavery22
Thanks I think I got it now. Does Home depot carry any of this stuff? Just kinda sucks I'll spend 40$ on a drill bit and guide tool I'll probably use once, but I do love tools
Check out the Fish Sticks at HD
Maybe it'll save you some money, or at least you may use them for other projects
 
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Old 02-07-05, 08:16 PM
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Well thanks for the advice everyone. I learned a good chunk and even went to homedepot on my way home and found that they had all the bellhanger bits and guide tools. Luckily I wasnt stupid that hour and I didnt buy anything. My friend and I measured the walls and it turns out none of my interior walls line up from floor to floor. The interior wall I was hoping to route into is almost directly in the middle of one of my rooms.

I guess I could rip up the carpet and floor and just route the cable that way but I dont think its worth it at this point. And if thats easy pleeease lemme know. Im guessing its not as Im pretty sure my floor is some sort of 1inch thick concrete ontop of wood then cross beams on all levels. Else yeah Im just forced to go wireless.

I shy away from wireless because I know how to get past the majority of home router/switch/ap boxes. Its really not that hard. I live in a condo with a good amount of neighbors. If I went with a standard wireless router, I didnt pay much attention to it, and one of my neighbors was smart enough and patient enough it wouldnt take long before they'd either just mooch off my internet connection or treat them selves to some of my files on my unsecure boxes. Best way is to have a dedicated box (some small linux pos box) between an access point and a switch. Or if the AP is has the functionality pool the only macs that can connect, for me thatd be a whole one so Id just be doing adhoc, in a sense. Was hoping to spend 40$ on some tools, see what my walls looked like from the inside, and have a little fun instead

the mounting scheme for my projector got shot down today too, so Im just full of holes.

Thanks anyways guys, I appreciate it.
 
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Old 02-10-05, 02:10 PM
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Have you checked to see whether you may have a wall on one level that is perpendicular to a wall on the other level? If so, maybe you can go from upstair to down where they cross. This would take some carefull planning, but it may work.
 
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Old 02-10-05, 03:22 PM
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One other option, if they share an exterrior wall, would be to pull the cable up the exterrior an then run it underneath the baseboard.
 
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Old 02-11-05, 07:59 AM
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There are some walls that are perpendicular, but the only one thats close to where I want to route the cable is a kitchen wall with a bunch of cuboards and has the sink so that wall isnt very accessible. The baseboards are all covered by concrete, atleast the first floor is, not sure about the second. So Id have to dig into that some how =\ Not to mention Id have to take up the wood floor I laid.
 
 

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