Rewiring....what other cables should I consider

sam1970 · 8 July 2017 at 7:13AM

As a part of the house renovation work we are rewiring the house. I will also ask for satellite cable and digital aerial cable to be run through the walls to allow for sockets in various rooms. A friend suggested Cat6 cable but I am not sure about the benefit of that considering that most things now are wireless. Any advice please

Browntoa · 8 July 2017 at 7:47AM

Cat 6 gives you bandwidth and stability

Think bandwidth for 4k TV etc

Jonesya · 8 July 2017 at 7:48AM

I think for most houses and uses, wireless is fine and CAT6 wouldn't get used.

Clearly if you own a mansion or a stone cottage with foot thick walls, signal strength could be an issue and you might want some cabling to local access points etc, or if you're running an IT business.. But for general family use, in a typical house, why bother when WiFi does what you need?

What I would install - have you thought about speaker cabling in the living room, for home cinema/surround sound?

sam1970 · 8 July 2017 at 8:54AM

Thank you guys. The house is 100 years old with thick walls but I overcome the wifi dead spots problem by buying some TP link powerline units which are brilliant as in addition to wired provide wireless extension of the router signal.
I am planning to have a cinema room and I am torn between having ceiling speakers or just separates. I already have KEF floor standing speakers and I am not too keen on the ceiling speakers

trailingspouse · 8 July 2017 at 9:08AM

We had Cat6 put in when we did a full rewire to our 100+ year old house 4 years ago. We've never used it.

Another thing to consider while the place is in a state of chaos - do you still have lead water pipes? Now might be a good opportunity to get rid.

DaftyDuck · 8 July 2017 at 9:27AM

Getting cat6 put in at the same time will hardly cost anything, and may make sense. It need not be fed to each room, but an intelligent spread would make sense, particularly if internet access point is at one extreme. Wireless can then take over from there. With more people being able to work from home, 100% reliable broadband becomes more important.

Any rewire I have had done, and I have had several, would include linked smoke detectors. It's worth considering integrating fire/burglar alarms at the same time. However, not all sparkies are as good at burglar alarms as others, so worth checking how many he's done. Wireless alarms are less effective.

Power supply for any future ensuite requiring an electric shower. Worth thinking ahead, if you have such plans.

Check with your electrician that your powerline adaptors will work once the circuits have been changed. They prefer to be on the same ring main, and most need to be on the same phase, should you end up using more than one phase.

Jonesya · 8 July 2017 at 11:29AM

If you're rewiring you might want to think of some other potential additions, rather than CAT6, like:
- get your TV/Sat drops in conduit so you could pull in New cables in the future rather than plastered, when they're fixed.
-sockets in lift for booster/IT/DIY.
- outdoor sockets for gardening/lawn mower

coffeehound · 8 July 2017 at 11:40AM

sam1970 wrote: »

I will also ask for satellite cable and digital aerial cable to be run through the walls to allow for sockets in various rooms.

Worth double checking that they will be fitting good quality cable. Hopefully it's a thing of the past now, but the cheapo aerial cable is leaky as a colander. Ideally, keep signal and media feeds segregated from power cabling.

baldelectrician · 8 July 2017 at 12:11PM

I would suggest Cat 6 and all taken to a central point (say under stair cupboard), when you are at it you could have the BT master and any cable media stuff relocated there

I also agree with the tubing of cables for coax points etc, as well as running another tube that is empty to an area above or below the floor that is accessible.

Make sure the company is registered (NICEIC- UK wide or SELECT in Scotland), use a company search with your post code

Also call trading standards and ask if the company you intend to use and ask if they have any records of complaints

trailingspouse · 8 July 2017 at 8:38PM

Ha!! Jonesya, we had a major rewire 4 years ago, as I mentioned. And I didn't even think about getting power put into the garden, mostly because I was so busy working on the house that I didn't have time to do much in the garden, so it didn't enter my thought process. Now that the indoor work is finished I'm getting the outdoors sorted, and got a pair of outdoor sockets put in just yesterday!! No longer do I need to plug the lawnmower into the socket in the dining room!!!

Owain_Moneysaver · 8 July 2017 at 9:07PM

Outside lights.
CCTV cameras.
Door entry / intercom.

Multiway light switches in bedrooms so you can turn off room lights at the bedhead and bedhead lights at the door.

Emergency light unit over the stairs and near the consumer unit. One in the kitchen can also be useful.

Rewiring....what other cables should I consider

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