Structured Cable

My brother and I started running some cable last Saturday.

I went in the crawl space because I have experience doing it for ASR, who ungraciously employed me for four months.

We have 7 runs to do and we're moving the wiring closet from the cat room to under the stairs. We're also replacing the current wiring that runs outside of the house. While Cat5e is supposed to handle this kind of exposure, I think it's a terrible idea. It can get wet, moldy, attacked by animals or children.

During the trip down, I relearned several lessons that I'd forgotten. Here is my advice if you plan to do some yourself.

1. Don't bring anything you don't need.
2. Bring a flash light or two.
3. Take everything out of your pockets that you won't need: wallet, cigarettes etc. see #1
4. Know exactly where the run starts and ends
5. Wear clothes you don't care about
6. Bring a walkie talkie and stay in communication
7. Verify all drilling with someone standing on the floor above you. Have them stay there until you finish drilling.
8. Combine as many runs as possible, making fewer trips.

Other thoughts include sticking with a plan. Decide on one naming scheme for all your wires and stick with it. Nothing is more infuriating than terminating 7 runs that're all labeled differently.

We're about half way done with the runs and it looks like some of the speaker cable we bought is too short. The hard runs are done though and the cables in the crawl space look tidy. I'm proud of this.

Currently spinning - her snoring