Did a search and didn't find what I was looking for. My question seems quite simple though.

I am considering buying a house (built in the 60's) that has never been wired for cable. I contacted the cable company, and the women on the phone said it would cost $25 for the first outlet and $17 for any additional outlet.

This seems fine to me, but I wasn't totally convinced she understood what I meant. Does this include having the house wired, or is it just the price of installing the outlets?

Anybody else been through a similar situation?

I'm sure they install the outlets and wire it. Might include splitters. Not an expert on this though. They will probably use RG-6 which is much better than RG-59. You can also use a handyman/Contractor if they also use RG-6. RG-6 is what all Cable installers use.

Those prices are for "installers" to run wires the easiest way possible, usually around the outside of the house and many times along the base molding in your hallways, etc.

If you want it done the right way, either pay a real electrician to run the wires in the walls, or do it yourself. It will be a little bit challenging for your first time, but the end result will be rewarding.

The material and tools can be bought for great prices.

I prefer Belden 7915A RG-6 Tri-Shield, you can get it for about $130 for 1,000 feet which should wire at least one house, maybe 2 or 3.

-A compression tool for F connectors for about $20 (my $16 Data Shark compression tool has lasted for years and served me well, you don't need the more expensive models unless you plan on installing different types of connectors [RCA, BNC, etc.] or need to adjust the length of compression)
-A stripper for about $12
-Compression connectors for about 40 cents each (I like PPC connectors)
-Outlet plates with good quality F-81 barrel connectors for about $1 each (don't go to Home Depot or Lowes, they charge about $5 for plates with lower quality barrels).

After that you might need some other basic electrical tools like a short metal snake, some jack-chain, a magnet, etc. Some people get by with a couple metal coat hangers lol...

The only other thing you will need are splitters and possibly an amplifier. I've dealt with Comcast, Cablevision (Optimum), and FIOS in my area and they always supply the splitters and even amplifiers if needed.

During the day I'm a commercial electrician, but at night and on the weekends I do side work. I get a lot of low-voltage sidework which I enjoy, and to be honest, the majority of that is rewiring after cable company "installers" were there. An example: A few weeks ago a lady who lives in the second floor of a 2-family house wanted me to rewire her cable. Comcast rewired it the week before by literally wrapping the house with one long cable. They didn't support the cable other than draping it over lower roofs and eves. Where they needed a outlet they simply cut that wire that wrapped the house and installed a splitter, then drilled a hole and brought the wire into the house right there. The outside of the house was ugly with a black wire draping around everything and unsightly splitters everywhere. Inside, the cable came thru a hole (no outlet cover plate) and where needed wrapped around the room to the TV by way of the molding. Not only was it ugly, but it was poorly designed. The cable modem and HD tv were both on the far side of the house, by the time the coax got to those devices the cable was split many times and the signal was low. I guess for $17 each outlet you can't expect too much more?

So I went up in the attic, drilled some holes down and snaked some wires, then terminated them with nice wall plates. Then brought the other side of each wire back to a single central location where I installed the splitters. Simple, clean, solid distribution and only took a few hours.

I moved in my house in 1993...Cable from the street put up who knows when, I looked at the coax and all I could find on it was what looked like TFC T10...Inside my house,(the cable which was installed in 1993) all I can see on an exposed piece of coax is what looks like E83032 F660BVV UL CATV ...I am getting Fios and the tech said that it would work best with RG6 (if I have that right)...question; Is what I have adequate , better than,or will it need to be replaced? Thanks for a reply

I did a little Google searching, it seems as if that cable is in fact RG-6.

FIOS is usually good with running wires, they seem to be eager to switch over all the cable customers so they go the extra mile. If they're offering to replace the wires in a clean and neat fashion, go for it.

I don't know why but I never put it together that fios uses coax also in the house, hmm. How do they feed the internet? Cat5 to the dmark or is there a coax fed modem of some type? What frequency spectrum are they using through coax for the digital services?

It's not very available in San Diego so I don't know much about it.

The price for installing cable outlets covers everything involved to get the outlets working no matter how much wiring involved. There may be additional fees to install the actual services (internet, digital, etc.) but the outlets are cheap. Like SteelCity said though, don't expect much more than the price you pay for those outlets to be installed. Most installers now days are contractors and get paid about $10 to install a cable outlet, that's not a lot of motivation to make it perdy but they'll get it done if that's what you want.

They used to run Cat5 from the demarc (called the ONT) in the past, maybe they still do some places. But all new installations that I've seen use some technology called MOCA which allows them to get away without running that Cat5, only coax. They connect a "modem" which usually has a built in wired and wireless router.

During the day I'm a commercial electrician, but at night and on the weekends I do side work. I get a lot of low-voltage sidework which I enjoy, and to be honest, the majority of that is rewiring after cable company "installers" were there.

Seems like guys like you should be in demand, especially as a side job.

My neighborhood is composed of homes 3-6 years old, and a high percentage of them have satellite. I see all this coax on the outside of so many homes, and I am surprised so few of them apparently have home runs on their coax so that satellite could enter the structure at one point and be distributed throughout the house via the home runs. Are home runs still that uncommon? Mine has them, but I made sure before the wallboard was in.

Then again, they did put my CAT5 intended for Ethernet into a 110 block, just like my other CAT5 intended for phone.

What I've seen a lot in new houses are all the home runs for both phone and cable brought directly outside. This way the cable company installs one of those cheap plastic boxes as the demarc and puts the splitters in there. A satellite installer can run his lines to that point and connect later if desired.

Any new house SHOULD have homeruns to a central location, it doesn't cost too much more, but sadly the buyers usually get cheap with things like that.

What I've seen a lot in new houses are all the home runs for both phone and cable brought directly outside. This way the cable company installs one of those cheap plastic boxes as the demarc and puts the splitters in there. A satellite installer can run his lines to that point and connect later if desired.

Any new house SHOULD have homeruns to a central location, it doesn't cost too much more, but sadly the buyers usually get cheap with things like that.


I don't know if something changed with builder policy over the past 10 years in SoCal, but towards the beginning of the recent housing boom builders were upselling the wiring packages to buyers which consisted of home runs to every room for both phone and coax, and all home runs would go to the dmark on the outside of the house. It must be code in SoCal to install prewire panels on the sides of houses because pretty much all houses ever built here use metal access panels for phone and all houses built since the 90's have a similar larger catv metal panel. No plastic boxes. Anyways, since builders made it optional to upgrade the wiring in the house, there were a lot of houses built with only 2 home runs. One to the master bedroom and one to the family/living room. That was included regardless. Then smart panels started showing up more and more, but that was optional and I'm sure an expensive upgrade. Now all houses I've been to built in the past 5 years or so have smart panels standard with home runs. Of course there are upgrades from there with dual coax home runs, dual cat5 home runs, etc to smart panel.

I worked in Phoenix for several months last summer and very few houses out there used the metal access plates, few had smart panels. They run wire to a bundle that just hangs out of a hole on the side of the house until the utility company comes out and installs the plastic boxes. Ugly. Drops from the street to the house were also hand dug and direct buried in the dirt a few inches down to easily get ripped up at some point. That's just the way it's done. Everything underground is in conduit in SoCal. Guess that's why it's so expensive to live here.

Sounds good SS.

The main problem I have is taht every wire has been run along the baseboards and looks like crap. I am in a pre-war and the re-wiring would be a nightmare (hell, don't even get me started about the grid layout).

When you do one of these things, have you ever been asked wo wire the whole deal up for possible multiple applications? IOW, Cable, Cat-5, and possible speaker layout and whatnot?

I am trying to brainstorm on what would be the quickest and most attractive way to wire my system through the house (HTPC, cable, and any other device that MIGHt come up in the future) in one shot to avoid aving to go through this again and again. any tips/insight would be greatly appreciated!!!

(You have any sites that help with threading/snaking through old plaster pre-war wall situations? Or maybe outlet/jack installations?)

TIA!

What style house do you have, a 2-story? Attic above, basement below? The ease of installation depends on your layout.

If you don't have attic and/or basement access then it could be a pain in the ass. You might have to get into cutting holes and patching the plaster, but it's not a big deal if you have some time on your hands and some extra ambition.

As for what cables, that is completely up to you. Most of my customers aren't very tech savvy and most people seem to be moving completely to wireless for phones and network. There is an A/V Distribution forum here that is filled with professionals who can help you if you want one of those advanced distribution systems. As for me, I'm happy with my cell phone and wireless router. Cable television and a couple of 14 gauge wires for surround speakers are the only thing I have ran around my house and it will most likely stay that way.

As for links to snaking/fishing instructions, I've looked around myself trying to find tips and tricks from the other guys, but I have never really found much. Most of the sites are made by homeowners logging what they did in their own homes, which is a great thing IMO.