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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| reply to Diddy1
Re: First real subscriber install today
said by Diddy1  :Well somone has done this on this particular home already with a business band radio coax lead. I'm curious how they fished it through the soffit and into the home. Can explain something like that? Aaron Aaron, when You install a wire in a home, there are numerous ways to get that wire into the home. On the very peak of some roofs, You will find something called ridge vent. It is usually made of aluminum and it has a foam cap at each end that is stuck in to keep the bugs out. If You pry out the foam cap(carefully!) and look in, You will see that underneath the vent is an open space that the roofer cut in to allow air to travel thru the holes in the soffit at the bottom of the roof and out the top. essentially what the roofer did was cut about an inch down on both sides of the very top or peak, and that cut runs the entire length of the ridge vent. Just pull out the cap, and feed Your CAT5, LMR or whatever into this hole and then replace the cap. Once You are in the attic or crawl space, it is usually very easy to find a way into the basement by looking for a space along side a chimney or vent pipe the runs from the basement to the attic. on a 2 story unit, this can be more of a challenge. I usually do not bring it in the ridge vent unless the computer is on the second floor of a two story. If You have to bring it in thru the soffit, it is the same deal almost?. soffit is just hooked together in pieces, and those pieces are stuck in another piece nailed closest to the building called an "F" channel, and then the other end is stuck in the fascia board covering,usually bent aluminum in an "L" shape that covers the front of the fascia board and then it comes down far enough to cover the end of the soffit. The soffit itself is usually nailed at only one end, the fascia board end with 1 nail per piece of soffit. Since most soffit is vinyl, it has a little give in it, and some guys will try and pry over a piece to shove a cable thru. I do not like this method, as it creates a wear point and will rub thru the outside jacket of whatever You are using and short out when it rains. I normally just drill a hole large enough for my cable in the soffit itself and then push the cable thru into the attic or crawl space. Here again, I only do this on 1 story units or two story units that the computer is on the second floor.
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Diddy1
join:2003-07-19
Sidney, NE
| said by superdog : If You have to bring it in thru the soffit, it is the same deal almost?. soffit is just hooked together in pieces, and those pieces are stuck in another piece nailed closest to the building called an "F" channel, and then the other end is stuck in the fascia board covering,usually bent aluminum in an "L" shape that covers the front of the fascia board and then it comes down far enough to cover the end of the soffit. The soffit itself is usually nailed at only one end, the fascia board end with 1 nail per piece of soffit. Since most soffit is vinyl, it has a little give in it, and some guys will try and pry over a piece to shove a cable thru. I do not like this method, as it creates a wear point and will rub thru the outside jacket of whatever You are using and short out when it rains. I normally just drill a hole large enough for my cable in the soffit itself and then push the cable thru into the attic or crawl space. Here again, I only do this on 1 story units or two story units that the computer is on the second floor.
Well the 'soffit' is a stucco material on this home. Perhaps I'm confused on what the soffit actually is? I know some are the aluminum or vinyl you've mentioned but not this home. There is no ridge vent either  There is a couple roof vents, perhaps I should go in there but I really don't want to get into the attic at this point
There is a basement window that another TV coax goes into for a basement TV. I'm thinking this is the best place to go as it's wood? At this point I need to just get the job done for these folks as I feel like an idiot for taking so long on their home. Any more suggestions please post as all these have been great ideas for future installs!
Aaron | |
LLigetfa
join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON
| Those guys are mostly talking about newer contruction. You didn't really say if it was new or old but you won't see ridge vents and aluminum soffit with F-channel on old houses unless they were renovated.
For older homes each situation is different so the technique will vary. Assuming an unfinished attic, you can usually see glimpses of light shining in. Where the light can get through generally so can a wire with little effort.
Where you need to drill, use a cable installer's type of long twist drill bit that has a hole drilled through near the business end used for tying a fish wire through it. You leave the drill bit in the hole and go around to the other end and tie a wire through the hole and then go back and pull it out.
If you need to use fishtape, there are two kinds and you should have both on hand. The easy to find fishtape is the one that comes encased in a plastic dispenser with a handle. The bad thing with those is when you uncoil it, it does not lay flat and wants to coil back up. You can use that to your advantage as it will tend to hug one side of a cavity. The other kind is hard to find. It is a long steel tape that likes to lay flat... good for situations where the coily kind hangs up on things. You can also try the fibreglass rods chimney sweeps use but the threaded joints need a much larger hole to go through. For short pulls you can use a plumber's snake.
If you don't yet have a line toner, get yourself one. You can connect one lead of the tone generator to the fishtape and then hunt through the walls with the receiver. Beware that toners don't have much range on twisted pairs if you connect the generator to both wires in a pair. The trick there is to unbalance it by connecting to just one wire and grounding the other lead. | |
SipSizzurp
Fo' Shizzle
Premium
join:2005-12-28
Hilo, HI | Nice info LLigetfa, but you left out the blower and mouse.  | |
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