LLigetfa
join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON
| reply to Diddy1
Re: First real subscriber install today
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. |
