[geeks] Wiring

[mw at awia.us]

Having done this on a rehab project on our house, there isn't *that* much
difference between the cost of reels of Cat5 vs. Cat6a.  Regardless, 3/4"
smurf tubes would be a very good idea, if you're going to be there for
even a few years:  You can pull and replace what you have with whatever
you want fairly easily.  It shouldn't be much more difficult for them to
run conduit before running cable, mostly that the holes in the studs have
to be larger. We ran two coax and one each Cat6a and Cat5 cables (and
someday I may get to doing an Asterix installation using the Cat5), but it
looks like it might be impossible to pull and replace any single cable,
it's going to be all or nothing.

One caveat:  If you run tubes but the contractor doesn't do the cabling,
make sure you can run a fishing tape through all of the tubes before the
drywall goes up.  We found out too late that one bend radius was crimped
beyond use.

Good luck with the new house!
Michael