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Whole house re-wiring question

Here’s the situation: We're doing a gut renovation on a 2200-square foot house. The entire electrical system is being replaced, and about half the rooms are being taken down to the studs. I'm planning on doing gratuitous wiring because obviously it's cheaper to have the wiring and not use it than to open up the walls in the future.

Essentially, I'll be running multiple CAT6 lines to every room, coax CATV to most rooms, and speaker wire to many of the rooms.

My setup will be: One 5.1 room with a TV and Paradigm in-ceiling speakers. Hardware: Oppo CD/DVDA/SACD/BluRay/DVD, Denon 2112 receiver. I'd like to do multiple zones of audio, and despite the fact that Sonos doesn't do anything above 16/44, I think that's the easiest solution. Then I'll have at least one room where I can listen to hi-res digital audio, probably using a Music Fidelity M1 CLiC.

My electrician has said he's comfortable laying all of this -- but of course when I talked to a custom installer he said it would be crazy to have an electrician do this b/c they don't know about maximum pull rate, minimum turn angles, etc. He quoted me a price of around $8k to run all those wires and set up a structured media center.

My questions are:

Am I, indeed, crazy for thinking about having my electrician do all of this?

Is setting up an SMC something I can do myself -- and if so, where would I go to find out information about it? I've been corresponding with someone from Leviton and he's laid out a whole slew of things I could potentially use in an SMC, but I have no way to evaluate his recommendations.

Are there any DIY home automation systems that make sense? HAI does sell directly to consumers (unlike Crestron and I think Control4) but I don't know if that's something that I should try to do.

(I have plenty of other more specific questions, too -- about what type of speaker wire to use, about CAT6 wire, about whether it makes sense to run conduits, etc -- but I can start throwing those out if this is indeed the right place to look for some help. If it's not, and if anyone has any suggestions for more appropriate forums, that'd be much appreciated...)
plgtimes

Showing 1 response by martykl

martykl
3,578 posts
 
This is a tough question because a good electrician will do better work than a bad AV guy - I know because I've used both in the past. It's just hard to know who's good, and a high price tag means little. I'd try to find recommendations if you can - and shop around.

The SMC is pretty straightforward, but little things like cable dressing and LABELS! are important. You will likely add more stuff down the road and the SMC layout should allow for this - mine didn't (bad AV installer) - and created a lot more work when I added on more devices.

Laying conduit is a great idea because it allows you to undue (many) potential mistakes. Make sure you run conduit to your yard(s), too, for outdoor use.

Sonos is a great choice - but you don't really need much in the way of dedicated controllers these days if you have an iPad or iPhone, the apps (particularly on the iPad) are great. I don't miss the high res at all, for the reason you state: I have a dedicated room for that.

Good Luck,

Marty
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