House in Progress Diary

Installing Coaxial Cable

Last weekend we installed our own cable. Here's how it went...

The Problem
The previous owners had never had cable (although they did have an antennae, which we removed from the chimney last week) so we were starting from scratch. A couple of weeks ago we actually had the cable company come out twice to do an installation. Long story short, we didn't want cable slapped on the exterior of the house and the bid for custom installation was $300! So, we decided we could do it ourselves...

Our Solution
It turns out cable is about the easiest and safest wiring to install. However, the tools you need are a bit pricey...a coaxial crimping tool was $50 at our local Home Depot! However, in the end we realized that we could skip on the expensive hardware by having the cable company come and do the finishing (they have to come anyway and hook us up to their network) for their standard installation fee. We also avoided any drilling or cutting by using existing access routes (a great idea from A's dad). So, our total cost was $55 ( $17 for cable + $10 for a wire cutter + $28 for the cable company's visit to finish off the installation), a savings of $245 versus the professional quote.

How it Went
We decided to convert an extra (and poorly installed) electrical outlet to a coaxial outlet, rather than cutting a new hole in the wall. We started by running a 3' wire down the hole where the electrical conduit (old BX) had been.

Once the wire was threaded through, we went down in the basement and taped the wire to the coaxial cable we bought.

We went back up stairs and pulled the wire until the coaxial cable came through.

Then we threaded the cable along the center beam to the back of the house. Mid-way we left some slack to add a splitter for a second outlet when we renovate the second floor.

We were able to avoid drilling a new hole by use a pre-existing one from old telephone wiring that's no longer in use.

And the we pulled it out the other side under our back porch, where it was ready for the cable technician to hook us up!

A few days later a technician came from the cable company, finished off both ends of our wiring, and hooked up our service!

Hello Daily Show!!

Tool & Materials We Used
- RG-6 Coaxial cable (RG-59 will also do but is a slightly lower quality)
- Wire Cutter

Other Useful Resources
For education on running wire, we used Stanley's Basic Wiring. It uses clear instructions and photos to explain how to do a variety of electrical projects that anyone can handle. They cover running coaxial cable on p. 110-111.

We also found Advanced Wiring helpful. In addition to detailing more ambitious projects, it addressed plaster and lathe installations (p. 48-49) you'll find in older homes. It was good to know even though we didn't end up doing any cutting in this particular case.

Posted by aaron on August 5, 2003 at 8:44 AM