With the holidays over, it was time to get back to the basement. In order to continue on with the framing, I had to do something about the low voltage wiring in the basement. That is to say, I needed to clean up the TV cable, the phone lines, and the computer wiring. Nearly all of the wiring ran directly along the edge of very next wall that needed framing.
Furthermore, the phone and TV cable were in such a sorry state, that I really wanted to straighten it all out. The picture to the right shows how the phone and TV cable were just screwed to the ceiling joist. If you look closely towards the lower right corner, you can see where all of the wiring came together and ran along the wall.
For quite some time I'd had my eye on this really cool setup at Home Depot called the Leviton Structured Media Center. It was an enclosed metal box, with holes spaced for a variety of low voltage devices. While I only selected the Phone, TV, and Computer Network modules, you could also expand to home security, audio/video distribution, or even home automation.
The Leviton Structured Media Center was just another way to "future-proof" the house. It also provided some much needed organization for all of that cabling. It was also very easy to install. The box was designed for fit between studs that were 16 inches apart - just another reason why studs 16 inches on center is the magic number for framing.
I wanted to place the new box next to the circuit breaker panel, but also wanted some space between the two boxes. This meant that the whole "16 inches apart" theory went out the window. Not to mention that some creative carpentry was required to leave ample room for running both the enormus electrical conduit and many tiny low voltage wires. However, I think the framing turned out quite nicely. In fact it all came together fairly quickly.
That just left the actual wiring. Using what's called an Irwin bit, I drilled one inch holes through every joist along the basement. What a mess! Those holes were large enough to pass all of the cable and phone lines through. As you can see in the picture to the right, the top module is for the cable and phone junction (Also an RF amplifier directly beneath it). It sure was a lot more organized than the mess under the joists.
Next came the computer network. I already had Ethernet run to many of the rooms in the house, however I wanted to use the new box as the central location. The middle module in the picture to the right shows an 8-Port Switch used for routing computer data.
The 8-Port Switch needed to be plugged in. That required an electrical outlet module at the bottom of the box. I also got an extra empty bracket for mounting things in the future. For now it's just a tray holding my spare push-pins and outlet plugs.
With the box so close to the circuit breaker panel, I didn't think this wasn't much of a problem. Still, with that new 200 Amp Breaker Box I was a little scared. Luckily for me, my friend Dave, who's done a lot of electrical work, came over and showed me how to do it. It was still pretty scary, but I had wired in my first circuit breaker!
I was really excited about getting this part done, and it all turned out exactly like I imagined!
