I live in a one-story ranch with an unfinished basement and attic, in the middle of a project where I’ll have access to a bare, un-drywalled wall. I know that eventually I’ll want to run low voltage/Ethernet cable from the basement out to my attached garage, probably through the attic as the garage is only separated from the rest of the attic by Sheetrock.

I just don’t know how much Ethernet cable I’ll be wanting to run.

I think conduit would probably be the best for traversal/future proofing this, but I have no clue what kind to get.

Any suggestions? Things I should look out for?

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    I would keep it simple and get 1/2" metallic EMT conduit. Unless you’re running multiple lengths of cat 8.2 ethernet cable through–and you might want to do that, IDK–you shouldn’t need larger.

    You’ll need a bender, a hacksaw and/or cordless band saw (something like this), something to deburr the inside and outside of the conduit after you cut it, and you’ll need a hole saw large enough to run the conduit through (for putting holes in studs). You can use stud shoes if you end up needing to reinforce the studs because the hole is large. If you’re running through joists, check building code in your area on where they’re supposed to go. The strongest location is at the top of a joist, at the bottom of the joist will weaken the joist, and your local building code may require middle.

    If I were you, I would suggest not putting more than 360 degrees of bend in any run without also putting in a junction box that you can access once the drywall is installed (this is probably also a building code issue). The more bends you have in a run, the more difficult it is to get your fish tape through the conduit. Unless you don’t have any other options, I would not use the elbow fittings except where they will be exposed; you won’t be able to push a fish tape through/past them. The tighter the bend in the conduit is, the harder it’s going to be to fish wires/cables through.

    Oh, and you probably shouldn’t use the same conduit for electrical runs.

    Hope that helps.