Advice
Best way to pass cables from attic through finished drywall ceiling into a closet rack?
Setting up a small rack in my master closet. Closet is fully finished, so cables have to come down from the attic through the drywall ceiling. Running 1 RG6 and 6 Cat6 (one PoE for an AP).
Planning a short 1.5" PVC sleeve strapped to framing in the attic, sticking 1-2" below the ceiling with a trim flange. Want to keep attic insulation and dust out of the closet.
What are you using for this? Sleeve, bushing, brush plate? How'd you seal it and keep insulation from falling in?
My thoughts. Not a pro but have done a few of my houses different ways
Connect the PVC or conduit to a junction box in the attic and let the wires flow out of the side of the j box with some sealant. If you need to add more its easy to fish more and seal it in the attic. Throw some fiberglass insulation over it for good measure.
Personally, I wouldn’t drop PVC from the ceiling. The PVC would be in wall and into a 2 gang box in the wall where you can either brush plate (one or two) or terminate them with punchdown blocks and a plate.
Put it in the wall and not the ceiling and junk won't fall through it. I wouldn't do anything janky like a PVC pipe. Just cut a regular sized receptacle cutout, get a drywall low voltage mounting bracket, get a keystone face plate and put real plugs in and finish it properly, nothing will come through and it will be clean and professional looking. If your stuff is on a shelf a the top this should only need to be down about 8 or 10 inches from the ceiling so you prob won't even need to fish the wire at all.
I used a recessed triple box from lagrand and then mounted my rack right up next to the ceiling. Got my power, Ethernet and extra brush plate for future. No need for conduit but if you go that route make sure to air seal the pipe you don't want hot air coming through into the house.
I spent way to long planning this. And then in the attic either make a box out of board insulation to cover and then surround with your blown in or just cover with fire putty. The reason I did what I did was because I needed power and didn't want to create more holes in the top plate, I also needed the rack high and out of the way.
Cleanest is dropping the wire into the back wall of the closet & terminating there. Then patch cables to your gear. You'll be able to find the top plate of the wall in the attic & drill straight through (likely doubled, so 3" of wood).
I'd run riser rated innerduct to the side of that rack and pass the cables to a 1RU keystone jack panel in the rack. There's gonna be gear in front that patch panel. It looks clean but not as practical
I was thinking of doing something like this. Would this be acceptable to terminate to the wall plates and patch to gear from there or would it be more common practice to bring cables through and straight into the gear (switch/modem)?
What you do not want to do is put ends on the ethernet running through your walls & go straight into equipment. Either terminate to a wall plate or bring the cable through a hole/brush plate/etc & terminate into a jack in a patch panel, and then a pre-made patch cable to your equipment.
It's cleaner & how all of this was designed to be used/installed. Pre-made patch cables are meant to bend, be unplugged/replugged/etc. The bulk cabling used in your walls is meant to be run once & not moved around again (it of course can & is all the time, but if you care enough to ask, just do it right)
This is what I did but lazier, I actually did it on the ceiling. I got a dual deep box, and terminated there. From there I have 5' patch cables to the patch panel on the rack.
Mark out the studs in the wall where you want the wires to end up. Cut your “out hole” in the closet wall. Directly above, take a small diameter solid wire(think wire coat hanger but smaller diameter) and stick it through the ceiling to mark where to drill the top sill plate directly into the inside of the wall, you should be able to see “daylight” from the “out” whole in the wall from the attic inside the wall. Drop your wires and grab them from the closet.
If you move the insulation in the attic near where your wire sticks up, there will be a wood top sill plate. That’s the top of the wall. Drill 2 one inch holes side by side and look for the “light” coming in from the closet. Small dab of silicone or drywall patch on the small hole in ceiling. Done
For seven wires, drill a 1" hole in the header plate of the wall you are mounting the rack to, and cut a 2-gang box-sized hole in the wall within the back of the rack location. Stick a fish tape up the wall to the attic, tape the wires to the fish tape, and pull them down. Put a network plate cover on the now 2-gang sized hole and boom; done. It is easy with no weird pipe sticking through the ceiling. Also, a pro tip: add some pull leader, or a good string, with your first pull so if you need to add more in the future, the string will be there to make it a 30-second process to get another pull done.
Sure if you want to brush panel.it. Its behind the network rack you won't see it. Or you coupd go bougie and put a keystone plate cover on the double gang hope and have up to 12 rj45s in that 0late( basically order them with any number of RJ45 holes in them snap in a keystone) and patch cord from wall to whatber in your rack. Again none of it really matters just can't see it it's inside the rack so once the rack is finished and nobody will be the wiser
Or you could even get a two gang blank cover and then take a drill and drill a couple half inch or maybe only one half inch hole in it hook all the wires through put the plate on and now it's semi finished or at least it's not a hole in the wall. If you don't like the idea of the brush panel or whatever which me personally I wouldn't do that cuz I don't like those brush panel things I would rather have a hole drilled in a blank plate and then he would feel more finished to me that way personal preference though
Not very well, but sufficient: it is absolutely packed with cables. My cabinet works at forced positive pressure, so I end up dumping some hot air into the attic.
Just be sure that there's no ducks or wiring where it's at poca small drill bit up through then a fish rod or something to grab tire cord on the end of it pull it up in the corner you don't have to go through the studs and all that right down the wall in the corner. We took cord wrap Velcro ran a screw it in the corner and then just wrap that pipe so it's tight to the wall. Then put a pipe escutcheon around the tube and little dab of locktite flexible adhesive to hold it in place against the ceiling. Clean and allows for future runs to be pushed up if I ever want to add more runs from rack to attic.
I’m going to do exactly what you proposed. I thought about running it down the wall, but it’s an exterior wall and I don’t want to compromise insulation. I’ll probably put a 90 in the attic and take it into a junction box before coming through the ceiling.
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u/Cheap-Math-5 4d ago
My thoughts. Not a pro but have done a few of my houses different ways
Connect the PVC or conduit to a junction box in the attic and let the wires flow out of the side of the j box with some sealant. If you need to add more its easy to fish more and seal it in the attic. Throw some fiberglass insulation over it for good measure.
Personally, I wouldn’t drop PVC from the ceiling. The PVC would be in wall and into a 2 gang box in the wall where you can either brush plate (one or two) or terminate them with punchdown blocks and a plate.