Comment by godelski | Hacker News Reader

Comment by godelski | Hacker News Reader

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Rental or do you own?

If you own, you should replace and/or move them. Might sound scary if you've never done this before but it is much easier than you'd think. If you want to make your future life easier I suggest running a PVC pipe (at minimum in the drop down portion). Replacing or adding new cabling will be much easier if you do this so it's totally worth the few extra bucks and few extra minutes of work. They'll also be less likely to be accidentally damaged (stepping on them, rodents, water damage, etc). I seriously cannot understand why this is not more common practice (leave the pull string in). You might save a few bucks but you sacrifice a lot more than you're saving... (chasing pennies with pounds)

If rental, you could put in an extender. If you're less concerned about aesthetics you can pop the wall place off and directly tie into the existing cable OR run a new one in parallel. If you're willing to donate the replacement wire and don't have access to the attic but do to both ends of the existing cable then you can use one to pull the other through. You could coil the excess wire behind the plate when you reinstall it. But that definitely runs the risk of losing the cable since it might be navigating through a hard corner. If you go that route I'd suggest just asking your landlord. They'd probably be chill about it and might even pay for it.

There are times I do envy people living in stick houses with hollow walls.

Stick houses with hollow walls are cheaper to build (assuming cheap wood) and cheaper to work on. Probably cheaper to maintain too, but not as durable, so it might work out... Otoh, durable isn't great when housing trends have moved on.

> not as durable

Your clearly don’t live in an earthquake prone area.

I do. But given how cheapskate New Zealand is, I’m 100% sure that we would build in stone and brick if it was cheaper.

I do live on the west coast of the US. Unreinforced masonry doesn't do well in earthquakes, but reinforced masonry or concrete is probably more durable. I've got 25 year old wood siding, and it might make it to 30, but there's no way it'll be in reasonable shape at 40. It probably won't be too expensive to replace though.

Probably another great example of chasing pennies with pounds. {re,green,pink}bar is really cheap. Yes, it's more expensive but only 10-20% more. It's an upfront cost that that saves you tons of damage, which costs money too! Even more when you put off repair.

It's incredible how people do not understand boot theory... which seems to be something most people know but don't employ in practice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

My wood siding is original cedar that has been painted several times since 1970s when house was built … I haven’t considered it not lasting indefinitely

Much more durable in an earthquake though, which is important in places like the US where half the country is a serious seismic hazard zone. In many locales only wood or steel framing is allowed because historically stone and concrete construction collapsed due to the strength of the earthquakes.

Until it gets cold outside and you need to heat them, or cool then obviously

I live in a brick house where only half of the walls are hollow. Bringing Ethernet wires to a few critical areas and putting small surface-mount RJ-45 sockets was not that hard.

Of course, some thin raceways can be seen somewhere along the baseboard. It does not look terrible, and is barely noticeable.

Fibre is good for getting to hard-to-reach places.

But the slope is slippery. If you’re doing fibre, you might as well do 10gbe.

there are baseboards with build in raceways. installing some right now

Molding is your friend to create and hide channels, and it will make your place look more sophisticated than just the cube cave it is, my cave man friend.

Install a veneer

> If you want to make your future life easier I suggest running a PVC pipe (at minimum in the drop down portion). Replacing or adding new cabling will be much easier if you do this so it's totally worth the few extra bucks and few extra minutes of work.

I’m trying to understand how removing an entire sheet of gypsum (or cutting a 6” by 8’ channel) and installing an empty PVC raceway is ‘a few extra minutes of work’. Installing the PVC might be, but you’re looking at hours of work over multiple days to replace the drywall and refinish the wall.

Raceways are unnecessary in stick built houses if you have a fish stick and fish tape. If you’re building a new house, then sure, install 1” EMT as raceway for Cat6A before putting up the drywall.

  > I’m trying to understand how removing an entire sheet of gypsum

This is a fixed task. Required if you install the conduit or not. You have to cut the wall to make the port. If you have the port you can just use a slightly longer conduit, brace it where you can reach, and oh no you need an extra 2" of cable?

  > Raceways are unnecessary in stick built houses

Your mental model is too naïve. Have you done this before? Have you then replaced it or added additional lines?

The conduit makes all that easier, and provides the additional protection that I discussed. By having a conduit you're far less likely to get snagged on something while fishing the lines. You can stop hard corners that strip your cables while pulling on them. It's also a million times easier to see while you're chasing those cables. Sure, your house is a framing with wood but you still have insulation and who likes icy hands?

Really, think about it. What is the cost now compared to the future?

Is an additional 10 or let's even say a crazy 50% additional work now really that costly when you have to do the whole thing again in the future? And multiple times? It's a no brainier lol. Definition of chasing pennies with pounds. Just be nice to your future self. Be lazy long term, not lazy short term because lazy short term requires more work

> Your mental model is too naïve. Have you done this before? Have you then replaced it or added additional lines?

I sell and run electrical work for a living (including low-voltage cabling), I have thought about how cables get pulled into existing walls in virtually any scenario you can contrive. Block, steel stud, brick, wood stud, precast tip-up; both drop ceiling and hardlid.

Cutting open walls to install low-voltage raceway is very uncommon because it’s substantially more expensive (or just way more work) than cutting two small holes (or using an attic/basement for access) and using a fish tape.

Non-professionals overestimate how many cables they’ll pull into existing low-voltage raceways in the future. Pull in an extra cable the first time and you’re future proofed.

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