CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**kal**

Hi guys,

Before our basement gets finished (drywalled) I'll be installing a ton of CAT6 between the ceiling joists and wall studs.
Is "riser" rated cabling ok or do I need to use the more expensive "plenum" rated cabling?

Kal

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 1786 Location: Cloverdale

i think that you need plenum, but it's been a long time since i was running cable in Ontario. is the riser FT (flame test) rated?

**kal** · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:11 pm Post subject:

Hmm, I don't know. I haven't bought anything yet. Just trying to figure out what I need so that I know what to buy when I'm standing in the aisles at Home Depot. Wink

I don't really know and researching/googling comes up with all sorts of different answers. It appears that either will work but i'm not sure.

The house already has a bunch of builder installed CAT5e that says it's "FT4" rated which seems to be some sort of fire rating too. (They installed CAT5e for the phone outlets).

I'll likely be using some of this CAT6 for HDMI distribution over distance using the Lumagen HDMI-CAT6 extender: http://www.curtpalme.com/HDMICAT6extender.shtm

Though some of it will be because I don't know what the future will bring. I'd like to do conduits to future proof too. We'll see.

Kal

dturco · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:12 pm Post subject:

Riser is fine. Riser is used in enclosed walls with insulation or without it. Riser wire is used because the wall cavity is enclosed and will contain the smoke from the melting wire if a fire happens. With that said do make sure that "Fire Stop Compound" is used at all penetrations when running the wires.

Plenum is fire rated for use in commercial applications where the entire Ceiling grid is the air return. That why its called plenum. The area above the drop ceiling is an air return for the whole building. If a fire breaks out the sheathing on the cable has a higher temperature rating and has a chemical fire retardant built in it to arrest burning and produces less smoke and toxic chemicals when it melts.

So for a home Riser type is all that is needed.

**kal** · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:14 pm Post subject:

Thanks dturco - that makes sense!

Kal

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:25 pm Post subject:

Keep in mind that Canadian electrical codes are tougher than US ones. IT's been literally years since I did research, when that Save On Foods building collapsed, it got reeeealy tough for a few years to do electrical work in Vancouver, but it's slackened off again.

Rule of thumb, at least here in Vancouver, is : If the building is made of flammable material (wood), then use whatever. Out here it's called FT4 cable. Cable brought in from the US will not meet Canadian electrical code, the FT4 needs to be stamped on the wire itself. I believe that's a Canada wide code.

If it's a non flammable building (concrete and steel construction), then the thought is that they do not want the wiring to carry flame from one area of the building to another, and then it needs to be plenum/Teflon rated, and that's FT6.

**kal** · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:32 pm Post subject:

Thanks Curt.

It's a pretty typical house build: Poured concrete foundation with standard 2x4 and 2x6 timber framing for the first and second floors.

I'm guessing FT4 is fine given that existing CAT5e that the builder installed has that stamped on it. To be exact the existing CAT5e says: "TIA-568B.2.1 CAT5e 4UTP CMP FT4 C(ETL)US"

The only thing in that has anything to with fire rating is indeed the FT4.

Wire's not something I would buy out of province/country for rating reasons.

Still working on the final basement layout/design at which point I need to figure out if a bunch of CAT6 is what I actually want instead of something like a 75-100 foot HDMI cable.

Kal

dturco · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:55 pm Post subject:

Oh and just for kicks cat5e, the e stands for ethernet, is rated a a max speed of 350 megahertz, cat 6 is, 350 to 500 mhz, cat
6e is rated for 650 mhz I think. The best type of Cat6e should have a spline in it for extra shielding , but is way overkill for home use.

So Cat 6e Riser cable/wire with the proper Canadian markings is all that is needed.

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 1786 Location: Cloverdale

FT4 is "flame test 4" rating.

the E in cat5e is for "enhanced" as in "cat 5" vs "cat 5 enhanced". it is UTP (unsheilded twisted pair) ethernet cable that is rated for gigabit speed throughput. cat6 is also gig rated, but is markedly more expensive so you see whacks more of 5e.

cat5 is still ethernet cable, just only rated for 100M speeds. cat3 for 10M. the rating includes a length factor. so you can use a lesser rated cable for a shorter distance - sometimes. but it will be flaky. i've seen cat3 running 100M, but it was intermittant (and then replaced with the correct cable when discovered Smile

good point about the fire stop at floor divisions or holes. when my dad was building/designing a house for him and mom i suggested conduit up a set of coincidentally stacked closets and he got told that it would not be to code as it was a chimney. i bet that fire stop would have addressed that as that is what is done in commercial installs.

dturco · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:55 pm Post subject:

One more thing Cat 5e is 24 gauge and Cat 6 is 23 Gauge when bought in bulk spools. Under 100 ft it does not matter but from 150 feet up the speed rating is only on the Cat 6 wire.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10234

Just look around on Monoprice

**kal** · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys. I'll be buying it locally. Most likely Home Depot.

I'm really not concerned with ethernet speed. It'll mostly be used for possibly HDMI or other stuff. Just want to drop in some lines "just in case" if I can't do conduits to be futureproof.

I'll probably pull a couple of POTS lines too for IR or other control as I may need something in the future. Wire's cheap. Pull a lot. (Or install good conduits to be future proof).

Kal