1960' Split Level Wall Constuction

[RMDavis]

Hi -

I have a 1960 split level in which I need to run an ethernet cable from the first level to the third level.

Ideally I'd prefer to run the cable in the common wall between the three levels.

My question is this:  How is the third level connected to the common wall?  From what I can see from the crawlspace the wall appears to be 2x4's.  This leads me to believe the third level is resting on a board that is nailed to the 2x4's - which in turn means the wall space may be open from the first through third levels.  Is this correct?

 

[Packard]

I grew up in a split level (built circa 1956).

As a teenager, I routed speaker lines between the third level (my bedroom) and the den (lower level).

As I recall, I routed the wires inside the closet, which allowed me to penetrate the ceiling in the garage and the exposed wires in the garage did not upset my parents. 

In any case, what is your closet situation?  Can you route your wires through the closet? 

(Re-thinking, the closet in my bedroom had an adjoining wall with the hall closet.  It was through the hall closet that I was able to penetrate to the garage. The exposed wires were not in the living areas. 

As a side note, when my parents were in their late 70s, they came to resent the split level layout.

The kitchen was on the main floor along with the living room and formal dining room.  But no bathroom.

The three bedrooms were on the top floor alonw with two bathrooms.  My parents had a TV in their bedroom.

The lower floor had the den and garage and a half bath.

The laundry was in the basement.

It was impossible to live on any one floor.  You had to climb stairs to use the bathroom or you had to descend stairs to eat. 

In their late 70s, stairs were their enemies.

When I went to shop for a house, I looked for a ranch.

 

[festal]

I'm in a split now and agree with packard.  I'm 45 so its not bad. I hired a wiring company to run the ethernet cable when we moved into the house and they did run something in to that wall that you mentioned.  Don't remember the details but it that wall is right in line with the basement where the patch panel was so they used it to snake up the wires to different locations in the house and outside of the house for cameras and wifi

 

[squall_line]

I would assume that the two-story section of the split-level is built like any other two-story house.  I would imagine it's two 8-foot walls on top of each other.

I doubt there's a raceway that was run just for low-voltage wiring, but I'm sure there was telephone line run to almost every room in the 60s, so you may be able to trace that.

If you want to run the wire to code, I don't think you can run it through the closet ceiling and the matching closet floor, but your local inspectors may vary on that.

 

[eschumac]

If needed you can run plenum rated cable through a duct.

 

[RMDavis]

Thank you for all the replies.  Great food for thought and exploration. 

I had not thought of using the closet space or the ducting at all.

I concur with the inability to live on one floor.  I thinks the stairs are keeping a little healthier at this point (I'm 66).  Time will tell a far different story, no do9ubt.

 

[smorgasbord]

Who runs ethernet cable anymore? The latest generation of WiFi 6 routers yield great throughput without wires.

As for stairs, we're in our mid-60s and living in a 2-story house we built 28 years ago. The stairs are not yet a problem, and I concur that having stairs so far is probably helpful in terms of exercise. At some point, we could end up living on the first floor, as there's a bedroom and bathroom there, but I dread that happening.

Old Age - the one disease you don't look forward to being cured of.

 

[six-point socket II]

Hardwiring is not obsolete & bandwidth really would be the last of my concerns in that regard.

Needs vary obviously.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[RMDavis]

smorgasbord -

It's for a digital TV. 

In my experience, cabled is just more reliable.  And more likely a case of my old school way of connectivity.

Ross

 

[squall_line]

I hard-wire most of my streaming devices for stability's sake.  Easy enough to do when you have an unfinished full-heigh basement where it's easy to run cable.  In a house built in the 60s, which likely has metal mesh lath and plaster walls, you might as well be living in a Faraday cage.

I also hard-wire my access points because they're all POE.  It saves me from having to figure out a power source outdoors or in a remote location.

YMMV

 

[eschumac]

Who runs ethernet cable anymore? The latest generation of WiFi 6 routers yield great throughput without wires.

You have to put the Access Point somewhere. Not the best idea to use the cable companies router/wifi box. For so many reasons, really. Even wifi 6 cannot meet the speed of Ethernet. Some might not need that speed. In a larger home it certainly helps to have something like Ubiquiti access points in the attic of upper floors.

Using less wifi in the home make the wifi/zigbee you do need work better.

 

[Packard]

At my parents’ house, when you walked into the house, in the foyer there was a small closet.  Just above it to the right was another closet.  As a split level, that closet was only about 6 feet above the lower closet, so there was 2 feet of shared wall. 

My bedroom closet shared a wall with the upper level closet.  So running a cable required going into my closet, through to the adjacent closet, down the the foyer closet, and through to the garage.  The stereo I was booking up to was in the den which was on the same level as the garage. 

Split levels are funny in how with some convolution you can manage to get from one floor to the next.  I would examine all your closets.  You will have to decide if it is acceptable to have exposed wiring in the garage (my parents did not mind). 

If you have a deck, you might be able to route cables outside.

And yes, the exercise is good for you.  When my parents got older, they consolidated their trips up and down, so I don’t know that they benefited as much as might be expected.

 

[Sparktrician]

I run CAT6 in a split network for security reasons.  I do have Wi-Fi available, but all my Wi-Fi-only electronics are white-listed and in restricted guest zones, again for security reasons.  YMMV...