18 Apr NETWORK CABLING TIPS
NETWORK CABLING TIPS FOR A WAREHOUSE OR HARSH WORK AREAS
Warehouse or “harsh” work areas would go hand and hand with protection from the environment or elements and here are some network cabling tips for those areas.
Cabling comes in a wide selection and including outside cabling or what is called outside plant cabling. For example outside cooper wiring might contain gel inside the jacket to protect against the elements or just a thicker jacket. Check with your cabling installation team to see the ratings of the cable or just do a bit of research online.
Network Cabling Tips
A favorite for Bridge Cable techs in warehouse drops or locations is to mount a piece of conduit from the ceiling down the wall to protect the cabling from bumps or nicks.
Conduit is an almost MUST HAVE for cabling a warehouse.
Attaching an outlet box with housing the network or telephone jacks in the faceplate attached to the conduit provides protection. Along the actual run of network cabling from the server room or MDF or IDF we might run conduit along the entire run. Depending on budget and the condition of the install, keep in mind not much activity happens at the top of the warehouse or high ceilings plants.
Never….NEVER run next to electrical lines. If you have placed your cabling bundle or run next to them, encased in conduit. For example, a car dealership might have run low voltage wiring next to electrical lines. Can you imagine when drills or heavy power tools used by the dealership sends power spikes from starting up the equipment. Imagine the loss of signal conducted or carried by the network or telephone wiring. We have seen it and just plain logic as well.
Prepping the site for a network drop: common items or ideas
Prepping your drop locations or work areas.
Okay, so the cabling has been run from the server room and now you are at the end location or work area. First of all, use a stud sensor for possible trouble. Then cut in the TOP of the drop location on the wall. We have seen some techs cutting from the bottom up, in some cases you have too. However cutting some the top down you can run your rods or wiring directly down the wall, just to make sure there are no studs or something down behind the middle of the wall. If so, try to move a few inches over if you can.
Note: Just make sure when you are about to cut a hole in the bottom for the faceplate, move your wiring from behind the cut zone.
We have taught new rookies that you might cut the wiring with your drywall saw by accident. We typically at Bridge Cable carry a shop vac but in smaller offices that we need to be quiet in, a piece of cardboard or paper does a good job of containing the drywall dust from the cuts.
Quick Tip: Find the copier room in the office you are working at. Tons of paper are usually laying around, take one of those cardboard boxes. Handy cheap work area “toolbox” too!
Some Tips For Doing A Cabling Installation
With face plates we started here in the Philadelphia office started installing ones with more ports than needed.
Add more ports than needed.
I
n an environment that more drops might be added in time, we find it’s more cost-effective to install like a 4 port if just 2 ports or jacks are being installed. It’s actually kinder to the Earth as well!
We would love to hear back from other network cabling installation techs and share your tips as well. Call us for advice (877) 832-1206 – We travel to the entire Philadelphia area including King of Prussia area as well as all New Jersey cities.
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