Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Category 6a & Co-axial Cable Installation

I spent several weeks running Category 6a (CAT6a) network cable and co-axial satellite/antenna cable throughout the entire house. This involved running it through joists, over joists, through certain sections of wall and terminating in each room. The idea is to run all this cable back to one central location downstairs in the return, where a wall-mounted cabinet will interconnect all rooms. This will allow for the distribution of internet to each room, as well as numerous other media options like HD video, satellite feeds, CCTV, HDMI sources, WIFI etc.

CAT6a cable allows network speeds of up to 10GBASE-T (10-Gigabit) and each room receives at least two cables. Each room is also supplied with two CT100 co-axial cables, allowing the sharing of both satellite feeds and terrestrial digital TV. There is also five co-axial feeds to the attic to supply an antenna and satellite dish.

Alarm cable was also run to every window, outside door, control panel location etc.

Running the feeds to the attic (black cable):




Top floor bedroom:



First floor living room has the most cable runs, as the main TV will be mounted within the archway. The corner beside the TV will have a small cabinet, housing amplifier, video sources etc. There are also speaker cables run through this room for 5.1 surround sound (6.1/7.1 would be too intrusive with the amount of speakers required):



TV location has numerous power, CAT6a, speaker and co-axial runs:



First floor rear bedroom:



The hallway:


Ground floor dining room:


The kitchen:


Feeds throughout the house:





The main access hole from the house to the return:










All cables as mentioned terminate in the downstairs of the return, to become the utility room:





The automatic roller door was finally installed and works very well. The steel beam will be painted to match the door:


With the light in the mews now installed, it's clear to see that there was once windows in the wall that backs on to the garden. It would be great to open these up once more:




Thursday, 11 September 2014

Kitchen Ceiling & Mews Work

The kitchen ceiling was reinforced today, in preparation for slabbing. All joists were also treated with a wood preservative:




I also brought power out to the mews and wired a light and sockets. The automatic roller door is to be installed tomorrow.




I had some spare Kingspan board lying about so filled the large gap between the two steel beams:


Friday, 5 September 2014

Dining Room Ceiling Reinforcement

The dining room, to be located in the front room on the ground floor had a severely sagging ceiling for many years. At some stage, the original joists were braced with modern timber to strengthen the floor above, however the sagging remained as the original warped joists were not removed.

The floor above had to be reinforced before a new ceiling was put in, as the plaster would continue to crack unless properly addressed.

Two steel beams were installed within and below the ceiling joists. The beam spanning left to right is a T-beam and sits inside the joists via slots cut within them. It is then bolted via a welded plate to a single large box section of steel running perpendicular to the T-beam. All the steel rests upon brick within the interior walls and slate padstone shims on the exterior wall:









Friday, 22 August 2014

Mews Garage Door

After a few months break, work has begun again, this time on the mews at the back of the property. The plan was to widen the opening to 15ft, providing a wide entrance to allow a large saloon-sized vehicle access with ease, without having to maneuver several times out on the narrow street. However it transpires that 15ft was much too long a span for the steel head to support the stone overhead. This resulted in a change of plan to 12ft, which should be sufficient. Below is the mews before any work, with the original 7.5ft wide opening:


The old steel head was already beginning to degrade so replacement was necessary even if I hadn't planned to widen the entrance:


Work began on Monday, installing acros and beams through the stone to temporarily support the weight overhead. This allowed excess stone to be removed, a new reveal built on the right side and the insertion of a new steel head, comprising two steel beams and steel support plates:


Stone slowly being removed whilst the new reveal is built:








The walls are slightly thinner than the house itself, 19" thick:


Overhead:


Much of the red brick from the original right hand reveal had started to crumble, so what was salvageable was used to face more modern blocks.



New steel and supporting plates were then inserted:




The supporting plates below. The old "plates" were slate!


The finished reveal:



Just a small bit of the stone rubble:


The finished job, some daytime pictures coming soon:















Thursday, 29 May 2014

Bathroom Floor

After a long delay, work has begun again. The first area receiving attention is the bathroom floor, which had to be emptied of the bath and toilet so it could be professionally sanded. The end finish will be a chestnut stain and clear varnish.

The sanding below is a rough sand; it's to be followed by a medium sanding and then a fine sanding:




The floor boards are original and approximately 190 years old, still in excellent condition:


A colour sample of the proposed stain:


Martin was quite surprised by how well the stain took to the dry boards, he didn't expect them to accept the stain as well as a fresh piece of timber. The whole floor should be complete in a few days.