Wrighty towers is tired. This year on the back of other works I will be gutting our house. New windows and doors to start with then all internal plaster off. Plumbing is OK so rad positions will be the same. However I’m going for a full rewire. Having all the plaster off enables me to do pretty much anything. It’s a good sized 3 bed semi, first thoughts are ensuite in our room as we only have the one bathroom currently in the house. Any ideas on the rewire, just standard sockets and switches in the usual places or go for some kind of data and perhaps speaker system? Is that all a bit old school what with wireless capability these days?

If it was me I’d fit a new heating system powered by a Tandoor oven – then if you want hot water for a bath you have to make nan breads.

I’d definitely put network points in all rooms.

Tracking lasers hidden in the wall.
Do it,you know you want to.

Under floor heating and some nice tiled floors or polished concrete. An inside to outside kitchen extending into the garden for summer so you can move on and outside. A good gas bbq with wok burner for cooking the smelly stuff outside (even in winter). Despite WiFi being king cat 5 to all rooms. Also plenty of plugs and some USB sockets

rad positions will be the same

Underfloor heating

In a similar position I only ran Ethernet to a couple of points as wifi is so good these days. Having a gigabit switch to plug TV/Blu-ray/sky/other streamer into ensures they work no problem and no need for dongles

i love these threads….

half the stuff that gets suggested ive never had a need for …..

except the tandoor everyone needs a tandoor

Is ALL the plaster knackered ? Seems a bit extreme unless it really is all beyond repair. I imagine some walls could just be skimmed over ?
I’d be going for underfloor heating personally and doing away with radiators altogether. Wiring wise I’d be adding perhaps 25% extra sockets in to what you ‘need’, they always come in and it saves unsightly 4 socket extentions. Re networking, I know nowt about that, use a wifi hub but only surf the web and don’t do any actual work online at home. I’d also go to town on insulation in the loft and look at some sound insulation between party walls and perhaps in the room you’re likely to have loud music in ?

MoreCash Mansion is in a similar state of need, so watching this with interest. Wondering what sort of budget it would need on a 4 bed detached including heating. I’m guessing it would fall within the “smaller lottery win”/start another mortgage category.

From an electrical perspective, double sockets in every corner of rooms and the most accessible being the usb type. Lights inside any cupboards or fitted wardrobes. LED downlights so much nicer than a crappy pendant. Mains smoke, heat and CO detectors. Go for a grid switch in the kitchen so that all your appliances are controlled from a central point and there is no need for fused spur units above worktops for isolation purposes.
I reckon I need 3 ethernet cables coming up behind the TV for various things you want to connect to the internet.

Insulation everywhere (kingspan backed plasterboard).
Cat 6 cables and ports in certain locations – wireless is not as good as a wire.

I’d be making secret passages between rooms with concealed doors in bookcases…. and portraits with removable eyes so you can watch the occupants of your house unobserved.

Even if you want wifi it’d be worth putting wiring in place for access points in the places you want them for good coverage and/or having them in less visible/obvious places. Likewise if you’re not happy with when things like router, etc currently live then think about relocating them. Cat5 to the fixed things (TVs, games consoles, desktop PCs) is nice. Some people would advocate flood-wiring but I’m not sure I’d bother – just because you can do it fairly cheaply when plaster is off doesn’t mean you should if you won’t use it.

Kitchen ceiling speakers would be nice just to keep worktops and shelves clear. Still need somewhere to house an amp and other electronics for it though.

Mostly I’d just like enough power sockets everywhere I want them.

Edit: oh, and if you want (or may want) an alarm at some point – wired is better.

A basement. I’ve always wanted a house with a basement.

i love these threads….

half the stuff that gets suggested ive never had a need for …..

except the tandoor everyone needs a tandoor

I forgot to mention – while we’re looking at pipes rather than cables

3 taps in the kitchen – hot, cold and humous.

Network cable all over.. doesn’t have to be used for network. Media converters will allow you to run HDMI, speakers or whatever over CAT6.
Network to central ceiling point for decent wifi access point in the centre of the house powered by POE switch.

J

Nobody’s suggested sex dungeon yet?

Sex dungeon.
….and a pizza oven.

When talking about cat 5 and 6 cables – do all of these plug into the router or is another box of tricks required?

internal wall insulation? really good time to sort out the draft proofing. Not as exciting as cabling, but will save mega bucks in the future.

I’d also have cat5 to all rooms. I had them added to mine, a couple of years ago, just to two rooms. always want more, just like plug sockets. more more more.

good time to think about swapping the way doors open, i also had that done. so they now open onto the wall, rather than into the room. makes huge difference.

Just finished works on our house. Network cable fitted from office (where the BT master socket was moved to) to behind the TV and into an 8 port network switch. The difference from everything previously being wireless is definitely noticeable.
Wish I’d thought about speaker wires for the surround sides and rears. May have to retrofit when MrsTTP isn’t looking 8)
We looked at underfloor heating, but retrofitting would have been prohibitively expensive. Now have double panel/double convector rads driven by an Ideal Standard Vogue combi boiler. Works very well, but we did move some rads after considering placement of furniture.

What I really wanted was a soundproof basement cinema with hot and cold running popcorn 🙂

[Edit] +1 door opening direction. Changed a couple of ours and the flow in the house is so much better.

Ejector seats

motion sensors

200kW jungleist sound system and revolving dancefloor

a butchers block*

*I wouldn’t really but I’m married so I have to say that

We did this 3 years ago.

2 x CAT5 outlets in each bedroom, which all run back to the router.
Router moved to underneath main TV, which is plugged in via Ethernet rather than relying on WiFi.

Smoke/heat/carbon monoxide detectors all linked/hard wired, and all controlled via small test/reset panel.

Double plug in the corner of every room – 3 or 4 x double plugs under the TV.

Outside lights switched properly rather than on plugs.

Things I wish we’d done –

Outside power sockets – if you put Christmas lights outside you can hide a socket up near your fascia boards and switch it from inside?
Ethernet up to Shed/Garage
cabling for burglar alarm/CCTV

good time to think about swapping the way doors open, i also had that done.

So that you have to feel around in the dark on the wrong side of the door for the lightswitch 😆 (speaks a man who’s currently refurbing his parents house and having to re-re-hang the doors)

Positive pressure ventilation unit in the loft.

Proper wet room instead of a bathroom.
Everything else is covered.

Underfloor heating.
Wired network in every room.
More sockets, sockets with 2.1A USB ports.

Sensible wifi hub locations.
Server cupboard of some description (can keep your ethernet switching/router and suchlike in there if you’re not yet running Server/NAS type stuff)

Wish I’d thought about speaker wires for the surround sides and rears.

At what point did you NOT think about this? 🙄

For speakers I’m going sonos next time. Fixes that

An isolation tank.

You in a suitable location/budget bracket for a thermal store and solar hot water? And do you have space for it.

Might be worth looking into.

I feel like a luddite for asking…. but whats all the cat 5 / 6 cable for?

whats all the cat 5 / 6 cable for?

Maybe he’s a cataholic?

The Pope would approve.

Network, most routers have a WiFi channel the speed is split between the devices connected. Wired connections get the full speed.

key safe

priest hole

Orangery.

Will discourage crows.

maccruiskeen : full re-wire, means light switches can be relocated to suit doors 😉

Even wireless AC is marginally slower than ethernet.

So we’ve got our gravity challenged devices on cables and laptops/phones/tablet on wireless N or AC.

We’ve just had a a lot of electrical work done and plastering.

In contrast to the majority opinion, we didn’t run Cat5 everywhere, it’s our house not an office block, what possible need to I have for a router in the bedroom? Just plugged power line adapters in the rooms where wi-fi was an issue.

More plugs than you need though. And ones with USB sockets in the likely places (behind the TV for the chromecast, in the kitchen for charging phones)

And if you want the modern, hidden screws, almost flush fitting sockets, spec them first, because they’re a PITA to fit into back boaxs which were intended for cheap plastic sockets unless your electrician took an unreasonable degree of price in his work those white sockets cover a multitude of sins.

Surround speaker cabling would be nice, although after we finished we spun the living room round 90deg, so it requires a degree of commitment to the interior design.

The one thing I regret is not moving the phone socket. It would make more sense to have the router hidden away somewhere, not on the side table in the study where the phone would have been 10 years ago.

One thing to consider from the data point of view is using non-shit wifi gear. A the base Ubiquiti wifi access point can be unobtrusively ceiling mounted and powered over the same ethernet cable that connects it to the router, so if you’re gutting the house then all the wiring can be hidden and you just have a 20cm wide white disc on the ceiling somewhere central.

A caravan out back to live in and turn the house into a bike workshop.

You can have this idea free – my wife fails to appreciate its genius so I can’t use it.