CAT cable in concrete screed

[OceanDad]

Hi,

Working remotely on an apartment refurb project in the UK - ground floor apartment with no CAT cable currently in the property.  Floor construction is concrete slab, on top of which will be underfloor heating encased in a concrete screed.  Walls are solid block, so very difficult to run any cable through the walls (not sheetrock and timber etc.)

My question is whether I could use outdoor/direct burial CAT6 cable directly within the screed ?  That would be very simple as it could be done at the same time as the underfloor heating is being laid.  Will the jacket of the cable be 'screed-proof' ?  Or do I need to run conduit etc. ?

[SpencerT]

4 minutes ago, OceanDad said:

Hi,

Working remotely on an apartment refurb project in the UK - ground floor apartment with no CAT cable currently in the property.  Floor construction is concrete slab, on top of which will be underfloor heating encased in a concrete screed.  Walls are solid block, so very difficult to run any cable through the walls (not sheetrock and timber etc.)

My question is whether I could use outdoor/direct burial CAT6 cable directly within the screed ?  That would be very simple as it could be done at the same time as the underfloor heating is being laid.  Will the jacket of the cable be 'screed-proof' ?  Or do I need to run conduit etc. ?

The jacket will not be "screed" proof. Run a conduit.

[RAV]

Recommend do not put the cable in the conduit until after the concrete is set.
The curing process gives off heat, and could damage the conductor's insulation/twist of the cable depending on conduit, thickness, application process, covering, etc.

[Andrew luecke]

Make sure you put fibre cable too. Wifi 7 likely requires fibre for full performance (it operates up to 40-50gbps

[SpencerT]

<vent>

No offense to anyone (and certainly not to you, Andrew), but i have heard this "make sure you run fiber everywhere" argument since the mid 90s. I don't at all agree.

Fiber to an outbuilding? Absolutely. Burial or aerial? Go for it for protection alone. Nether have f*ck titty to do with bandwidth.

You truly have client devices pulling 40gbps bandwidth on your LAN? At home? Good on ya. But I'd suggest you fix that.

Fiber for the next (non ratified) legacy system? Don't waste your money or your time.

That's what conduit and $20 worth of pull cord are for (If you buy the tiny spools). 

Cable has a finite life. 10 year old "dark" fiber isn't even worth the time to terminate and test. It's faster and cheaper to pull it fresh. 

No offense to anyone. 

</vent>

[Andrew luecke]

10 hours ago, SpencerT said:

<vent>

No offense to anyone (and certainly not to you, Andrew), but i have heard this "make sure you run fiber everywhere" argument since the mid 90s. I don't at all agree.

Fiber to an outbuilding? Absolutely. Burial or aerial? Go for it for protection alone. Nether have f*ck titty to do with bandwidth.

You truly have client devices pulling 40gbps bandwidth on your LAN? At home? Good on ya. But I'd suggest you fix that.

Fiber for the next (non ratified) legacy system? Don't waste your money or your time.

That's what conduit and $20 worth of pull cord are for (If you buy the tiny spools). 

Cable has a finite life. 10 year old "dark" fiber isn't even worth the time to terminate and test. It's faster and cheaper to pull it fresh. 

No offense to anyone. 

</vent>

• 24gbps Wifi 7 (Draft) routers already exist. The BE900 as an example has a SFP port built in. It's reasonable to expect high-end wifi AP's will also take this approach (but likely offer Link Aggregation too via copper, if you want to run 4x copper cables to the high end Wifi 7 AP's when released).
• Apparently 200x wifi7 draft products  already exist..
• Fibre is cheap these days, is electrically isolated and doesn't have interference problems.
• You also don't need to worry about length limitations (as much) either
• A 2C OM4 30m preterminated fibre lead is likely cheaper than  $40USD (so not expensive at all, and extra cores are more cost effective). SFP modules are also cheap. I've pulled cables through using a pull cord, and sometimes, it can take a lot of screwing around (especially if there are already cables in the conduit, or if you're running multiple cables).
• You also still can use pull cord.
• Due to the low latency of WiFi 7 we may see more AV applications

 

It's up to each installer to determine if they want to install fiber or not. But the price difference these days isn't excessive for preterminated. At the bare minimum, it should be going to WIFI points already (the roadmap there is already mostly obvious).

[neil12011]

6 hours ago, SpencerT said:

<vent>

No offense to anyone (and certainly not to you, Andrew), but i have heard this "make sure you run fiber everywhere" argument since the mid 90s. I don't at all agree.

Fiber to an outbuilding? Absolutely. Burial or aerial? Go for it for protection alone. Nether have f*ck titty to do with bandwidth.

You truly have client devices pulling 40gbps bandwidth on your LAN? At home? Good on ya. But I'd suggest you fix that.

Fiber for the next (non ratified) legacy system? Don't waste your money or your time.

That's what conduit and $20 worth of pull cord are for (If you buy the tiny spools). 

Cable has a finite life. 10 year old "dark" fiber isn't even worth the time to terminate and test. It's faster and cheaper to pull it fresh. 

No offense to anyone. 

</vent>

 

Not gonna lie, first time hearing this.  Laffs.