Is installing data cable conduits impossible?

[Nickfromwales]

  On 23/03/2025 at 10:33, YorkieSelfBuild said:

My builder says it wouldn't work going through floors, corners, studs and joists.

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If you want to go right through the building, say from plant / comms room to each TV / WAP point, then consider using 20 or 25mm lay flay or MLC pipe instead of conduit. This will give you one long sweeping run which you can easily pull a cable through retrospectively. This wont crush or kink like flexible conduit will, but won't be a royal PITA to pull in like rigid conduit would.

 

You'd need 1x run for each location, but with a bit of planning and thoughtful layout you can make longer sweeping bends vs sharp turns by making the run follow the 'not as the crow flies / point to point' route. Simply use string and a hoover to install fish / draw lines and leave in situ for whatever may come in the future (like fibre to all areas in the home). Not sure how much more internet a home would / could need tbf though, so a reality check is often wise; lots get caught up micro-managing the shit out of non real-life stuff and forget there's a house to build .

 

Plan for embedded CAT6 now, and install the conduit (pipe) in addition for Justin Case, if you think such redundancy will be required. Likelihood is everything will go over Wi-Fi eventually, and you'll just upgrade the WAP's to suit, and gigabit tech is pretty damn solid tbh. I just installed Wi-Fi7 WAP's for a client we moved in end of last year and I was super-impressed with how well they performed (only 2x units in a 300m2 TF dwelling).