Running Ethernet into a Pole Barn

[Farmallboy15]

My shop is about finished at this point. I am just trying to tidy up some loose ends. During rough-in I ran 1.25" PVC through the concrete up into my office for ethernet from the house. Inside the wall I put a LB running into the office with male adapter to screw into the back of a work box like this: https://www.menards.com/main/electr...9-c-6425.htm?tid=-4570578654225931118&ipos=32 On the work box, i mounted basically an ethernet wall plate to terminate the run. Unfortunately, the box does not allow me to push my desk all the way against the wall. In order to push the desk in, the box would have to move about 6" to the left.

Does anyone have any suggestions for offseting this (running from the male adapter to the box) with a minimum thickness outside the wall (besides cutting out the sheathing)? I could just run the ethernet on the outside of wall out of the conduit...

 

[Farmallboy15]

Something I am considering is a reducing 90° fitting to run from the male threads to the box like this pipe fitting: https://www.mcmaster.com/4452K741

Edit: Or use this: https://www.platt.com/platt-electri...ron/Appleton/FFL-125/product.aspx?zpid=158063

Thoughts?

 

[Stuart in MN]

I'm not sure what you need the work box for, can you remove it altogether and just have the Ethernet cable coming out of LB directly into a termination plate, like this? It could be screwed right to the wall over the hole in the wall, for low voltage like Ethernet you don't need a junction box.


https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-Ethernet-Wall-Plate-White-216-8C/203717916

 

[Farmallboy15]

Stuart,
I was mostly wanting the work box to have some extra slack for expansion (200' run) and to have enough CAT 6 pulled out of the conduit to ensure it wouldn't fall down where I couldn't reach it. Maybe my fears are a little unnecessary?

 

[Stuart in MN]

In a 1 1/4" conduit, there should be plenty of room to leave some slack in the cable to allow for any expansion. You could pack some Ductseal around the cable where it comes up into the LB fitting and that would prevent it from falling back into the conduit - it's kind of like modeling clay and should be available at the big box stores: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bender-1-lb-Plug-Duct-Seal-Compound-DS-110/100212441

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Stuart,
I was mostly wanting the work box to have some extra slack for expansion (200' run) and to have enough CAT 6 pulled out of the conduit to ensure it wouldn't fall down where I couldn't reach it. Maybe my fears are a little unnecessary?

What kind of walls do you have? is there a cavity where you could hide the slack inside the wall?

If so, just get a low voltage mud ring and mount on the sheetrock...

Some pics of what you have would help

 

[Bretny]

I just hide the slack down in my walls. Most of mine are a wall plate like what was posted. There is one that has a broom style slot so you can pull any wire through it.

That 8in work box is a bit overkill. 200ft isnt really that long of a run for a wifi extender...but i guess it depends on the bandwidth you need

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I just hide the slack down in my walls. Most of mine are a wall plate like what was posted. There is one that has a broom style slot so you can pull any wire through it.

That 8in work box is a bit overkill. 200ft isnt really that long of a run for a wifi extender...but i guess it depends on the bandwidth you need

Or a line of sight wireless point to point....

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EHSV4W/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Farmallboy15]

Here is a picture of what I have. You can see the work box just to the left of the desk. When I designed the office I assumed the chair opening in the desk was open... It is not...

It is a pole barn with 2x4 girts, followed by 5/8 OSB and finished with 3/8 plywood in the office. So I do have space to drop it down inside the wall but I would have to somehow get in there to cut off the LB and I really don't want to take the plywood back off.


I really wanted the reliability of a wired connection between the shop and house which is why I ran the conduit with the water line.


So I have options:
1. reroute the box
2. make a hole in the chair opening of the desk
3. Push the slack in the wall and mount the terminal plate straight to the plywood.

 

[AffableCurmudgeon]

Option 3 would be the easiest.

 

[fasteddie]

Option 3 would be the easiest.

Yes it would. I would use a surface jack so the plug goes into the bottom.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054RSOEI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[stariforms]

A tip for anybody looking to run ethernet to their shop:

I ended up going with the netgear powerline adapters. They run an encrypted ethernet signal through the power wire.

My shop is 150' away from the house. Power is 100A using 01/01/01/1 urd brurial cable. It gets a full signal, even with the compressor noise.

This one acts also as a wireless router with wifi, and it has an ethernet out.

It's a max 1.0gbps. I have mine direct wired to a separate wireless router.
In hindsight I should have gone with the 2.0gbps wired model instead.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-PowerLINE-1000-802-11ac-Gigabit/dp/B01929V7ZG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1538463216&sr=8-3&keywords=netgear+powerline+1000

 

[75gmck25]

Installing ethernet drops at the same level as receptacles is common, but not really that convenient for access.

I would take out the existing large box and put an access cover on the wall at that location. Then run the cable (which apparently has slack) farther up into the wall and install a termination plate with ethernet jack on the wall between the desk and the bottom of the window. This is a very convenient location to reach when you want to plug in a cable.

My choice for that ethernet jack might be to plug a wireless router or switch into the wall jack and mount the router on the wall just above the desk (most routers can be wall mounted). That would provide excellent wireless access inside the garage. Many of the wireless routers also have 3 or 4 hard-wired jacks also, so you could plug in a hardwired device (laptop, Roku, etc.) if you don't want to use wireless.

bruce

 

[Farmallboy15]

Here is what I ended up with. I had to enlarge the hole in the plywood to cut the pvc off. This didn't end up pretty and my hole was too big to be covered by the wall plate. I then mounted the wall plate to the old work box cover and essentially made an access port.

 

[Stuart in MN]

It would have been nice to have just the wall plate, but it looks okay with the work box cover too and no one is going to see it behind the desk anyway. Good job.

 

[lowrider2]

Anyone know if that Net Gear box will work thru a meter connection?

I have a 400 amp service, 200 amp to the house and 200 to the shop split with separate breakers...2 hots and a neutral each way from a common bus. Seems like it should work...eh?

 

[HenryAZ]

I use these low voltage mounting brackets to install just a wall plate over the hole (click the image for details).

 

[Showkey]

Just switch to a mesh router system ............

https://m.bestreviews.com/best-mesh-wi-fi-systems