Cabling Above Ground Possible?

[grundy]

Strange situtation here as always. There are two residential buildings zoned for business. Building A is approx 10ft from Building B. All that seperates them is a small driveway. The company in building A has expaned over to building B until they move to a bigger building. They need to bring phone exts from A to B. Is it possible to run cable above ground say at attic level or second floor level.

I was thinking a steel line between the two buildings. Some outdoor Cat5 in a waterproof conduit across the line?

What do you guys recommened? What would work? Is there an easier way?

 

[Trotski]

As a Temparay solution it souds fine as long as you are clear of any traffic on the driveway, my local regs state 4.8metres over a trafficable area. Check with local Authorities
if it is only phone circuits going over, then aerial Phone cable (integral bearer wire)would only require anchor points on each building
but if you need CAT5 then your idea will work fine as long as you don,t exceed MAX distance for CAT5.

 

[skip555]

for a 10'span I would run 3/4 steel conduit building ot building then pull a 25 pair cat 3 for voice and one or two cat5e cables or a fiber link

the big thing you have to watch is height so you dont have trucks taking it down

 

[grundy]

I dont really have to worry about traffic. No one uses the driveway, maybe a mini van or two once every couple weeks.

If I use the aerial phone cable? do I need conduit?

Will the steel conduit attract lightining? Would the blue flex conduit be better?

 

[franklin97355]

You want the steel to avoid lightning affecting the copper cables inside. It should be grounded as well.

 

[skip555]

I just mentioned conduit for rigidity and no you wouldnt need condiut for aerial. not sure about the steel attracting lighting

for a 10 foot span I woulndt be bother with areail cable I have seen plain old 25 pair used to span distances of 25" feet or so performing well for voice evan after years of exposure to s fl sun. ( not to code or recommend I know )

I would use grey pvc conduit rather than blue flex just to take the strain off the cable particularly the cat5e data

another thought would be to use a piece of 2x4 or 2x6 to bridge the gap then you could tack blue smurf tube or gray pvc on top.

 

[AvayaNovice]

Hmmm, I'd pick up a piece of aerial duct if you can (basically aerial conduit with a messenger or "strand" that's bonded to the duct) or... if that's not possible, and you only need telephone services... then yes, some aerial (With messenger) category 3 or category 5 cable would work just fine.

You need to follow code on this, and bond it since it's exiting the building, if it's not temporary (and I mean very temporary).

And as for regulations on height... in California, GO95 superceeds the NEC regulations... which states that any drop crossing a driveway must be at 11 feet minimum, or a street must be 16 feet at the crown, and 14 at the curb. That's working from memory...

 

[grundy]

Thanks for all the info guys. Looks like I will need to run 2 CAT5E runs for data as of today.

What would I attached the grey, or aerial duct to? The steel line? using what zip ties?

 

[AvayaNovice]

aerial duct has is bonded to the messenger itself.

You can use many different methods to attach it, the cheapest being... (depending on ridgidity of the messenger) folding it back making a loop after it's been put through an eye bolt for instance... and then using bonding clamps to tighten it, that's very sketchy though... usually you use compression clamps, or for 6m or larger... you'd use preform.

But, this isn't heavy duty... so you could even get away with using a piece of conduit ziptied to a steel strand (6m would be far more than sufficient).

 

[grundy]

Well I found this:

http://www.carlon.com/p_AerialFigure8.html

and

http://www.panduit.com/products/Products.asp?param=846&ig_id=543

Anyone know of anyone else that makes an open duct and steel line in one. hope i can do a drip loop with that duct?

 

[AvayaNovice]

YOu don't need to do a drip loop, just fill it with duct fill.

Carlon is fine, but you'd have to live in a big city to get a 10 foot spam of that.

I can send you some if you really wanted it... it's 2" though...

 

[grundy]

AvayaNovice,

Thanks for the help. The final numbers are in 8 voice and 3 data need to be run. I'm in Detroit so I'm going to call and see who sells the stuff. I have Graybar and Anixter down the road from me.

Whats the best way to mount this to 2 houses?

Thanks,

Eric
grundy@comcast.net

 

[Sphoneman]

As the forum commented.

With building brackets,steel messenger,following code heights,bonding/grounding & lightning protection on all pairs.

You are liable for any work you do.

Steve
tele-dataservices.com

 

[AvayaNovice]

Well, this is usually single piece 12 guage steel messenger. You'd want to use a compression clamp like you would with any larger size aerial drop... we call them P clamps, although they probably have a more official name.

 

[grundy]

I checked out the building again today. On the other side I noticed there was already some OSP cabling.

They have a messenger with 2 Cat3 25pr and 2 Cat5 cables zip tied to it. From what I have read everywhere they say dont run Cat5 outside for data, use fiber....

 

[skip555]

they say dont run Cat5 outside for data, use fiber....


two reasons for that
1.would be lightning

2 distance 100 meters on cat5e


the distance dosent seem to be a limitation with what you have mentioned so far and if it was you could get around it by putting a switch in the new bldg

as to lightning putting some protection on the cat 5 cables would be a cheaper soultion then a fiber link

to start with you said this was temp so you might just taek a chance and use the cables unprotected

 

[NX01]

You could break up the concrete and use a gel filled cable? Look here

http://www.mohawk-cdt.com/prod/fiber-11.html

if you have your heart set on Aerial setup...


In the future everything will work...

 

[grundy]

Well I finally ordered some aerial cat3 25pr, some strandvices, and 2 thumbleye bolts. Can anyone think of anything else I will need.

Installation Tools? One side is going into cinderblock and the other, wood siding.

 

[Sphoneman]

Where's the lightning protection, ground wire, bonding clamps, & shield connectors on your Material List.

Don't say- The other people didn't do it.

Steve
tele-dataservices.com

 

[grundy]

Can anyone point me to a manufacturer of that stuff. I ordered all the parts listed from Anixter, but have access to Graybar too. Thanks