Mobile home wiring questions 2

[PPettit]

I've just been asked to wire up a mobile home for voice and data. It's going to be used for an office at one of our long term job sites. Basically, there will be four different work areas all tied to a central "wiring closet". I'm considering three runs of CAT5e to each point (2 for networking and 1 for the multi-line phones). The only holes in the walls are the ones already used for the light switches and electricity outlets.

I've done a bit of "standard" residential/commercial installations so the only thing that kinda worries me is the running of the cable from point to point. Primarily, I'm unsure if I can do the usual "cut a hole in the wall" approach. I'd prefer to have the jacks in a standard wall plate but it looks like I might have to go with surface mount boxes.

My understanding is that the only way to run post-construction wiring is to drill holes in the floor and run the cables along the underside of the building. Should I even bother with cutting a hole in the wall and using a flexible bit to drill down through the floor? I've never seen anyone use one before so I don't know if they even work that well. I've also been told that sometimes the electricity is run horizontally from outlet to outlet which might prohibit me from going inside the walls. In case you're wondering, I don't have the schematics just yet.

Would it be better to just drill right next to the wall, run the cable up the wall a little, and use the surface mount boxes? I really hate surface mounts because they look terrible and might get knocked around a bit. On the plus side, there's no baseboards yet so I can probably cover up the majority of the wiring.

Anyone have any tips or advice?

 

[skip555]

through the floor and use flush mount biskit jacks I would use conduit to protect the cable you might want to bring the conduit up through the floor 12-15" and put a box on the end

give you protection and flush mount

don't Evan try the walls

 

[buitenhek]

I agree. Don't do the wall, use the floor.
Caution: if it is a double wide allow slack between units.
Forgive my insolence, how about wireless?

Regards
Peter Buitenhek
ProfitDeveloper.com

 

[PPettit]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess the floor is in for some action.

I didn't consider wireless because the project manager has already purchased the phones and they have to be wired. All of our network equipment is wired as well. We'd have to spend some more money to change the equipment over to wireless and I don't think the project manager wants us eating up any more of the profit than we need to. Also, I'm still not a big fan of wireless networking at this point in time. Sure, this would make it easier for me where installation is concerned, but I'm still not sold on the reliability and security of wireless networking.

 

[buitenhek]

The wireless issues and security are still troublesome in some applications. The reason I brought it up is if you are in the business of trailer leasing having a wireless AP capability and possibly some wired locations already done might save wear/tear on trailer walls & floors. Trailer leases could be boosted and I am guessing the tax write off is 24 months.

Never eat up profits, yellow snow or alone!

Regards
Peter Buitenhek
ProfitDeveloper.com

 

[PPettit]

Apparently, we've actually purchased the unit. This division does long term jobs in various remote locations so they need an "office in a box" that they can just drop off at the site and begin working right away. It should be a fairly static layout once everything is in place.

 

[skip555]

if you own it then use conduit for sure , little more time and money but lots more protection and durability and if you give it a little thought will make adds easy

 

[wires]

Most mobile home walls are quite thin and full of blocking. I would avoid them.

How nice is this office going to be? Most job site offices I have seen are fairly nasty. If it is truly going to be a "working" office then wire raceway around the perimeter at the ceiling might be a cost effective and flexable method. Since the runs are going to be fairly short just use long patch cords for phone and data. This would cut down on connectors which can be prone to dirt problems.

You might want to look at this product:

http://www.snaketray.com/products/wall.html

 

[PPettit]

I got lucky. The project manager was able to find an available electrician. Since our guys do a lot of industrial wiring (electrical and some communication), he's going to have the electrician put in some conduit and run the cables for me. All I have to do is terminate the ends and and make sure everything works.

Thanks for the reply wires. I had completely forgotten about raceways as an option. I'll have to keep that in mind if this ever comes up again.

What we've decided to do is run just two cables to each location. One for voice and one for data. If we need more than one wired connection in a room we'll just attach a cheap switch. The printers and a desktop or two will be wired but we'll also have a wireless router for the laptops.

 

[aarenot]

from experience doing this once, 6 trailers for a large construction firm.

tell the electrician this is going to be a wet environment, so the conduit needs to be appreciative of that, if going under the trailer.
have a sealed interface on the exterior, like a telco type network interface box for the wiring connections for the phone lines coming into the trailer.

consider adding an engenius type analog cordless phone with an external base station antenna mounted on the roof, or off the side of the trailer. often these can cover an entire construction site with up to a 1 mile open line of site range, or 12 floors max through an office building. one of the trailers had 6 of these, so everyone had a land line on their hip via cordless. this was a trailer with a dedicated team, so they also had an avaya partner acs phone system with voicemail installed, and programmed. two paging horns on the exterior were added later off the phone system.

the engenius were expensive, but the lessened cell phone bills paid back quickly, and also have two way radio function for on site walkie talkie connection to everyone.

we set up remote access for programming changes on the phone system, so if they had phone lines connected we could log in remote to make any programming changes they needed from our office. the partner acs is ideal for this solution because the ports can be multi-line phones using pins 3,4,5,6, or analog pins 4,5 off the ports, by switching the line cords. 4 conductor, or 2 conductor line cord.

ask away if this was helpful, or i can help further.