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I'm in the middle of remodeling my home and am wondering if there is anything that would be ideal to do now that would make a fiber install later more straightforward.

My main concerns are with the exterior, both aesthetics and pursuing modern practices for preserving the house's air and thermal envelopes (not a building science expert, hopefully I got that right). For example, I want to be able to properly flash and seal penetrations rather than some service tech drilling through my exterior walls later).

isherwood
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Wilco
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2 Answers2

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Run conduit, with nice long sweeps for bends. Depending on your actual fiber provider, some modern fiber intended to connect the end of the line in your house can take much sharper bends than older fiber types, but not all fiber providers use the nice stuff, so if you accommodate things so that no sharp bends are needed it will work with whatever they show up expecting to use.

3/4" diameter is safer than 1/2" if they expect to run terminated fiber, but most installers run unterminated fiber and splice on a connector. Bigger is fine, up to the point that it's pointless overkill (Past 2" for a ballpark figure on the break between mere overkill and utterly pointless overkill for a house.) With the right fiber (but you don't know what they will bring) 1/2" conduit is plenty.

Pack the end of the conduit with duct seal (a non-hardening putty made for the job) and make sure your provider removes & saves it and repacks it around their cable after running it. That deals with air and bugs using the conduit as a highway.

Ecnerwal
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Your bare-minimum is to drill 10-14mm in-line holes through top/bottom plates and any dwangs/studs. Deburr the holes, and add chafe protection on metal framing. Run non-degrading string/cords through the holes, and in the ceiling space tie them off to a rafter or nail.

If you have a concrete floor slab, then consider putting a blanking plate on the wall near the floor for access. For a floor with a crawl space underneath, tie or staple them to something. Consider taking photos and mark on your plans where these draw strings are.

Personally I prefer to pull cables down rather than up, so that gravity can help.

If this is a wall with insulation or noise-suppression inside, then the packing could settle and block the cords from pulling in wires/fibres later.

Also contact your local fibre provider before work starts. Locally to me, they will come and pre-wire the fibre lead-in from the street during the build process. This is easier all-round where suitable. Never hurts to inquire.

Criggie
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