When we built our ranch in northern Indiana, I wired the basement myself and ran Cat6 to every drop I could reach. I even crimped my own cables off a 1,000-foot spool to skip the cost of pre-made runs. The network works. Every port hits gigabit, the access points cover the whole house, and I’d take on the project again tomorrow. But wiring a house teaches you things you only learn once you live with the result. A few choices from that week still nag at me, and a couple of them cost real time to fix after the drywall closed. These are the five I’d handle differently starting over.
Mistake 1: I ran one cable where I should have run two
One drop per location left me no room to grow
While the walls are open, a second cable to each spot is almost free. The only cost is a little more off the spool and a few extra minutes per run. I pulled single drops to most locations, figuring one gigabit link was all anyone needed. Then life happened. An access point wanted its own dedicated line.
A device I added later needed a wired port next to the first one. A run failed its test, and I wished a spare was already sitting in the wall. Behind the great-room TV I did double up, with three connectors feeding the wall, and those are the spots I never think about anymore. Everywhere I ran a lone cable, I’ve since wanted the backup. Now I have to use an Ethernet switch. Next time, I’ll do two lines minimum to every drop, even if one sits dark for years.
Mistake 2: I defaulted to Cat6 everywhere instead of Cat6A where it counts
Cat6 was right then, but a few runs deserved more headroom
Cat6 was the correct choice when I wired the basement, and I still tell most people to pick it over Cat5e without a second thought. I’ve argued that case before. The regret here is narrower. For the handful of runs carrying the most weight, my office, the rack uplink, and the TV wall, I’d step up to Cat6A today.
Cat6 handles 10-gigabit speeds only across shorter distances, while Cat6A holds that rate over a full-length run. Multi-gig service is reaching more neighborhoods, and PoE gear keeps drawing more power every year. The cable is the one piece of the system you can’t upgrade without opening a wall. So the runs I’d least want to touch again are exactly the ones I under-specced.
Mistake 3: I showed up with a crimper and a spool and improvised the rest
Under-tooling turned every step into a workaround
My entire kit was a crimper, the spool, and a bargain continuity tester. That got the job started and not much further. Every task that called for a proper tool became a hack. I stripped jackets with side cutters, seated pins by feel, and punched down keystones with a screwdriver because I didn’t own a punch tool. The kit I wish I’d bought first would have paid for itself in an afternoon. A punch-down tool, a stripper sized for the cable, a bag of spare RJ45 ends, and a fish tape cost almost nothing next to the hours you burn fighting the job without them. Buy the tools before you cut a single cable.
Mistake 4: I trusted a cheap tester and skipped testing every run
One bad cable can hide for months
A continuity tester tells you the wires connect. It won’t tell you they connect in the right order, and it says nothing about whether a run holds its rated speed. I learned that the slow way when part of my network crawled and I chased the wrong suspects for weeks before finding a single cable throttling everything downstream. A real tester walks all eight conductors and confirms each one lands on the correct pin. Better still, the bad news shows up while you can still fix it, before the wall is buttoned up. Test every run as you pull it. Retesting after the drywall goes on means cutting the drywall back off.
Mistake 5: I forgot to label some of the runs
A few unlabeled cables cost me an afternoon at the rack
I labeled most drops as I pulled them. A few I skipped, telling myself I’d remember which was which. I didn’t. Months later, adding gear at the rack, I stared at a bundle of identical blue cables with no idea which one fed the office and which reached the far bedroom. Sorting it out meant toning each line one at a time, an afternoon I’d have saved with a $10 roll of labels and 30 seconds per cable. Mark both ends of every run, write the room on each end, and do it before the walls close. The cheapest tool on this whole list is the one I got lazy about.
- Brand
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InstallerParts
- Cable Type
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CAT5e to CAT8
The next pull will be the easy one
None of these are hard, which is exactly why they’re worth writing down. Two cables instead of one. A step up to Cat6A on the runs that matter. The right tools in the bag before I start. A tester on every line. A label on both ends. Do those five and you wire the house once. Skip them and you’re back inside the walls, which is the one place a finished home never wants you. My next project already has smurf tube waiting in the attic. This time I’m bringing the full checklist.
