Hmmm… Looking now.
First time you mentioned fireplace. Almost certainly there to run cabling to a TV mounted over the fireplace. I have that in my current house, running from behind the TV to a place on the wall near the home theater equipment. In another house I have one running from behind the TV to inside an adjacent cabinet where cable box, DVD player, etc. is located.
Is there also an electrical outlet next to the conduit over the fireplace?
Right over the fireplace? Perhaps to run an HDMI and other cables to a flatscreen set above the fireplace with the other end at a closet or cabinet to hold the various electronics (cable box, DVD player, etc).
I like the ideas about a basement server or something, and running cat5 cable to various locations, but why would they remove all the wiring & receptacles etc.? CatX cable is cheap enough to leave.
I’m back from the mechanical room. Two CAT 5 wires hanging with 6 coax wires. Two coax wires are hooked together, just making loop going back up to the ceiling. There is also a coax splitter down there, not used.
My theory is that I managed to hook my modem to the wall in the living room that is the one hooked up to Xfinity. The others are probably dead.
These very strange conduits where for the othet coax. But since we are all pretty much on wifi/routers, it was pointless to pursue.
I’ll put some outlet blank covers on those pipes.
Thanks all, I think mystery solved. ‘Scooby Dooo WHERE ARE YOU!!!’
Well there you go. Maybe there was an A/V system they had that ran to speakers on the porch or something as well.
Or security cameras.
Yeah, I came in late to say that my previous house was set up with conduit like this when we remodeled. I wanted to be able to run speakers all over the place from a central amp. my contractor called it Smurf Tube. Not surprisingly in my installation the conduit was blue.
Yes, that is standard Flexible ENT conduit (like this). Costs about 5¢/ foot for the 1/2" size. Because it’s so cheap, that’s often installed for future use for communication, internet, PA, or home automation wiring.
But the OP photo looks more like rigid PVC conduit.
Try shouting “Ahoy!” down it.
If that conduit was ever used, they may have taken the coax or whatever with them.
After we closed, we came to the house, they where, of course, moved out. Now this place has 3-1/2 bathrooms. They didn’t even leave half a roll of TP. That IMHO is just rude. “Honey, I have to run to the store, and fast!”
Professional movers will pack and move everything unless told otherwise. After our first move we have been careful to segregate or label things that should stay. After that first move we unpacked unemptied trash cans, manuals for appliance at the old house that we intended to leave, etc.
If you zoom in you can see the conduit is corrugated.
Yup, not PVC. It’s covered in paint, or drywall mud in the picture, I scrapped some off. The conduit is sort of a red/orange color.
Did you have a home inspection? I haven’t bought a home in 15 years, but I remember the home inspector showing me everything that was out of the ordinary and explaining what it was for.
Orange is generally used for low voltage wiring - A/V wiring, coax, or twisted pair. How high does it come out on the patio wall? If pretty high it’s probably for an outside TV.
Yup. And next to a 110 volt outlet. Same for the one over the fireplace, right next to an outlet. It’s got to be for A/V.
Don’t have to fool with that anymore. I’ll put blanks over them. I just never saw such stuff before.
Our local cable company’s TV system uses Cat5 and original cable TV coax depending on what’s in the walls. (House is about 20 years old, we had network and coax run to each room and allowed extra for locations like where the bedroom TV would go.)
Late to the party, but I have put these in myself or had an electrician or home automation contractor do it.
Not specifically for ethernet, but for any communication cable you might use for an entertainment system to connect to a TV. There are all sorts of finishing wall plates for the purpose too.
Source: guy that has built, repaired, and renovated homes for years.
And of course, ethernet cable is run all the time still, I don’t know why you think it wouldn’t be. Its still superior to wifi in every way but mobility.
I’m sure. I’m a programmer. Work from home now (since COVID) Wifi has been fine, but I don’t do a lot of heavy lifting on my home system, I just write stuff that tells other stuff what to do.