Newcastle homes and cable runs
Terraces and cottages
Cooks Hill started with terraces and miners' cottages in brick and timber, and Newcastle East is mostly two and three storey terraces. Shared walls, solid brick and a second storey all make the path from the modem to a back bedroom longer to plan.
Heritage areas
If the job puts anything new on the outside of a house in one of the city's nine heritage conservation areas, such as a cable run up an external wall or an antenna, ask City of Newcastle whether its controls apply.
Units
At the 2021 Census, 14.2% of Newcastle homes were flats or apartments. If cable has to cross common property, raise it with the strata committee before anyone drills.
Rentals
More than a third of Newcastle homes (36.6%) were rented in 2021. Tenants need the landlord's OK before holes go in walls, so for landlords the easiest time to add points is between tenancies.
Low-lying streets
With flooding affecting up to a third of the city's properties, put the modem, network switch and their power point up on the wall rather than on the floor of a cupboard.
Which part is licensed in NSW?
NSW's definition of an electrical installation leaves out items that plug into a power point, and equipment running at no more than 50 volts AC. The power side is different: new power points, a circuit for a data cupboard and anything at the switchboard are electrical wiring work, which needs a licensed electrician.
That work ends with a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work (CCEW), lodged through the Building Commission NSW eCert portal within 7 days. We haven't confirmed the rules for the data cable itself, so ask what cabling registration the electrician holds alongside their NSW licence.
Before the electrician arrives
- Walk the house and list every spot that needs a cable, and how many cables each one needs.
- Know where the internet comes into the house and where the modem lives now.
- Ask for a power point beside each data point, so there's no lead across the floor.
- Clear a path to the manhole, roof space or subfloor.
- Mention solid brick walls, stairs and any recent plastering up front.
Yours to do, and the electrician's
You can
- Set up the modem, router and plug-in Wi-Fi units.
- Connect devices to wall points with patch leads.
- Mark where you want each point with tape before the visit.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- New power points next to data and TV points.
- A new circuit for a data cupboard.
- Any cutting into walls that already carry mains cables.
If it were our terrace
We'd pick one spot near where the internet comes in, give it a power point, and run every cable back to it. Desk and TV first, then a second Wi-Fi unit at the far end of the house. And we'd ask for every point to be tested and labelled, because in a two-storey terrace nobody wants to trace a cable twice.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.