How to create a Network Closet at home?

J

jnick

2[H]4U
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Sep 25, 2004
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My wife and I just moved into our house in November. I've said that I want to have drops in most of the rooms in the house and now that we are moving to a Ubiquiti setup, I need to start planning the closet sooner than later.

We live in a bi-level ranch that has 3 bedrooms, a finished basement, 2 car garage and an attic. Roughly 1530sqft

The computer room was where I planned to install everything however I then thought about future expansion (ie: kids) and us needing that as a bedroom. If that's the case, it seems silly to have all the terminations and equipment in the closet.

Doing some research on the forums, I noticed many have used their utility room. This seems like a feasible plan for us however I have a few concerns.

1. The utility room has my washer, dryer, water softener, water Hester and boiler. Therefore it does stay decently warm, however it's door is typically opened and has slats as well. Would hear be an issue for a Ubiquiti ERL, modem and a trendnet unmanaged switch?

2. My plan was to mount up some plywood and attach a wall mounted rack to it with a patch panel, a shelf and whatever else I may need. Here are some pictures of the room. I can either mount it above the water softener, which is the wall to the garage, however it would be tight to install and work on it. The other option is to install it right by the entrance, kind of behind the water softener. There is a copper water pipe there but I don't see it being an issue!

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I think near the water heater (last two pics) is the best spot. I then have access to run my many drops to the basement AV area. I can also pop cables through the wall in the utility room into the garage and then pop up from the garage into the closets to the bedrooms. From there I can get into the attic and drop them down the wall. I was thinking I could run smaller conduits into each closet so I have a path to the attic and the cable are protected. If I do, what's the best way to "seal" the conduit/penetrations so I don't get drafts from the garage/attic into the rooms?

What are your thought?

Thanks!
 
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Wow...totally didn't realize that my pictures were ridiculously huge as I uploaded them via mobile, which auto-resized them on my screen.

Pictures are resized where you can actually view them now! Sorry about that!
 
Any idea on how hot and humid that area gets around the year?
 
On a non-network based post - I would get ride of that paper exhaust for your dryer and put in some aluminum. Less risk of a house fire.

Network related - I would still worry about the copper bar - anything can happen. I had the perfect spot when I was doing my home network drops but a copper pipe ran over the top and did not want to risk it and so I moved my stuff to under the stairs.
 
Lames. said:
On a non-network based post - I would get ride of that paper exhaust for your dryer and put in some aluminum. Less risk of a house fire.
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+1 to this. Never understood why those get used so much, they are actually not to code. If you can do it, use rigid or semi-rigid pipe as much as possible. You may even notice an improvement in dryer efficiency since it can remove the moist air faster.
 
Based on what you have in there, too much heat, moisture and salt in the air for my tastes.

But if you put cabinet in there, sealed it and made sure the exhaust fans were sealed good to exhaust, you might be ok.

Otherwise, I wouldn't put my equipment close to all that and not have a fear that a weird abnormal result will have me dancing in circles trying to figure out why I'm getting dropped packets and its cause my ports have corroded up a bit due to the salt and moisture, just enough to cause connection issues.
 
You can put it in there, but there is just too much stuff, too many potential problems. You glossed over what you are planning, but can you provide some specifics? I ask because I would still consider your original plans, but keep it on a reinforced top shelf of the bedroom closet. Depending on the equipment you buy, it can be near silent.
 
Thanks for all of the information, especially about the dryer vent! It's our first home and all of the appliances came with the house. Never knew about the paper tubing!

In regards to the temp in the room, it's usually 2-3 degrees warmer than room temperature. I have no idea how to measure the humidity of the room, other than stating that I've never thought it is humid. However, We moved in to the place in November. I can't speak of the summer months yet.

What I'm looking to accomplish and what gear I have:

All of the gear is silent/fanless so noise isn't the concern. I just moved to a Ubiquiti setup with an EdgeRouter Lite, a UAP and a 16-Port gigabit unmanaged switch. I'm looking to install the UAP on the ceiling of the upper level, at the center point of the house.

I wanted 4-6 drops in my computer room, 4 drops in the basement for the entertainment center and 2 in the living room upstairs. I wanted this to all come back to a patch panel and have all of the network gear in one location. I was looking to do mainly in-wall drops, though it is existing construction.

The house is a 3 bedroom and the office is currently in the second largest bedroom. I do have a closet there with shelving already installed (I could reinforce). My concern with installing all of the equipment in the closet would be if we need to repurpose the room in the future. Then I would be stuck with all of the gear, randomly, in one of the closets. If it were in the Utility room, it would have a permanent home as that would always be the utility room.

I do have a bathroom downstairs (sink and toliet only) that I could possibly wall mount it in, however I just thought that would really look weird since I'm not looking to get a rack with a door.

I'm open to suggestions. If you needed a floor plan, while it may take some time, I could attempt to create one.

Thanks!
 
Whatever you decide to do, don't build anything that will make it harder to replace that hot water heater. It looks like the PO already trapped the water softener. Consider checking the local hardware stores for closeout or damaged cabinets you could use either for your network equipment or over the washer-dryer for non network storage. If you have a local Habitat for Humanity store, that can be a good source.

It might be worth contacting the local code authorities so you will know if there are any weird rules against non-utility type equipment in a utility room. It won't matter until you sell the house or have to file a claim on your homeowner's insurance. But if there are code issues, at least you can add them to the ever growing to-do list.
 
jnick said:
All of the gear is silent/fanless so noise isn't the concern. I just moved to a Ubiquiti setup with an EdgeRouter Lite, a UAP and a 16-Port gigabit unmanaged switch. I'm looking to install the UAP on the ceiling of the upper level, at the center point of the house.
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If you are looking to use 4U of space, I'd highly consider the closet which brings me to...

My concern with installing all of the equipment in the closet would be if we need to repurpose the room in the future. Then I would be stuck with all of the gear, randomly, in one of the closets. If it were in the Utility room, it would have a permanent home as that would always be the utility room.
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Do you plan to work on your network on a daily or weekly basis? If not, and you probably won't, I'm not sure why this is a concern if it is in a closet, especially if it will be silent. My network setup is in my master closet, and it's pretty much set and forget.
 
I would avoid it due to the plumbing. If it was just one pipe passing by I'd say reroute that pipe, but when the water tank is there, the pipe needs to go there, obviously, so you can't reroute that. Water heaters can also explode if the safety features fail (VERY rare, but it can happen), when pipes burst for any reason they don't just drip, they spray. you don't want a server/network setup in the same room as water pipes.

Since it's a new house I would just dedicate an area and build a room specifically for it. Heck if you can manage to make the room you can always put it in the utility as a separate small closet. Could be as simple as a door you open, and the rack is literally right there, and the back of the rack could be accessible through a door on the other side of that wall. Ideal is to isolate it. You'd need to add ventilation obviously.

I would do a 4 post 42U rack, put the network gear on top, maybe a couple shelves for stuff as well. At least you have the rack space to add servers/more gear/lab etc... in the future.


If you have zero plans to need 42U, another option is a wall mount cabinet. These tend to be fairly enclosed so you could probably get away with putting it in the utility room in that case, but make sure it's well shielded from any potential water explosion.

Here's an example of what happens when a "frost free valve" busted during winter, and it is used for the first time the following summer:

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The pic does not look as bad as it was, but the splashing caused water to cover that general area of the basement (Thankfully not finished at the time) and was within feet of the server equipment.

This was about 5 minutes worth of spraying the lawn. I only found out once I got in the house. Had this been a "live" pipe burst, and when I'm sleeping, or at work, it would have been much worse.

I can also confirm that CCFL lights are fairly water resistant. :D
 
Thanks again for the info.

The house isn't a new house, just new to me! It's 1985 construction so I can't make new closets etc without some major work.

To clarify, the concern with using the closet isn't for maintenance. That wouldn't be an issue. The concern is 10 years down the road when my wife and I have a couple of kids, I may need to use the office space as another true bedroom. In this case, I would now have a kids room with part of the closet space housing network equipment. I'm not sure how feasible this is. That's my only hesitation with using the closet. I guess I could always re-run the 10 years from now. By then I'll probably need CAT 9 lol.

I'll post up some pictures of the inside of the closet to get some ideas on installation and if the wall mounted rack will still work.
 
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how much stuff you need to fit in ? Here is mine if it can give you an idea. Installed in oct 2012 when my place was under construction and still the same rack. My rack hold a server for storage, who is also the domain controller, 24 port patch panel fully loaded, 24 port switch, router, modem, ups and power injectors for my 3 unifi ap (one per floor since i own a 3 apt building). The closet is 4x4ft.

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Thanks for the link.

Here are the pictures of the closet:

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The depth of the closet, to the molding of the door (inside of course) is 22.5".
 
You've listed 4U worth of equipment (7 inches), and unless you plan to install a 4U NAS, you won't be taking up much more. I'd suggest a sideways installation like carlcrack, but skip the rack and install plywood drilled into the studs. Put your network gear onto the plywood, and for aesthetic purposes, put some sort of decorative or camouflaged (e.g., white painted wood) covering with equipment with the top end open for circulation.
 
FrostBite said:
You've listed 4U worth of equipment (7 inches), and unless you plan to install a 4U NAS, you won't be taking up much more. I'd suggest a sideways installation like carlcrack, but skip the rack and install plywood drilled into the studs. Put your network gear onto the plywood, and for aesthetic purposes, put some sort of decorative or camouflaged (e.g., white painted wood) covering with equipment with the top end open for circulation.
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I really wanted to go with a patch panel for neatness and I can't see how to get a 24-port patch panel installed without a rack. I thought the wall mounted rack would keep it nice and neat.

I was thinking of plywood on the sides or above near the shelf, and then the monoprice 7U wall mount rack. My thought would be to use a shelf for the modem, and ERL. I'm looking to get a rackmount switch. I just bought a 16-port trendnet but I may return it for a 24 port switch of some sort.
 
You can get wall mount brackets for rack patch panels. You can also buy smaller patch panel units that are meant to just bolt to the wall. Monoprice has the brackets for any rackable patch panel, and sells patch panels I think up to 24 ports.
 
Are you referring to the wall mounts from MP that are 4" deep? While those would be nice for just the patch panel, the only issue is I will be getting a 24-port switch, which is around 7" deep. I was planning to get a rack mountable one, which would mean I would need the 12" deep mount, either 4 or 7U from MP.
 
Yup, one of those. I'm looking at some new stuff at my house, and am going between a setup like that and just flat-mounting the switch against the wall, or a small rack. They even have some nice very small wall-mount racks (say 4U) that mount the switch vertically instead of horizontally. You could mount it right next to a small patch panel and it wouldn't stick out from the wall much at all, regardless of device depth.

It's going in a semi-finished "crawl" space, so I might actually build a plywood sealed cabinet for my networking gear (with proper controlled air flow).
 
iroc409 said:
Yup, one of those. I'm looking at some new stuff at my house, and am going between a setup like that and just flat-mounting the switch against the wall, or a small rack. They even have some nice very small wall-mount racks (say 4U) that mount the switch vertically instead of horizontally. You could mount it right next to a small patch panel and it wouldn't stick out from the wall much at all, regardless of device depth.

It's going in a semi-finished "crawl" space, so I might actually build a plywood sealed cabinet for my networking gear (with proper controlled air flow).
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Do you have a link to these vertical switch rack mounts?
 
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