What is the "cleanest" way to run wires through a drywall ceiling?

[A.Justice]

I'm installing a security camera system, and need to run a whole bunch of 12 volt and ethernet wires , the ethernet and power will be running through two separate conduits, from a box on the wall, into the ceiling. I finally convinced my wife to let me do this, under the condition that there's no wires zip tied through a wall stuffex through a hole drilled in the ceiling and filled with RTV. ? Point is, I want it to look as good as possible.

What is the cleanest way that I can run two, relatively thick (1.5 inch, room for more wires later) pieces of conduit through a ceiling and still have it look decent, and block airflow from the attic to some degree?

I've been looking at different products on Amazon, but the product pictures of course always make them look really good, I was wondering if anybody had personally used something and if they liked it. I would prefer not to run wire through the wall into the attic either, it's an insulated wall, and I'm terrible at running wire.

 

[aenyc]

As someone who JUST did the very thing, there are a couple of issues with this, at least in my situation.
My ceiling was plaster, but i assume most drywall ones will face similar issues.

1. The biggest challenge is that you are going to have to go "in" at spot A, and go out in spot B.
The issue is though (in most US houses) is that there will be a "grid" of wooden beams that hold the ceiling, and as such, you will not be able to just "snake" it though, unless your are exactly in the "conduit" between beams, but even then, a lot of houses were built with "fire interlocks" (think more wooden "beams" that segment the conduit itself, so you will not be able to snake.

This was my issue, and the only way around it was to "open" the ceiling at each "blocking" and then drill the wood, and run the wire.
What this means is that there will be lots of dust that you will have to take care of, and ofcourse you will have to patch all the holes in the ceiling (again assuming its plaster or drywall). So anything but clean, unfortunately.

The only way to avoid this is if your ceiling is high enough where you can go "above" the beams, in which case its easy as long as you can somehow access it "from above" (such as attic).

One more thing - consider POE. This way you don't need a 12 volt cable, just ethernet.

 

[A.Justice]

As someone who JUST did the very thing, there are a couple of issues with this, at least in my situation.
My ceiling was plaster, but i assume most drywall ones will face similar issues.

1. The biggest challenge is that you are going to have to go "in" at spot A, and go out in spot B.
The issue is though (in most US houses) is that there will be a "grid" of wooden beams that hold the ceiling, and as such, you will not be able to just "snake" it though, unless your are exactly in the "conduit" between beams, but even then, a lot of houses were built with "fire interlocks" (think more wooden "beams" that segment the conduit itself, so you will not be able to snake.

I see what you mean, I think I'm just going to have to get up there with a couple of magnets and see what goes to where and start drilling.

This was my issue, and the only way around it was to "open" the ceiling at each "blocking" and then drill the wood, and run the wire.
What this means is that there will be lots of dust that you will have to take care of, and ofcourse you will have to patch all the holes in the ceiling (again assuming its plaster or drywall). So anything but clean, unfortunately.

The only way to avoid this is if your ceiling is high enough where you can go "above" the beams, in which case its easy as long as you can somehow access it "from above" (such as attic).

I'm hoping that maybe I can do that from above since I have more room.

Luckily I have plenty of space of from above. I can walk around standing up in the attic.

One more thing - consider POE. This way you don't need a 12 volt cable, just ethernet.

Looking back, I definitely would have done that, but the camera system I bought is all 12 volt (The way it was set up worked great at our old house, but retrofitting it to the new one is a little different, in the old house the wiring room was so little I had to use wireless cameras and just plug them into outlets) and without buying a whole bunch of extra converters to convert the high voltage POE down to camera voltage it wouldn't work. If if I had to do it over I would have just bought POE cameras to start with though.

Thank you for the tips!

 

[A.Justice]

I'm also considering since there's DC cable capable of running at about 5 amps all over before voltage loss becomes a problem, I was thinking about maybe wiring in a few small othrr electronics was thinking about maybe wiring in a few small other 12 volt stuff, maybe some lighting, or the TV. I've seen some pretty clean wall mount Anderson power pole connectors, or even just those 2.1mm jacks look pretty good when installed properly. Plus, that would be a lot easier to run off of my 12 volt battery then to have to use an inverter.

 

[Sajan]

Considering your requirements, look into cable raceway systems for a clean and organized solution that maintains aesthetics and blocks airflow effectively.

 

[Checkthisout]

Just put the POE switch in the attic and then connect it to wap that connects to your router.

Then you ain't gotta do nothing except get power up there which is probably available off a lighting circuit.