Need some pointers on my first cabling job

With any luck, this will be your first and last cable job.

Go on down to Home Dumpo and get the parts and put them in. If your looking for confirmation that it will work, I'll confirm it. It will work. If you're looking for praise or a blessing, you lose.

Why would anyone in his right mind want to "bid" your job on the internet....you already said you have bids. Plenum has nothing to do iwth the hallway, Quality and Raceway don't belong in the same sentence, and amateur hour doesn't get it for professional jobs.

Carl

Not sure what your issue is Carl, but apparently you were angry enough to cough up a few useless paragraphs which did nothing for either of us or anyone reading this, except to perhaps allow you to vent. I have seen my share of cabling guys, usually poorly paid and unskilled, pulling cable and terminating drops and basically doing a very sloppy job and making a mess of things, and this from large cabling companies. I have over 20 years of IT experience and I have punched down and terminated my share of cable. In a complex environment I could see the need for someone with a good deal of experience, but with a simple job like this I fail to see exactly what you would be able to do any better than me. I can get recommendations for supplies from any reputable vendor (Panduit, etc.) and taking the safe route and possibly using Plenum even if it is not needed on such a small job does not hurt the project. So what's your point Mr. Navarro?

With 500' of plenum costing $160-$190 is your time really worth $10? (Copper keeps going up and up and up. Try to price out something like

2-ought electrical cable at many dollars a foot for a single wire).

As Carl said, all of this is available at Home Depot/Lowes for pretty much the same cost anybody else pays. They carry Leviton which is in wide use everywhere. Any of the brands out there in the stores are pretty good.

I'd estimate your raw material costs up in the $300 range, and probably 3 hours of work depending on how well you handle fishing wire across the plenum. You'll also need J-hooks to hang the wire in the ceiling to be code in most places.

Guess $500 isn't too far out of the ballpark for something like this?

Depending on your access to suppliers, if Home Depot is your only option, Leviton is really the only choice there. Go with that over any other brand they may have. If you have wider supplier access, my preference is Panduit. They do have a keystone option if you can find it, otherwise you're looking at their own mounting method. SO if that is a problem, again go with Leviton, which only has a keystone mounting method. Also, if you've already got existing stuff that is keystone, you may want to stick with that.

Again, my preference it Panduit. Based on the number of cables, you could use the LD10 line, but may want to consider the T45 line. As for the professionalism of surface raceway, I would always try and fish the wall if possible. If not, just make sure you've got all the proper connectors and fittings, including the ceiling connector. It'll look good when done right. And don't forget the level.

Again, Panduit or Leviton depending on the above.

Because it crosses the hallway, you might need to look to see if that is a Rated Corridor. If so, there could be issues with crossing it. If it is plenum, as well as fire stopping the holes are necessary. If it's not a Corridor, I'd suggested doing both anyway. But we'd need more info. Again, depends on your supplier. If you're HD only, you might not have a lot of options. If you there is access, I like General Cable

5500, or BerkTek LanMark 350. There are others that are close, but that's where I'd start.

Sounds like a one day job to me. Parts and labor, with out doing really any figuring, I'm thinking that your original $700 is fairly accurate.

If you're that good, then why did you ask? Structured cabling isn't rocket science, but it is hardly a do it yourself project when you ask the questions you asked.

Is the rest of the cabling done in surface mount raceway? If it is, then have at it. I'm guessing it's not, because the raceway would be large enough to run extra cables in it now. If it is not, why do you want to do yours in raceway? A professional, or a good amateur, figures out how the cable is fished and does the same. That's the only point.

Yes, Home Depot has Leviton jacks and I've been a Leviton house for at least 10 years. Now you have a brand name, visit the Leviton web site and you'll find all the product line for keystones and faceplates. Your 500 feet of Plenum is going to cost you in the neighborhood of $100, but what tyype of cable is in the space now? Are the ceilings plenum? What is the local code or practice? That's really the answer as to what type of cable you use. You can't go wrong using Plenum over PVC and in a 500 foot job the price difference is not significant, but knowing the difference could put another $50 in your pocket.

Outside of that, I have no problem. Take pictues and send them along if you're proud of the final result.

Carl

Ned wrote in part:

Carl has answered for himself, but you bring up a more general issue:

Electrical or data? There is a huge difference, and there is also a huge difference in the quality of supervision.

The same sorts of semi-skilled labor are frequently used to keep costs down. That sort of specialization has been going on since before Henry Ford's assembly line and is essential to improving standards of living for all.

The important differentiator is the instructions and supervision given to the labor. With the right company/supervisor, the guys won't over pull cable, will route and support it correctly. Greater skillsets are needed for termination.

The question for DIY is not whether you have better skills than the labor you've seen. The real question is whether you know enough for the job (as much as a proper supervisor). Maybe, and maybe not. There are many gotchas.

-- Robert

The cabling job is complete. I ended up getting a quote of $300 for the job including all materials. No surface mount was needed, it was all done within the sheetrock. One person arrived with all sorts of equipment, including a neon colored fishing stick, a snake, a sheetrock saw, cable tester, and everything else someone would need. The job went smoothly until he tried to push the fishing stick down a sheetrock column that was covering a concrete column. After about 40 minutes he was finally able to get the wire through. He arrived at

6:30pm and completed the job at 11:45 which is about 5 hours. I think it would have been done much faster if he had help but I didn't care because I had work to do on the network anyway. I asked lots of questions and used the opportunity to try to learn from him. I admit, this is hard work, especially if you are alone. Not something I would want to do on my own. Anyway, thanks to everyone for your input. I have asked questions in the Windows server groups, the cisco groups, and many others for over 10 years. Those groups are what have allowed me to learn so much and become so successful. In all that time not one person ever discouraged me from learning, information was offered and some folks even gave me their phone numbers so I could call if I got stuck. I am not so sure what happened here, but I really felt as though I had somehow come accross in a way that angered some of the folks here. If I did, then I am sorry.

Thanks again.