Wiring Modular Furniture

I need to order cable and mounting hardware for 30 cubicles with 1 voice and 2 data jacks per cubicle.

Is there standard hardware to do this for all types of modular furniture or does each manufacturer have proprietary hardware for voice/data jacks and mounting?

The customer does not want the Cat5 terminated on wall jacks and then fed into the furniture later using whips. Instead, they want extra cable fed through a grommet, coiled up on the floor, and terminated later after the furniture has been selected and installed. I think this is nuts, but I can't get it changed. Do you think their plan is workable?

-- Bob Simon remove x from domain for private replies

Ask the client for the spec sheets for the cubical system. If he can give you the make and model you can probably find it one the web, but print it out and get the customer to sign off that it's the right diagram.

True. But I have found that many times the problem turns out to be the furniture installers thinking they don't need to install the furniture until the customer is ready to occupy.

I have had many jobs that have resulted in me having to work under the movers feet because furniture installers have showed up on a Thursday afternoon to work an all-nighter because the customer was moving in Friday morning. :-

What your customer is asking you to do will eventually lead to the furniture contractor stepping on your cable bundles, dropping heavy objects on them and very easily damaging them. Instead, you will have to have your cables bundled and coiled ABOVE the ceiling until the furniture is ready for you to come in. It may get tricky to coordinate as customers normally think that as soon as the furniture is up, they can occupy the space. It is not true as you will need time to fish the cables in, terminate and test.

You need to get together with this furniture guy or at least give him a call and find out exactly when the furniture is being delivered, and how long is it going to take to put it together. You will also need to find out who exactly is the manufacturer of the furniture, and, preferably, the name of the furniture product line to be used. With this info in hands you can call your distributor (or look in the catalog to that matter) and find specially designed faceplates that would fit the furniture. It also greatly helps to know the exact size of the outlet knock-outs on the furniture so you can pick the right faceplate.

Thanks to all of you for the tips. I'll see if I can get two days after the furniture is delivered and before the customer moves in so we can run cable through the furniture, terminate it, and mount the jacks and plates for 30 cubes x 3 drops each. I'm not sure two guys could finish all this in a single day.

How much extra cable should be coiled up in the ceiling to serve four cubes? Does 30' sound reasonable?

BTW, it seems that the furniture has not been selected yet. Nobody can tell me what mfg or model. All I have to go on is the architect's drawings of the cube layouts and the locations of where 12 cables are supposed to come out of the wall to serve a cluster of four cubes.

-- Bob Simon remove x from domain for private replies

Somewhere there's an electrician asking the same type of questions you are.

30' should be enough unless the cube size/layout tells you otherwise or you have unusually high ceilings. I'd say two guys are definitely not going to finish it up in one day. There will always be logistics problems, panels of the furniture missing or last minute layout changes and so on and so forth. Besides, you may get some bad luck and have to deal with completely enclosed furniture that may have to be literally fished through as oppose to other (newer?) models where you can remove a panel and fly through. Depending on the setbacks you may encounter even two day/two guys may be pushing it.

Good point, Al!

The electrician on site also needs to know how to come into the furniture. His job can be easier though if the furniture is pre-wired for power.

In any case, stick with the big brother electrician, but be alert so he does not steal the work from you! ;-)

I think this statement would be more accurate if you insert the words "should be".

Yes. I met him this morning on a walk-thru with the customer to get a final count of jacks before I order parts. Nice guy -- very friendly and helpful. And, yes, he's troubled by the cube wiring design too.

He told me that the architect is still trying to figure out the best way to bring power, voice, and data to the cubes. The original plan called for cable to be run from the pillars for the half of the cubes on the window side, and from floor mounted recepticles for the half of the cubes away from the windows. The floor mounted boxes were going to be located directly underneath the cubicle wall. (It turns out that this would violate a high-security area of the downstairs tenant so the plan has to be revised.)

Now I admit that I don't have any experience wiring cubes but this sounds crazy to me. I mean, how am I going to run cable after the furniture is in place and all bolted together? I won't even be able to get to the feeder box because it will be underneath a furniture panel.

Now it looks like they may decide to bring ALL the cable for the cubes from the pillars. Both the electrician and I hope that's what they'll decide. How do architects make these decisions anyway?

-- Bob Simon remove x from domain for private replies

The customer agreed to give us two days after the furniture is set up before moving in. There are some unsettled issues, including whether my company or the furniture guys will terminate voice and data cable in the cubes. (Either way it won't affect the price of the job.) In any case, he agreed to order the proprietary hardware at the time he orders the furniture.

Is there any reason that wiring guys can't work with the furniture guys to run and terminate WHILE they are putting the modules together?

-- Bob Simon remove x from domain for private replies

I could not help but read you posting as cabling is what I do for a living. In the matter of cabling through modular funiture you need to coordinate with the furiture contractor. Once the spline is installed you ususaly can put in the back bone of your cable. You will want to do this before they install the pedistals as it will be near impossible to get some lines down with those in place. Good luck

O.K. I'll play confused. Leviton makes 2 types of furniture modules that are pretty universal. You order the color and type and number of ports, connect the jacks and snap them into the ports. Your data cables are pretty much cut to fit the opening.

When you come out of the wall to the panels, you have a handful of cables tagged and unterminated. Then you thread them through the bottom plates to the openigs. Am I missing something?

Carl Navarro

>

WOW! Stop right there! Have you seen a regular furniture delivery (or assembly to that matter) guy (no offense, pros of the trade ;-)) ? Would you trust those tiny jacks to him? Seriously, the cabling should be taken care of by a professional, so if you are the cabling contractor on this job, make sure the job does not slip away from you for the customer's own good.

You should wait till the frames and the most bulky parts are installed. However, there is no reason why you should not tell the furniture guy to leave the cable trough covers open. When they will be putting the modules together, there will be lots of movements and adjustments too close to the delicate cabling. You don't really want that.

Carl, Thanks for the reply. Perhaps I'm the one that's confused. If they install the north wall of a series of cubes city directly on top of the floor mounted box, how can I pull cable from that box? After they bolt a bunch of cubes together I know I can lift that wall or even move it.

-- Bob Simon remove x from domain for private replies

Cameron, I apologize for my ignorance but what is the spline and which part of the furniture is the pedistal?

-- Bob Simon remove x from domain for private replies