best economical way to hang cable above suspended ceiling?

The right way is a trough or raceway, or approved J hooks, rings, etc. But the cheap way is the tiewraps. Make sure whatever cable you use is meets the firecode.

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And very loose at that. If you have the contractor run your cable, more than likely his people will give the tie wraps a good firm tug to tighten them up...not good. Have them leave at least an inch open in the tie wrap loop, then you KNOW its not too tight.

Since they opened up the return duct from the furnace I have to use plenum cable.

A sub-contractor is hanging the cable but I don't know how good he is. Some of the people I talked to about doing the cable were just going to lay it on the ceiling tiles. Fortunately there are none yet so I can easily inspect their work.

For some reason I can never find any information about this stuff on Google, which is why I am asking on here (err, you know what I mean.) Can someone give examples of what to use? I am supposed to provide all the hardware.

Randy R

Since they opened up the return duct from the furnace I have to use plenum cable.

A sub-contractor is hanging the cable but I don't know how good he is. Some of the people I talked to about doing the cable were just going to lay it on the ceiling tiles. Fortunately there are none yet so I can easily inspect their work.

For some reason I can never find any information about this stuff on Google, which is why I am asking on here (err, you know what I mean.) Can someone give examples of what to use? I am supposed to provide all the hardware.

Randy R

Simply laying a few cables over a few ceiling tiles usually isn't a problem, but running a bundle of cables and you might eventually end up with some sagging tiles.

Then there's your local building codes. Around here, the cable cannot be touching the ceiling tiles. Of course as a matter of practice, you want to keep the cables out of the way so some other contractor doesn't mess them up, like doing the duct work.

You'd really be better off having someone that knows what they are doing

- like a telephone systems or computer networks company.

The subcontractor is a network company, but their original $9k quote did not include any kind of hangers or cable suspension system. Now the quote is down to $1k if I provide all the materials. The original plan was to run everything in conduit, I assume because whoever made the blueprints knew of no other way to keep the cables off the ceiling grid. Now we just have conduit for the drops that are behind walls, and power poles going to the front counter. (And flex conduit under the counter.) I have a really nice rack and a rack mounted patch pannel and UPS. The Dlink switch I have is rack mountable, but I plan on replacing it with a couple managed switches.

Randy R

Randy,

The cable must be properly independently supported. Any reputable cabling contractor should have included this in his bid as it is considered a normal part of the job. Unless he specifically excluded it in his bid package to you I would fight the extra charge. You asked for an example of this. One of the more common items used to handle a project of this size is to use "J' hooks designed for installation of communication cable. Here is a URL to one of these manufacturers who make a variety of sizes and mounting methods for the hooks and the PDF files also shows some typical installations.

Joe Golan, RCDD

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Randy R wrote:

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If the local authority catches you, they might shut down the facility until you get the cable off the ceiling. The easiest way is to use "J" hooks spaced 4 to 6 feet apart. They come in several sizes, and the smallest ones might be all you need.

You might try

for pictures of Erico Caddy fastener brand of J hoolk.

The Cat-21 hooks are about $1.50 each.

Carl Navarro

If you were in New York City or Chicago, I could picture some really high labor rates, but you're not.

Its hard for me to imagine paying much more than $1,700 for the 14 cable drops that includes the plenum cable, jacks, hangers, and labor, but not counting the raceway poles down to the counter tops.

I talked to a local phone installer (Jeff,) today about a phone system. I mentioned the network stuff and he said he would do it for $120 a drop including cable, jacks and everything. I asked him how he would hang the cable if he was doing the job, and he said he used J-hooks, because the cable couldn't be directly attached to any other conduit or the roof trusses. The other guy (Adam,) quoted me $600 a drop, but I don't know how much of this was because the cable was going to be in conduit everywhere. Jeff said he just did a 9 story office building with 49 jacks, and he charged $2900 (everything included,) so he couldn't believe I got quoted $9000 for a job this size. The bonus is that Jeff is from the same town we live in so he already knows the local codes. This is the only reason I agreed to meet with him today to discuss the phone system. Needless to say I am planning to hire Jeff. Thanks for all the help figuring this stuff out. Randy R

Thank you!

That sounds more in line with going rates, and using plenum at that.