How much to Charge?

$300 would be the amount for a hobbyist installer. My kit for fishing and retrieving alone is over $300. Add a Cable Qualifier with a traceable certification, hand tools, power tools, spare parts and I am at over $1,000.
#1 tool in my arsenal? $1,000,000 liability policy. Haven't had to use it, but if I need it, I'll have it. Most general contractors won't let you pull your swiss army knife out without it.
 
Well when I was working for a small telecom company we estimated how much wire was required in the total install and the estimated amount of time for installation then it was $85/hour install ($125/hour for travel if a truck was required). I liked how that worked cause sometime if a run is really short and they are being charged $125 for that run it seems to be quite expensive. Our clients quite enjoyed this system.

Hope the install goes well for you!
 
I have a lot of money invested in tools and materials as well. More importantly is the experience to do this kind of work. I know I spent a lot of time to learn the ins and outs of the industry before putting a single hole into someone else's walls.
 
I may end up getting a Flex bit if I cant find one to borrow.

I may Order most of the parts today and try to get the wireless and upstairs jacks in place. Then he doesnt have to wait a month...still thinking about it..


Why are toolless jacks garbage?
 
I use Leviton jacks almost exclusively. I have been very satisfied with the quality over the years and all my distributors stock them. I can terminate a jack in a minute with a punchdown tool, not a big deal.
A lot of those tool-less jacks (monoprice, etc) are just poor quality, you get what you pay for.
 
Tool-less jacks will require you to come back to repair, on your own dime. Leviton is the standard, I'm going to try ICC on my next install. Leviton does include a little punchdown tool (little=tiny,plastic,) but if you don't have a punch-down tool with a cutting blade, you need one.
 
jeffmoss26 said:
I use Leviton jacks almost exclusively. I have been very satisfied with the quality over the years and all my distributors stock them. I can terminate a jack in a minute with a punchdown tool, not a big deal.
A lot of those tool-less jacks (monoprice, etc) are just poor quality, you get what you pay for.
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Agreed, the monoprice ones are crap so you pretty much get what you pay for. the Leviton jacks are $6 each (cdn btw) and the plates (4 port) are $2 each so each plate will cost the client $25 where as monoprice will be 1/3 that cost. However Leviton jacks have something like a 25 year warranty, installed thousands of those in oilfield camps in northern Alberta, fun stuff. so far there has been like 0.2% failure rate (maybe 1 in 500 needed to be replaced). Had more problems with the punch down style because if you don't punch straight down you could snap the jack. We also preferred the tool-less ones when we were doing a ceiling jack installation as no need to find something to punch down on.
 
RocketTech said:
Tool-less jacks will require you to come back to repair, on your own dime. Leviton is the standard, I'm going to try ICC on my next install. Leviton does include a little punchdown tool (little=tiny,plastic,) but if you don't have a punch-down tool with a cutting blade, you need one.
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Pay now, or loose later :(

having all the tools in the world really won't make you a good installer unless you know how to use them and have experience.
 
Maybe I wont get the $2 jacks, but I cant afford $6 either. I will go back to the local supplier, his were $4...
 
braidman said:
Maybe I wont get the $2 jacks, but I cant afford $6 either. I will go back to the local supplier, his were $4...
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You should ask the *customer* what they want to do and explain the differences etc etc. Let him know also that if one of those 2$ jack's failed because *HE* was cheap let him know there is a service call out fee to change it or trouble shoot it..

You want to be cheap, explain cheap, explain that it costs 10-20x more in the long run.
 
RocketTech, I've tried ICC but was not too thrilled with them. Some guys swear by the stuff but I stick with Leviton.
The 25 year warranty is for a certified installation by a Leviton partner I believe.
 
jeffmoss26 said:
RocketTech, I've tried ICC but was not too thrilled with them. Some guys swear by the stuff but I stick with Leviton.
The 25 year warranty is for a certified installation by a Leviton partner I believe.
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Have you had any experience with their surface mount raceways? I'm looking at ICC for that and thought I would pick-up some jacks and try them. I've used Leviton on every customer install to this point and they are the standard, IMO. I just don't have a reliable distributor for Leviton DataCom products
 
I charge depending on the kind of cable that needs to be run, but generally

For Cat6, I charge about $60 per drop and the customer pays for supplies, aka, cable and outlets.
I charge a flat $100 for network hookup, so I hookup all the lines to their network switches in the closet.

Security systems I charge more for, because they are a bitch.

Wireless is just 1 drop and a hidden AP or 2 drops depending on size of house

did a house with 3 apps, which was $60x3 +$100 setup fee for the wireless network.

Make sure to get some good equipment, a keyhole saw and fishtape are your friends!
 
FrEaKy said:
Make sure to get some good equipment, a keyhole saw and fishtape are your friends!
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I'd suggest a utility knife over a keyhole saw. Less mess and less likely to saw through cable, pex, or the other side of the wall.
 
No I have not used their raceway. I just picked up 25 feet of Wiremold 400BAC for a small job last weekend. It will only hold 2 wires at the most, but they have 2 larger sizes.
Panduit LD raceway is nice too.
 
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The switch will be next to the Den in a closet under the stairs (currently being built) (behind the lines in the picture).The area where I ran all the cables parallel along the joists will be "furred in". The Den will have a "tray" ceiling. The area around the edges will be boxed in in other words. There will be an a/c duct just below our pictured lines and plenty of room for more if need be.

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These two pics (above) show 4 lines running across the den to where the tv will be installed. Still working out the details for the A/V system (pioneer or bose or something else). So I'm not clear on how many lines are needed where...

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The bottom two pics start to illustrate what a clear picture we have from below the house. Its easy to see where all the sewer lines and water pipes and electrical lines run upwards. Not that I'm any less terrified of drilling, but at least I'm confident I wont hit sewage lines. And I'm infinitely more confident than I would be if all this was closed in..
 
Looks okay but I am not a fan of those plastic staples. I would use J-hooks or D-rings so you have the ability to secure all the cables in one fastening and not worry about crushing them.
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The entire basement isn't going to be finished? I would recommend running cable as if it were to be finished, even if it isn't at this point.
 
No, the whole basement is going to be finished, some of the brick is going to remain, but not alot.

I went over this morning and the A/C duct has been run atop (underneath) most of my cables.

Other than the 4 cables to the tv, no more than two are going any one place. The pictured area is probably the most that will be gathered in any area (aside from the very end, the switch) ..
 
Braid,

Couple questions;

...and this might just be me not all there because it's 7am, and I'm still waking up... but why did you run your wiring on the outside of the framed wall and beneath the floor joist (if i'm looking at it correct) ?

assuming they're installing sheetrock/drywall, how do they plan on hanging on that wall/ceiling in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th pic - I think Rocket sees what I see.
 
Because there is an air duct now located right below my cables. That air duct is gonna be boxed in with framing and drywall (and my cables).

I'll take a picture next time I go over there. The framing is progressing rapidly, I'm really glad I got those cables in there before it progressed further.
 
braidman said:
Because there is an air duct now located right below my cables. That air duct is gonna be boxed in with framing and drywall (and my cables).

I'll take a picture next time I go over there. The framing is progressing rapidly, I'm really glad I got those cables in there before it progressed further.
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Ahh, I see... I guess it makes sense, not sure if its up to code but I don't see any real harm doing it that way. Keep the pics coming !
 
DO NOT USE TOOL LESS KEYSTONES.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10513

Punch tool and those. Anyone that likes the tool less ones, just likes going back on site for hte client to re-crimp as they have failed.

Leviton is a higher end product, we use to use Leviton Jacks and Wall Plates, but soo expensive. Now every jack is from Monoprice and wallplates are from Monoprice.

Use them.

You did good on teh wiring. I wouldn't have used the tacks, but its good.

Good luck, glad you are making some extra moneys
 
I charge $40 an hour for college students WITH valid, CURRENT student ID.

I charge $60 an hour for family for networking. I SHOULD charge more since they ARE family. I know this since they always botch something later and demand I fix it "under warranty"

NORMAL client (home) is $75 an hour for networking UNLESS it is just adding a router and configuring wireless. In this case it is a flat 80.00

BUSINESS clients are charged 90 per hour now. This includes router, wireless config with security, and installing individual PC firewall packages _AND_ doing my best to get the business client to go with a Monowall, IPCOP, Untangle, or PFSense box on top if it all.

ALL prices are hourly for LABOR only. Parts and hardware are ALWAYS extra.

Annoyance
 
I never charge my family. What am I going to do, hand my dad a bill when his PC gets a virus? Then he will hand me a bill for living in his house and slap me in the back of the head.
 
^ lol.

My dad always says to bill him after doing stuff. Really how could you bill the family? Pain in the ass but o well.

I never saw the pricing home vs business to be more effective. If anything home users should be more than business.
 
As my grandpa says 'you can bill me but good luck trying to collect' lol
I charge the same for residential or business customers. Most of the residential stuff is small one hour jobs...business stuff varies a lot. Right now I'm finishing up a phone system install that has taken 8 or so hours.
 
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This is what the duct looks like.

We worked down there all afternoon. I would have taken more pics but they don't really tell anything. I will have to spend several hours tacking all the lines we have run sometime this week.

We're nearly done with cable laying down in the basement.We cant truly finish the job till they get sheetrock...

We did manage to run one line into the kitchen today. That's our first upstairs line. We got lucky. Somewhere along the line someone decided to run some of the phone jacks using conduit. So we got at the line coming out of it and used it to pull our cable up (my boss doesn't want any land line phone). I was absolutely terrified of this one jack but it might end up being our easiest. :) I should take some pics of the phone setup (or lack thereof) it is absolutely horrendous (except for the nice easy conduit).
 
Also...
My work is renovating. Taking away walls, adding additional desks, and therefore data lines. So we worked out there this evening. Running 8 lines. The main difficulty being the 12ft high ceilings put all the work to be done way up in the air. That and it needs to be done (lines run plates will come later) by monday. Yeah I've got alot going on...
 
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