Strucutured Cable Pricing

[livpie]

I have a client who is creating an addition to their current building. There are going to be around 60-80 new outlets being run by the electrician. The electrician is only supposed to home run all the cables back to where the server cabinet will be located.

We will be required to complete the following for each outlet:

• Install all the keystone jacks
• Install all the wall plates
• Label outlets (I imagine the electrician will mark them as they are pulled)
• Install all wires into patch panel

We will also be doing the remainder of the network setup, but this is the part I am not sure how to price. We have done some basic structured cabling in the past, but I have never been in a situation where the electrician has wired everything.

I imagine I would estimate this on a per outlet basis, but I wasn't exactly sure how to price it.

I want to make sure I am being fair to my customer while not undercharging on what the industry standard would be.

Any help on pricing this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[SAFCasper]

Can't help much on pricing but it worries me when you say "I imagine the electrician will mark them"

Give them a call and insist on it. If you arrive and nothing is labelled it's going to make your life hell and take 2-3x longer than planned. I've seen plenty of qualified electricians not marking cables up correctly, or at all.

 

[G8racingfool]

Give them a call and insist on it. If you arrive and nothing is labelled it's going to make your life hell and take 2-3x longer than planned. I've seen plenty of qualified electricians not marking cables up correctly, or at all.

This, this, so much this. What you end up charging is going to completely depend on how long it's going to take and if you have to spend time there tracing out lines then you have to make sure you account for that. The absolute last thing you want is to arrive on site, beholden to a bid, and find out you have to spend hours tracing and marking all of the lines. At that point you're either going, red faced, to the client and telling them you can't honor your bid (which will probably piss them off) or you eat it and wind up losing money on the job.

So make sure that you know exactly what you'll be getting into before you bid anything out.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Can't help much on pricing but it worries me when you say "I imagine the electrician will mark them"

Give them a call and insist on it. If you arrive and nothing is labeled it's going to make your life hell and take 2-3x longer than planned. I've seen plenty of qualified electricians not marking cables up correctly, or at all.

Yep, I had a structured cabling company run Cat 6 and not label anything. What a PITA that project was. Also billed an extra hour on the job since they had to go to Lowes to get keystone jacks, wtf, you do this all day every day, and have an empty 6,000 sqft. warehouse, how do you not have thousands of these on hand?

 

[seedubya]

We usually quote around half an hour per run for termination and testing. 2 guys on site, with walkies, one at the panel and the other going point to point testing and terminating as they go, it's very efficient and we could probably get away with pricing 25% lower.

 

[seedubya]

Yep, I had a structured cabling company run Cat 6 and not label anything. What a PITA that project was. Also billed an extra hour on the job since they had to go to Lowes to get keystone jacks, wtf, you do this all day every day, and have an empty 6,000 sqft. warehouse, how do you not have thousands of these on hand?

Echo this. I went onsite today to a new house build for the guy that owns my second biggest client. The electrician had spurred all the ethernet from point to point to point. I'd say he thought it was a Token Ring if the ****** even knew what a network was. We're going wireless now........

 

[LordIntruder]

all the ethernet from point to point to point

My former boss did the same on the new location of his business.... to save money, using thick cable you won't get a RJ45 on. After a heated debate he established as final and absolute that obviously I am just to stupid to put a RJ45 on a cable that is made for outlets. Dunno if he has a network until now.

Back to topic: a T&M basis might be the best solution for you.

 

[Markverhyden]

As the others said. Labeling must be mandatory. Make sure to specify accurate. I've had some where 20% or more of the runs were mislabeled and that added time. Find out if they will have already cut holes in the sheet rock. I've had sites where they did not and that adds a lot of time. I'm with @seedubya on this one. About 2 techs, 30 minutes per drop. Unless I had a survey, which included the cable already being run, I would not do flat rate per drop. T&M.

 

[livpie]

Thanks for all the insight. I will be meeting with my customer next week and will be sure to address the things you have all mentioned! I really appreciate your insight!