300$ for Electrician to setup Network

[BeeBoop]

Is that a fair price? I need 4 rooms to have Ethernet. The rooms are the living room, master bed, and two guest rooms.

My house is already wired with cat5E but for telephone. He said that they are daisy chained in the attic. The living room already has cat5e and the living room is where my router will be located. So he needs to fish hook another cat5e wire down the living room in order to join all the rooms into that one spot.


He said 300$ total. Fair price? After he is done, I will still have one room without ether net. Maybe I should just do all rooms. HMM

 

[seepy83]

It could be a fair price depending on how easy/difficult it is for him to fish the new wire in so that you've got all home-runs back to 1 location. If it's all wired correctly, and it's only costing $75/drop (1 drop in each of the 4 rooms), then I'd say it's a good price.

 

[QuietDad]

I run cable, phone lines and ethernet for a cable company during installs and they charge $150 per wall/line to fish lines So that would be less. All depends how easy and accessible the walls are.

 

[BeeBoop]

To my understanding, he only has to fish hook one wall which is the living room. I was under the impression that he could reuse the cat5e located already in the walls. Maybe I was miss understanding him. I have his number and I can text him. What specifics should I ask him?

 

[azazel1024]

More or less. I mean, heck, it would be hard to find an electrician to do ANYTHING for less than about $100-150, so figure that is the price to get them out, and then anything on top of it is the price to actually do the work.

Its only 1 run, but it is also re-wiring each jack to RJ45s from RJ11s and possibly changing over/extending the runs in the attic to a better location and possibly punching them down to a patch panel or something.

Probably a few hours of work (1.5-4hrs depending on how easy it actually ends up being).

I'd do it for $100 and some beer if you were local to me. However, I also don't make my living as an electrician.

 

[BeeBoop]

I just spoke to him. I think he's going to run all the wires in each room straight into the modem/router combo located in my living room. I am assuming he needs to extend the Ethernet in some way.

 

[seepy83]

I just spoke to him. I think he's going to run all the wires in each room straight into the modem/router combo located in my living room. I am assuming he needs to extend the Ethernet in some way.

Sounds like he might be crimping mod ends onto the wire instead of punching it down to a patch panel or keystone jack. If that's true, I wouldn't want it done that way. See the sticky thread related to proper network cable installation, or the countless other threads there have been on the topic.
You want:
Solid Core cable in your walls, no longer than 90 meters punched down to either keystone jacks or a patch panel on both ends.
Store-bought patch cables, no longer than 5 meters each, to connect from your patch panel or keystone jacks to your equipment (likely a switch on one end, and your PCs/devices on the other).

 

[JackMDS]

Most services of this nature charge between $100 to $150 just to come. This price covers anywhere from 15 Min. to the first hour of work.

Otherwise if the Job is a multi-hour job to begin with, $60 to $ 80 per hour (depending on the geographical location) + material is a common price for a mid level Professional Job.

Thus according to your description it is very Fair price.

The above is pertaining to an independent concentrator.

If the same is done by an entity like ISP, Telco, Electrical utility as part of their service/installation it is usually less expensive since it is partially subsidized by the fact that you are paying Monthly fees/subscription for the service.

 

[BeeBoop]

I probably left this out but I purchased the keystones for him to install. They are cat5e Jacks. There will be three cat5e keystone jacks in the living room plate that is connected to the wall. Than that will go into the modem/router combo.

 

[WT]

$100 per drop in my house, with 4 drops run. Total was $400. We added an additional outlet to the job and that tacked on $50, for a total of $450 for 4 drops and 1 new dual outlet wall jack.

 

[brshoemak]

Just make sure he has a working knowledge of low voltage and doesn't treat the CAT5e cable like romex and start stapling it along walls or anything.

I'm not saying that's what he's going to do, but I've seen many cases of poorly installed cabling because for some electricians 'wires are wires, right?'

 

[Emulex]

Make sure he uses wall-approved fire retardant wiring or you will be sad when the fire/insurance man takes a look!

 

[skyking]

he won't re-use any cabling if he wants to warranty the job. Cable is cheap. It sounds like a fair price to me.

 

[imagoon]

Make sure he uses wall-approved fire retardant wiring or you will be sad when the fire/insurance man takes a look!

If it is code. No reason to pay more for something that may not be required in your area.

 

[Emulex]

Usually shielded twisted pair is more noise resistant and fire-proofing come hand in hand. don't use monoprice cat6a for in-between walls is all i'm saying! It works barely at 55meter @ 10gbit without other cables nearby due to crappy insulation!

 

[azazel1024]

If it is code. No reason to pay more for something that may not be required in your area.

And also, no such thing. I believe what the other poster is thinking of is Plenum rated wiring. That is NOT fire retardant. It has a different plastic coating that doesn't produce toxic gases when burned. PVC jacketing does produce toxic gas.

If you run something through your duct work, you do NOT want it producing toxic gas if it burns. If you aren't running it through your duct work, regular wiring is just fine.

 

[imagoon]

And also, no such thing. I believe what the other poster is thinking of is Plenum rated wiring. That is NOT fire retardant. It has a different plastic coating that doesn't produce toxic gases when burned. PVC jacketing does produce toxic gas.

If you run something through your duct work, you do NOT want it producing toxic gas if it burns. If you aren't running it through your duct work, regular wiring is just fine.

It certainly does:

http://www.electriduct.com/V-Max-Cat6-UTP-Plenum-Fire-Retardant-Cable.html

 

[azazel1024]

It certainly does:

http://www.electriduct.com/V-Max-Cat6-UTP-Plenum-Fire-Retardant-Cable.html

Huh, learn something new. I've never seen it with fire retardant jacketing. Plenum rated just needs to not off gas anything toxic, which is why it is PVC jacketed. I've never seen anything code wise that required anything other than that for Plenum operation and for general in wall, regular wiring with PVC jacket is generally sufficient (its what Romex has as does most general electrical wiring).

Mind you I am speaking to RESIDENTIAL fire, electrical and building codes. Not to commercial code, which I am not familiar with.

 

[imagoon]

Huh, learn something new. I've never seen it with fire retardant jacketing. Plenum rated just needs to not off gas anything toxic, which is why it is PVC jacketed. I've never seen anything code wise that required anything other than that for Plenum operation and for general in wall, regular wiring with PVC jacket is generally sufficient (its what Romex has as does most general electrical wiring).

Mind you I am speaking to RESIDENTIAL fire, electrical and building codes. Not to commercial code, which I am not familiar with.

Residential fire code (at least here in the Chicagoland area) is leaning towards commercial more and more. In multi-unit dwellings you are seeing firestop used more along with plenum in non plenum spaces. Fire retardant cables are just the next logical step. I live in that land of "no romex" also though so who knows if the rest of the nation is going this way.

 

[azazel1024]

Residential fire code (at least here in the Chicagoland area) is leaning towards commercial more and more. In multi-unit dwellings you are seeing firestop used more along with plenum in non plenum spaces. Fire retardant cables are just the next logical step. I live in that land of "no romex" also though so who knows if the rest of the nation is going this way.

Could be, but multi-unit dwellings often live with a mix of commercial and residential codes. I haven't seen any shift away from national/international code for regular single family homes. Only occasionally do I see some of the "add-ons" get applied and that is very county/city dependent and generally with home that are 3 or more stories (not counting a basement). That is often when you start getting in to more fire stop, fire retardent materials, sprinkler systems required, etc. (Townhouses/attached homes also being a nice and confusing hybrid, as a lot of places have required sprinkler systems in attached homes for ~5-10 years now, but I still haven't seen it required in single family homes, accept dwellings 3+ stories in size).

 

[imagoon]

Could be, but multi-unit dwellings often live with a mix of commercial and residential codes. I haven't seen any shift away from national/international code for regular single family homes. Only occasionally do I see some of the "add-ons" get applied and that is very county/city dependent and generally with home that are 3 or more stories (not counting a basement). That is often when you start getting in to more fire stop, fire retardent materials, sprinkler systems required, etc. (Townhouses/attached homes also being a nice and confusing hybrid, as a lot of places have required sprinkler systems in attached homes for ~5-10 years now, but I still haven't seen it required in single family homes, accept dwellings 3+ stories in size).

Considering about a 1/3 of the states of "fire sprinklers in single unit homes" on their dockets at the moment, I would see that as a "shift away from national/international code for regular single family homes." IL specifically had a few things on the books. My local city isn't requiring sprinklers but they have started requiring 2H firewalls in certain locations like an attached garage.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

If it is code. No reason to pay more for something that may not be required in your area.

Only need plenum in my area if there is air return where the cable is being ran.

 

[DainBrammage]

From my years of experience most electricians no exactly jack squat about low voltage cabling. For that kind of money per run he had better be installing patch panels and certifying the runs for permanent link or else you are getting hustled. Also, why in this day and age would you settle for cat5e for your data runs? Do you desire to replace them in 5 years?. Cat5e is too long in the tooth at this point, close to 15 year old tech. Believe me run the 6a you will be glad you did when the nBaseT products hit the consumer market and you want 10G and cant get it because your "electrician" just slapped in cat5e and crimped mod plugs

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Yeah if hes gonna use existing phone cabling, hes gonna undue the daisy chain and crimp off each run. Basically if you ever need a home phone Land Line you'll have to flip for the install.
Not sure on the price of a spool of 6a but you might look into the price, a bunch of elbow grease and a line tester. Unless your not good with dropping walls, the line is there already. Oh and if you do it, add in a pull string to any runs saves time down the road if and when a new line is needed.

 

[brshoemak]

From my years of experience most electricians no exactly jack squat about low voltage cabling. For that kind of money per run he had better be installing patch panels and certifying the runs for permanent link or else you are getting hustled. Also, why in this day and age would you settle for cat5e for your data runs? Do you desire to replace them in 5 years?. Cat5e is too long in the tooth at this point, close to 15 year old tech. Believe me run the 6a you will be glad you did when the nBaseT products hit the consumer market and you want 10G and cant get it because your "electrician" just slapped in cat5e and crimped mod plugs

If you're talking certifying the runs, CAT6A is very hard to terminate to spec - 'to spec' being the the key word. The cabling guys I worked with were experts who had literally thousands of terminations under their belts, BICSI certified and all that, and even they had some runs among 100+ at a customer site that failed certification. They were certifying the runs with a $6,000 cable tester and most electricians and even many low voltage experts don't own those types of units - let alone the ability to terminate runs to where it's actually worthwhile to test them. If OP would decide to go with CAT6A an 'electrician' is not gonna cut it in most cases.

Side note: Make sure you get the scope of work in writing and make damn sure there is something in there about NOT terminating to RJ45 connectors. If the installer crimps cables they are not low-voltage experts. Also, if they staple any runs, you should slash their tires. Nah, I'm just kidding (mostly).