What's a good price for running some Cat5?

[Hmbre97]

I'm wanting to run network cable to 4 rooms and have it all terminate behind my entertainment center for a total of 5 wall drops. I've already got a spool of cable so I just need someone to come in and run the shit. My house is only 1600 sq ft and all the drops are pretty close to each other. What should I expect to pay?

[Dacotua]

I'm wanting to run network cable to 4 rooms and have it all terminate behind my entertainment center for a total of 5 wall drops. I've already got a spool of cable so I just need someone to come in and run the shit. My house is only 1600 sq ft and all the drops are pretty close to each other. What should I expect to pay?

Go buy a wireless router and wireless cards for your computers. Its cheaper and easier.

[bug1124]

$700-$1000

I had my house done for about $1300. They were a bit more spread out though (3615 sq ft). 2 drops per room, 7 rooms, all back to a central closet. This was terminated with wall plates and a breakout bar. I provided everything but the labor and keystones.

[Sgt Beavis]

get a drill and a greenlee kit for fishing wires. Then do it yourself for a fraction.

But, as Dacotua said, wireless is faster, easier, and cheaper. The only time you NEED a wired network is if you have a genuine need for a gigabit network in your house. The only reason I need one is because I'm running a NAS that is hosting a few virtual machines. If not for that, a wireless G or N network would have been just fine..

[bug1124]

If you go the do-it-yourself route I recommend the fiberglass rods for fishing the wires. Apparently, thats what all the pros use and they sure made it look easy at my house. If I didn't have 2 story runs to weird places I would have tackled it myself. Don't forget to factor in the cost of tools for terminating connections.

[Sgt Beavis]

If you go the do-it-yourself route I recommend the fiberglass rods for fishing the wires. Apparently, thats what all the pros use and they sure made it look easy at my house. If I didn't have 2 story runs to weird places I would have tackled it myself. Don't forget to factor in the cost of tools for terminating connections.

Yup, those are made by greenlee. You can also get a steel tape feeder to do the job.

[RuStYpNuS]

<-electrician.

i 2nd the wireless idea but other wise drops are easy unless your dropping down an exterior wall. if there is a pitch in the attic its a BITCH. fish tapes are a hell of a lot easier than a fiberglass rod and probably cheaper a 25 ft tape would be plenty, cheapest, and more flexible than a f/g rod. i have a punch tool and butt tester but im not data certified. Wire is wire and you can buy a network cable tester and crimp tool at home depot. its pretty straight forward other wise. just remember to keep your pairs twisted to keep the interference down.

[Blue99Ws7]

it cost alot to have someone do it. because you suppose to be a certified electrican to do it. but i ran my own cat 5 in out 3300 sft home. it was a pain. yours sounds like an easier job. but if your going to do it on your own. do it soon while it's cool. if you wait till summer you'll want to pass out up there. that's when i did outs. i was sweatn like i ran 5 miles.

[BEary]

it cost alot to have someone do it. because you suppose to be a certified electrican to do it. but i ran my own cat 5 in out 3300 sft home. it was a pain. yours sounds like an easier job. but if your going to do it on your own. do it soon while it's cool. if you wait till summer you'll want to pass out up there. that's when i did outs. i was sweatn like i ran 5 miles.


#1. You do not have to be a certified electrician to install "low voltage" cable, such as voice/data cabling.

This is what the company I work for does (I am in sales), yet we don't do residential work....If you pay someone to do it, you shoul budget around $100 per cable, perhaps $150....

Like most have told you, get in your attic and run the cable yourself, save the several hundred bucks and use it on your next mod/upgrade on your stang....

[Dacotua]

Again : I'd recommend a wireless router and skip the whole wiring thing.

5 years from now, no one will use CAT5, wireless has taken over and will continue to dominate.

[Hmbre97]

I've gotten several quotes of 2-4 hrs @ $50 hr to do it if I provide all the materials. Looks like it will only cost me a few hundred bucks which is cheaper and more reliable than buying several DD-WRT capable N routers.

[jimithing]

If all you're going to be doing is surfing the net then wireless should be fine but if you're going to do any gaming or downloading of large files you'll be better off with hard wiring. Do it yourself and run Cat6 instead of Cat5. If you avoid exterior walls it should be fairly simple.

[Magnus]

Hmbre, please do it yourself, and have Ms Hmbre ready with a camera for any ceiling damage.

[Hmbre97]

Yeah, I need the added bandwidth as I want to stream HD video from my computer to my xbox 360's that I'm using as media extenders. My current G setup can't handle streaming netflix either. I just don't think an N network will be able to handle it. The cost is coming out about the same so looks like I'll be going wired.

[Hmbre97]

Hmbre, please do it yourself, and have Ms Hmbre ready with a camera for any ceiling damage.

I don't need to do any sheetrock demo just yet. If I ever need to bring down a ceiling, I'll be sure to shuffle my fat ass up into the attic and do some jumping jacks.

[BEary]

If running streaming video, you will want to go with Category 6 cable/connectivity....Category 5e at a minimum...