Hills Home Hub or own cabling

Today I rec'd some prices from our builders re: network etc for the home. They like many of the volume
builders they recommend the Hills Home hub. Good easy all in one solution for them. The catch is this is listed at $1950
which includes only 4 data/phone/tv points. Extra data points are $95.00. I am awaiting full details but I'm pretty sure its the Home hub 600 kit
with the wall enclosure, Hills branded (who know's what brand 8 port 100mb switch) some patch panels, PSU etc and all wiring back to the enclosure.

Question is, I know what I can do for $1950 and could get a decent 6U rack and decent gbit 24 port switch + some points wired
although this would be most like have to be done after handover as the builder may not allow it during build.

Is it just easier to have something like this put in and wear the cost? and less hassles.

If worse case scenario, how much is it likely to cost to have a sparky after handover wire up 16 points (2 in 8 locations) around the house
back to a central point for me to patch into a switch?

Ozzroo

Hey Ozzroo,

May I ask who you're building with? Also what you have mentioned is exactly what I plan to do. While the sparky is on-site doing the electrical I will be giving him all the points, cable and cash in hand to add the LAN points and wire them back to the garage or study (Haven't decided yet). Plus a couple extra TV points and power points.. Oh and lights too.

If you want less hassles definitely go through the builder as you can always go back to them if something is wrong.

aussuming he has is Open or rescrited cabling license yeah sure.... or has a clue....

Thanks for your replies.

Timmy: We are building with Pla%^tation who make it pretty clear that no person is able to do their
own bits n pieces during build, which Im sure many still do.

Pugs: This is the trick for many i guess. I am not licenced for any electrical work yet work in IT. Quite cable to do cabling. As I mentioned I would love just to place a 6U on the wall with a decent switch and NAS etc all in one enclosure.

Is it worth perhaps approaching the sparky when we get to that stage and seeing whether they will run cables for us anyway regardless of builders. I am not sure where the builders may stand with this if they do a pre-plaster inspection and see all of these cat5 and other fancy cables everywhere.

Ozzroo

Hi Ozzroo,

Plantation do allow other contractors during build so you shouldn't have a problem organising someone else if you have too. We're getting our Aircon and some of the cabling done this way. Shoudn't be a problem during the build process!

If you haven't received you Post Contract Variation you can VERY easily just ask them to add a clause in there allowing your own contractor onsite to do cabling. Easy done

Plantation wanted $175 per data point if you weren't using the Hills System

To true Gester. And with the number of points you want it would be a very expensive setup.
I'm going to do exactly that i think. Place a clause in their and hunt for a reasonable
sparky to do some network stuff.

Most builders aren't keen on letting un-authorised contractors on "thier" site due to all the OHS regulations.

For me to do my own wiring in my own house during the frame stage, I had to submit all my insurances and Safe Work Method Plans and Statements and be "inducted" to the site.

Ozzroo, even though you work in IT, are you registered to do cabling? As mentioned here before, all cabling must be done by a Registered cabler. Since the house will be inspected at some stage, all the appropriate forms will need to be filed. Questions may be asked by an over zealous inspector.

As for the pricing, builders prices are usually high for the actual job at hand. e.g. if a normal sparky were to do the job it would be 10%-20% cheaper. The builder knows it will cost more to do the job after handover so sets his price just under that "after handover price".

If the house is a single story, brick veneer and with reasonable access through the roof, it would be around $1600.00+gst for 8 double points and a patch panel using Krone cable and jacks mounted in plates to suit your existing plates. Add the cost of a cabinet to that.

Keep in mind that at that price, you have just spent the $1900.00+gst on the data cabling (inc cabinet) only with no TV included and no switch.

Maybe $1600 is what they charge in Sydney for a mere 8 points, but in Brisbane it can be done far cheaper then that

We all earn less here for a reason! lol

Hi all,

I am currently building with a new house with a builder and their package includes electrical wiring etc. up to an allowance amount. They had done up an electrical plan with 3 phone points ($85 each) and 2 TV points ($85 each) and 1 data point ($124 each). I have asked the builders people a number of questions eg. what kind of cables that they are going to use for connecting the phone/data points, eg. will they all be category 5/6 cables? how about the TV cables? What kind of star serve system are they going to use etc. (given that there is an item labeled "star serve" for $1390 in their fee estimate but containing no other details). So far, no answers from them at all.

I am hoping to hear from anyone here who can suggest what I should do? Can I assume that all phone/data cabling will always be category 5 and the TV cabling will be RG6 co-axial? Are these too expensive?

Grateful for any suggestions.

Many thanks.

hmm talk to them about the phone points ususlay it is 2 pair "flat" cable, data cabling should be Cat5e and for TV should Be quad sheild RG-6

Thanks. But generally, what do you think about the costs? I have read in other posts that some people are saying $1600 smartwiring with 8 data points is considered expensive. But my wiring only has (1) data point and 3 phones and 2 tv, (total of $550 for these points) and I still don't know whether they will include star serve or not. The only description in their estimate is "Integrator - $1390 for star serve". I have tried asking them but there is no reply from them yet.

to be honest unless you indicate which area you are in i can't help on prices but also why on earth are you going with such a basic package / set up in this day in age esp with just "phone" points where setting up even a basic smart wired house is so much more flexible for down the track....

even a house plan would help too as then i could advise you on what you should be putting in instead a "basic" package

Thanks. I am building in the Hills area in Sydney. In terms of design, after reading up on smartwiring in the last couple of days I will definitely want to setup a network with at least one data point per room and the rumpus and living area as well. My main concern now is how can I make sure that my builder uses the correct cables and doing all the necessary things in order to make way for the installation of the ONT by Telstra Velocity. It is hard to get any response from the builders and their itemized list of electrics does not specify any description of cables or starserve to be used. And of course, there is the "costs" issue. Is it advisable to try to find someone else to do the smartwiring part (ie. phones, TV and data)? and let the builder take care of only the electricity wiring part. Is this a common/acceptable practice? From reading some of the posts, it seems that getting another contractor to do work on site is not an easy thing to achieve. Is that right?

another member on here called TDG is a cabler in your area...

personally i see no point in skimping in this or any area of the build even if you just get conduits install or predill with pull wires you can do what ever after hand over bya data cabler

Iit is worth asking your builder about third party tradies... esp if you are particular about ... Your House

bare minimum for me would be two Cat6 "data" and one RG6 (quad shield coax) "TV" points in each "main" room where you might put a TV or Computer