CAT6 Wiring cost "per point"

Hi All,

I'm in the networking game, but most of our jobs are commercial, so I'm not really sure what to expect when organising residential cabling.

We're in the process of building, and will likely use the builders electrician to complete our structured cabling.

We're putting in a bunch of ports into a two story (something like 16 down and 10 up). Does anyone know if the usual per-point price is per cable, or per wall point (i.e four points in one panel is the same, or similar price to one point in one panel.

Does anyone have a rough idea on how much I should expect to pay for:

- 16 Data Points, cabled to central patch downstairs
- 4 cables between downstairs and upstairs
- 10 data points, cabled to central patch upstairs

Cheers!

Hi Matty,

Our builder's (EB) price was $185 per run so we made other arrangements

Hello matty

When people charge per point it is usually the cable to the point, the wall plate and the consumables that go into mounting the wall plate and getting the cable there.. i.e. stud brackets, drill bits, clips, paint etc etc etc
' PER POINT' also means 1 point... it doesnt matter if 2 points are side by side or back to back.. they are still charged individually.

With regards to a data points.. this 99% of the time includes everything mentioned above.. but DOES NOT include fitting off into a patch panel or network switch.. this is another area of chargeable hours that can sometimes be very labour intensive.

just an indication.. you could expect to pay from 75.00 to 120.00 per point, ran back to a central location.. This would be for a new home/business at framing stage.. If its an existing property then this would go into time + parts as there are so many varibles.
If you go through a builder expect to pay at least 20% ontop of the contractors prices.

i would expect a job like that to range from

2500 - 3500 without looking at plans..

I hope that helped.

chris

I'm also looking into this
I've sent it to the builder's electrician for a quote

Metricoin want $143 per point for CAT6. $132 I think OTTOMH for CAT5?

Expensive either way.

Will Metricoin allow you to get your own cabler in, or just put in some holes and run some draw/pull lines for putting in later yourself?
Looking at them for a 2 storey house build, and the costs scare me...

I had over 60 data points, and 40 security zones.... would have gone broke if I paid $160 per cable run.

Best off - hire a sparky, pay him a day rate. Pay for all the materials, and offer to help him along with all your mates. You can save a lot of money

Love to do that, but if M'con won't let you in to do this at frame stage, can it be done afterwards? And if so, surely the cost would be comparable given the degree of difficulty?

Afterwards (after build is complete) is much tougher (and expensive?) as it's essentially a retrofit then because you have all the plaster up. Especially a double story. Correct me if I'm wrong as I am no expert.

do it yourself mate and then do the termination through sparky, its very easy tie or tape a CAT 6 roll cable to a conduit and keep passing thru the ceiling, either at frame stage or else when all is build up, u ll have to run the cables thru yellow tongue and there is always a inch space between the noggins in studs. Its easier at frame stage just ask the building supervisor that you will bring in your sparky and go on saturday do it with help of a friend, but please very careful from OHS point of view and use a plank to balance your weight on the ceiling frame... since you have 2 floors, it doesnt matter how many floors the techinique is simple so you can use with all the single storey or double storey houses.... you can use the cable loose in the ceilings during frame stage as they are not affected and once plasters goes up you can come back to punch holes in wall and drag the cable out get sparky to terminate for u into a cat 6 data jacks and then couple it to the face plates your self and screw it to wall, it is illegal to do termination yourself and would recommend a qualified sparky.

It is a common misconception that only the terminations must be carried out by a registered cabler.

It is illegal to do any communications cabling yourself, not just the termination. In fact, the regulations aren't really concerned about termination at all.

The primary purpose of the cabling rules (S009) is safety, for both end users and telecommunications network workers. The biggest risk comes from cabling being insufficiently separated from power cabling and becoming inadvertently energised, but there are also risks posed by Earth potential rise and by other hazardous services, such as gas lines.

Incorrect or poor termination may result in the cabling not being functional, but this is a secondary concern of the regulations.

To install data cabling you require a restricted or open cabling registration plus a structured cabling endorsement.

An unregistered person may do the work if they are actively supervised by a registered cabler with the appropriate registrations. This means that they are present at all times while the work is being done.

Builder prices for data points seem to be $130 - $150, give or take. I recently moved out of my Porter Davis built home, where we paid them thousands for data cabling and had a sparky come out and cable my new place up. Cost per point was closer to $70, and I had the pleasure of being able to choose my own rack rather than being limited to PDs awful list of only one choice (that was not suitable). This guy worked on an hourly rate plus materials, rather than a per point cost, and I had him do a ton of other work. So for less than half of what PD charged me for a similar number of points, I managed to get the data points, a dozen power points, the rack installation (I bought it myself but he installed it and terminated all my points into a patch panel), and the satisfaction of knowing it had been done properly.

And as paulw11 says, you can't do the cabling yourself. Yes, you can run pre-made cables over the floor but you can't install fixed cabling or cables that run through cavities, nor can you terminate the connections. If you get to the stage where you're running Power over Ethernet down any of these and something goes wrong (ie. fire) and the insurance company asks to see your compliance certificate you might have a crummy day. Just get it done properly.

My builder is charging $80 per point, which I was pleasantly surprised with...until they told me they charge $160 for a double and $320 for a quad!!! I have tried to explain that it doesn't cost double to provide a double etc but to no avail. They also won't terminate to a patch panel, only to wall plates, but said they will leave the bare wires hanging out the wall if I want to do it myself afterwards. Strange.....
As expected they won't allow me (or my electrician) any access to do it

It's normal for builders to charge "per cable run" as opposed to "per outlet". I just had to suck it up, given it's going to cost much more doing after the plasterboard has gone up

It really depends, everybody charges a different price for CAT6 cabling. For example here in some of the Data cabling in Perth we did, we would charge perhaps $130-$180 per point, but that is private jobs and not ones where multiple points are being installed. Some builders or smart wiring companies would probably charge even upto $300-$450 per point effectively once you work it out. So it really depends on who is doing the work, how many middle-men and mark up there is. Just remember, there are advantages and disadvantages of going or not going through your builder and/or their provider for structured cabling.

AllCastle Homes charges $138 for Cat5E and $168 for CAT 6.... Big catch is still need to pay $110~ $140 to terminate them... ( Fuming at the moment but think will end up going ahead with minimal number I need and do the rest post build..

what is frustrating id s colleague of mine who is building with First Style Homes charges only $99 for Cat 6 and other items such as power pt , switches etc all seems to be 15% less which is all arranged through Clipsal tec in Marsden Park.