Home Networking

I knew a friend of a friend who used to do tons of Ethernet drops at a hospital, which he stopped doing and does office IT work nowadays. When I bought a house, I asked him for his rate per drop. I paid $1500 for 13 Ethernet drops, and he even brought/sold to me a $200 switch panel (likely barely used hospital gear that was being thrown out) for $50. He also installed and labeled all my drops.

Im sorry this happened, overapaid a lot, but In my mind this sounds like:

-Do you want to get scammed

+yes dear

Even for job that takes 10 hours I would only charge 500

I would never hire an electrician to do low voltage, I would find someone who specializes specifically with Ethernet wiring, like in Minnesota I used Correct Cabling.

I typically tell people to expect $200-$250 per drop location. I usually specify location because running 1, 2, 4, 6, etc wires to the same location is the same amount of work. Obviously cost of materials increases a bit, but not by much unless they're long runs.

Considering OP said there is drop ceiling in the basement, that makes this a TON easier. I would have quoted $250 for the single run, and offered to run two cables.

The typical price for a business that had drop ceilings and drywall is $150-$300 depending on number of drops ordered. A single drop is barely worth the materials to deploy a tech.

Using that understanding doing it in a house will easily add $250 for the headaches that can happen. So knowing it is $300 and then a possible $250. $900 seems reasonable in the aspect of they have to make money and they have to make sure that sending the tech is worth doing. She got a quote that was the "I don't want to take this job" price.

Think about it like this. If you were to tell me that you would pay me $50 to come make you a pot of coffee plus all of my travel and materials. That job to me is not worth it. However if you told me you would pay me $500 plus travel and materials. That job becomes worth doing.

I mean she signed off on the work right? I over quote jobs that wouldn’t be worth my time if I didn’t charge more. They never have to accept the quote

Would need to see the invoice.

The only reason I can think it would be expensive is if it was a really complicated run. But seems way too much.

That’s crazy my price is $120/drop and that’s platedwall fished and tested

Residential is usually more expensive than business and usually companies won't do residential if they're big.

It's been a few years since I got quotes, but generally it was $250 per run and those runs would be run to their max length with slack if needed. Or at least that's what I requested 90 m for every run spool it up in the ceiling.

It can take a lot of work to run cable and residential because of things like fire blocks and other unforeseen circumstances.

But this seems very high to me.

Tip: if you ever pay someone to run ethernet and you need a single drop pay for two.

Was it a fixed price quote or t&m estimate?

You will pay $1000 any time someone shows up at your house to do anything.

That’s insanely overpriced. But I think the first mistake is getting an electrician instead of a low voltage tech.

that's a lot, but it feels like the price reflects the cost the dude would normally make that day

a single ethernet run for an electrician is usually a waste of their time tbh

Of course it’s a rip off but she could have gotten any schmuck from Craigslist to do it for like $100 + materials lol. I mean if it’s drop ceiling, shit I’d do that for $200

Paid a fair price don’t call the business.

Yes, you’re right it’s a steep price, but that’s the cost for a professional.

If you and or your north hired someone with out an estimate ahead of time I’m surprised they didn’t charge you triple that for being stupid.

I spent that to have my whole house set up for Ethernet and the guy set up a ubiquiti network for me

The jack cost 1$ the cable path cost the rest check that out

I paid a cabling guy $300 to run 2 Cat 6 cables from my downstairs to upstairs. They fished it into the basement, then up into a closet, into the upstairs, floor and into the wall and mounted on both floors on wall jacks.

I wouldn't hire an electrician to do that.

This isn’t a ridiculous price. Might be slightly high but not highway robbery.

I get billed out at between 120 and 150 per hour as a home automation guy, from the time I start traveling to the jobsite until I leave. This might take me an hour and be only 30 mins from the shop so it could be in the 200 range. It could also be over an hour drive from the shop with tons of unforeseen obstacles. Things like definitely have the potential to turn into a handful of hours even though it looked like one hour on paper.

So yes, even having the proper guy for the job (never an electrician) do this type of task could turn into this type of quote. There’s no knowing if it was truly highway robbery without more info.

Shit. Take me 2 hours. 1000 bucks like that, in the wrong job.

If it was 2 wall fish and 30-40 ft through a drop ceiling. I know a few companies that would do it for ~$100

Should have been no more than $200 I would charge around 100 in my market.

How long was the installer there for ?

Did that include drywall work and painting?

Am LV tech - I don't do resi but with a drop ceiling it's about the same.

Cat6 drop is $285, all in.

Sparky billed her for learning how to terminate it 🤣

I had pretty much every light switch and receptacle (minus the 3 I did myself) replaced in my house by two electricians 4 years ago. They charged me $400 and I was pretty happy with that. This seems excessive.

I may reconsider my choice not to do residential stuff if this is what they are willing to pay.

$500 van roll fee on top of some pricy work. Maybe that was the minimum

I was a data cabler at the start of my career.

Residential is the worst. Dwangs in walls. Cable runs are always a bitch. And even if you have a drop its not guaranteed to fit or feed another cable, and usually not easily. Many walls will have to be surface mounted blocks with capping. House ceilings suck.

Most offices have suspended ceilings , hollow walls / partitions . Built in cable ducts and catenarys. etc etc

I did exactly 4 residential jobs. Lol.

And dozens and dozens of commercial buildings.

Not in the US but this seems high-ish. But I know lots of people would feel this sort of job is seldom worth the petrol or stress.