Five Expert Tips to Ease Your Next Cabling Project

2. Don’t ignore the floor plans.

A. If there is an architect involved; This is REALLY important!

Your Input

There is a conventional order (and sequence of dependencies) to this process and it progresses as follows:

1. You tell the architect (landlord, building owner / manager) where you need connectivity.
2. The architect puts your requirements on the drawings.
3. The General Contractor bids the job with your requirements included.
4. The electrician, working for the GC, places the outlet boxes, conduits, rings & strings, etc. for your cabling requirements.
5. Your low-voltage cabling contractor then installs, terminates, tests and labels your cabling.

The architect incorporates all of your input into the drawings from which the General Contractor (GC,) through his Electrician, places all of the wall boxes, floor boxes, conduit, ‘rings and strings,’ blocking in the walls for TVs, and other support structures that your needed for the low-voltage cabling. Remember, you’re the paying customer! Plan, lobby for and get what you need now rather than suffering through Change Orders, mistakes and confusion later on!

B. If your project does not have an architect,

Ask your landlord for a floor plans of your new space or, if one is not available, sketch-out your new offices for a rough idea of where everything is to be located. You will need some pictorial to convey your networking needs to your low-voltage cabling vendor. And once finalized, this “floor plan” will become the working document for your vendor’s technicians to follow in order to produce your desired voice and data networking outcome.

Number or name all of the rooms and be sure to indicate where the Server Room is as well as the location of the Riser Closet for your floor / level in the building. This is the connectivity room that leads to your building’s demarcation room for your access to the Internet and phone services in the “street.” The floorplan will become your central repository for all connectivity pertaining to your telephone and computer networks.

3. Determine your network Needs

If you are an IT person, you already know what’s needed to support your voice and data networks in your new location. 

However, if you don’t have much IT experience, here is a checklist of some key factors to consider, from the low-voltage network cabling point of view:

A. Network speeds

Network speeds will impact the Category of cabling you will specify – Cat 5e, Cat 6, Cat 6A.  Each of these has its distance-related speed capabilities.

B. size of your space

The size of your space may determine the need for additional “wiring closets” to be joined together with copper or fiber optic cabling. For example, it is not commonly known that Ethernet cabling has a length limit of 100 meters per run (just under 330 feet).
If you have a divided space such as on two or more floors of a building or space that is separated by another suite of offices, you may want to consider treating each area as its own sub-network and joining the areas together with cooper or fiber optic TIE cables between their respective switches. This is sometimes less costly that running all of the cables the whole distance between the two spaces.

C. Fire Codes

Fire Codes will dictate whether you specify the more-expensive Plenum or less-expensive Non-Plenum cabling. Your architect or landlord can help with this.

D. Cables Per User

Various factors will decide the number of cables per user.  For example:

Will you need separate cables for voice and data?  Or will your staff use their computers through their IP telephones? (Do you plan to use IP or Digital phones or no phones at all?)

Will users need any other network ports like a connection to a separate (secure) network or any other networkable device like a printer, fax machine or scanner?

Is your company signing a long-term lease that might have you thinking of future-proofing your new space with higher-capacity cabling and / or extra cable runs?

E. Other types of cabling

Other types of cabling like Coax or Ethernet for TVs, cameras, satellite dishes, or other devices;  Audio wiring for a paging or sound system; Ethernet cabling for a phone system-connected doorbell or door-opening controller; Shielded cabling for security or protection from EM or RF Interference.

4. Schedule everything carefully

Cabling projects can have many moving parts, and timing really is everything. A forgotten permit, a delay in material delivery, or any scheduling error can have ripple effects on your project.

The General Contractor usually coordinates the structured cabling installation in conjunction with work that other sub-contractors will be doing in the space such as remodeling, painting, or carpeting. But if you are overseeing this work yourself, be mindful of interdependencies among various sub-contractors.

Be aware of permits and inspection dates. The General Contractor is usually responsible for the Building Permit, sub-contractors’ permits and all of the inspections. However, keep in mind that you are the one who is relocating on moving day – or not! And that is wholly dependent upon the Final Inspection and the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy by your city or county jurisdiction.
So, while you’re busy keeping your network functioning until the last minute, safeguarding your company’s data, and then packing up your network and users’ PCs, the last thing you need to sweat is whether you’ll get the Certificate of Occupancy on time, or not.

Weekly progress meetings are absolutely the best way of keeping a project on schedule. A gathering of all parties involved with the construction or remodeling, including the low-voltage cabling vendor and any others like a furniture supplier will help uncover any issues well in time to avoid a calamity on moving day. Insist on periodic meetings. Remember, weather you are paying the General Contractor or the landlord, you’re the paying customer! It is your company’s continuity and well-being at stake here!

Your Internet and phone services

Relocating your current Internet and telephone service provider(s) or carrier(s) to your new space is usually relatively simple, but they still have to enter your new address details and your critical dates and times into their schedule. Sometimes they have to do a pre-installation site survey or an installation visit before the actual turn-up of your service(s) on or just before moving day.

Changing to a new carrier for either Internet or phone service or both will require additional time (sometimes a few weeks) to allow the new carrier(s) to “port” your numbers from your existing carrier(s) to the new carrier’s network. Remember, they may still need to conduct a site survey and pre-turn-up site work.

Occasionally, your new carrier may require additional work such as the installation of a conduit or the running of extra copper or fiber optic cabling from the building’s demarcation point to your Server or LAN Room.
Although communication and confirmation are essential throughout the process, they become critically important when coordinating the scheduling.

5. Document, document, document

Having too much documentation is rare. Once your colleagues sign the lease and construction agreements, you’ll find yourself in the middle of turning the space into your new home-away-from-home. As the situation evolves and you discover forgotten items, be sure to make any requests for cabling installation changes in writing.

Talk to your cabling vendor first, as some small changes can be accommodated informally in the field. Other changes may require additional work by the GC or the Electrician, and still others (that can affect the Permit,) may require intervention by the Architect.