Next, check the URC programming to get a sense of if and how it's organized. If the programming is crazy or disorganized, abandon it. You might want to just abandon it anyway, rather than, for instance, analyze every damn macro to see what details might be a problem. Chances are a system physically organized this way will have programming that's equally difficult to cope with.

It could have been programmed by someone else, but if anyone let this goof work by himself and not inspect their work, they shouldn't be in this industry. By the looks of the blue and yellow bundle at the ceiling (where all of the other cabling was sloppily hung), the original installation was well-organized. I suspect this was added to and changed over several years, not the by product of one bad installer.

And yes, there's no way to estimate how much this will cost. I'd go out on a limb and tell them you ESTIMATE that after four days' labor (two guys for two days each), you'd be able to give them an equipment estimate and a very rough installation estimate. Remote programming would be separate, too.


Two days for two people? If it's all being torn out, that's a half day for one person, without breaking a sweat.


By the way, that slide show, that starts by itself and has no obvious commands to stop it, is a pretty rude thing to spring on someone. I hope you don't provide information to your client this way! Now that I've played with it some, I see how to work it, but I'd still rather have several photographs that I can scroll through without them starting up on their own.

Didn't see the pause button in the lower left corner, eh?