One of the big low volt houses around here, for some god-unknown reason, wires cable runs from the strike to a 2 gang location in the garage or some other inconspicuous place and then completes the run to the structured enclosure, leaving it unconnected (an effort to make some other trimout tech look stupid?). I think they may even bury and doc these connections (anything for a little job security).

Eric,
You can also pull a lot of information off of the "Builder Business" forum in which I droned on and on ad infinitum with a gentleman named Brijaws. My beef was that so many wiring jobs are done by electricians with little or no AV training and are therefore, in a word, f----d up! We see million and a half dollar homes being built with daisy chained phones and cable splitters in the wall. My conclusion is that we as an industry are not doing our jobs until a structured wiring package becomes as integral a part of a new home as a roof or indoor plumbing.

Like, lunartech, I have also found induction to be a problem (love that 60 cycle hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm).

One more and I'll go away for awhile. We spent almost 2 weeks fixing a job that was done by one of the electricians "on the side". A few of the local distributors will basically sell to anyone and having a legitimate business license does not seem to be a requirement. This guy was fresh off the turnip truck as far as AV but got the job by being there (I'm sure, unbeknownst to his boss). His subwoofers were run with speaker wire soldered (poorly I might add) to RCAs. They buzzed something fierce because thay were run right with the electrical. of the three cable lines run to the MEC only one would pass a satellite signal as the Romex staples used had absolutely CRUSHED the coax. The network plugs were a joke (no 568a or b standard... just something he made up which left unmatched pairs). Volume controls were all daisy chained ( and no he didn't use an amplified VC... only impedence matched ones). We repaired alot of drywall on this one!!!

Basically a good point to make would be that if you wish to trim out other peoples poorly done jobs, be of the mindset to start over and find just enough things to show your client why you'll now be twice as much as the original guy while nicely not making him/her fell like a dumbs--t!