On January 7, 2010 at 12:39, 39 Cent Stamp said...
100% of the time we spec/force racks.
If you total up the added labor for dealing with cabinets your not saving anything vs using a rack. What happens though is that you let the client get away with 'saving money' by using cabinetry and you eat the labor involved "crawling into cabinets".
Well said Stamp!
It really is true that by the time you do the math, the rack not only looks more professional but it's a good value too. I've not had any problems selling racks once I started to explaining to customers that it would actually save them money.
I'll still install a very basic system with just two components in a cabinet or shelf (cable/sat box & DVD/Blu-ray), but as soon as you go and add an AVR, surge protection, or game consoles the rack is really the best way to do it.
I've only had one customer that simply refused to use a rack. She wanted everything on shelves in a custom cabinet. By the time she paid the cabinet guys to make the cabinet/shelves and paid me to install the gear and ventilation she spend about $1500 more than my quote for the rack...
