I'm updating my pricing for 2020, and as part of that am reviewing my pricing for structured wiring. The way I price wiring is by "bundle". For example, a "WAP" bundle consists of two cat6 cables.

I arrive at my pricing by marking up the following costs:
a. cost of cable
b. cost to pull cable during roughin
c. cost to terminate/test/label
d. cost of termination hardware

I find all of these costs are easy to estimate except for b. (the pull labor), because you don't just pull one location at a time.

My current estimate is that pulling two cat6 cables from the rack to an end point in a 3-6K square foot new construction residential project takes on average approx 1/2 man-hour (i.e. two men working for 15 minutes.) This includes the time it takes to manage cable boxes, drill any necessary holes, do proper wire management, etc.

What do you estimate the average pull time should be for this task?

Don’t overlook getting to the site, humping boxes, tools, spools, and ladders from this equation. As well as flowing the opposite direction.

This is so fluid, It’d be a neat project for a tech to log this for an extended period of time on rough-ins and retrofits. However style of construction, size of project, temperature (to name a few variables) can be drastically different from one project to another. Cabling companies normally price “per drop” but that # is all over the map.

I would also consider the time wasted by waiting for other contractors to get their stuff and people out of the way. I have worked on jobs that were similar to a room full of cats, constantly moving and needing to stand or work where I needed to be.

Yes, yes, I agree with all of that. But what about the estimate!?

Why do you pull TWO cats to one WAP??

Why do you pull TWO cats to one WAP??

Two reasons. One is for redundancy in case one gets damaged. The other is to serve as a spare for future use (ie camera, ZAP, Bluetooth gateway, doorbell chime, etc.)

Shortly, all waps will require 2 CAT6 cables. The reasoning is 1 cable for higher powered POE which is already in testing and another cable for the data.

1/2 hour for 2 techs seems extremely low in my eyes for a drop location.

We have our own formula that we use. Take the number of cables and multiply it by X.

It has always worked out positively for us.

Typically looking anywhere between $200-$250 per 2 cable drop.

I think in actuality I am running at twice that estimate and I misread my own spreadsheet. It should be 1/2 hour for two techs in parallel.

I arrived at this by looking at a full day where I estimate two techs can do around 15 locations with two cables. (Video locations take longer on average because we pull 6 cables and so cannot group up runs.)

I figure 1 hour per run.

The easy way to figure it out is to track a couple prewires. Look at the amount of time it takes from the time that your workers clock in to the time they clock out and at the end of the prewire stage divide their time by the number of drops. Once you get that number add on 15-20% to cover any oddball stuff that may happen and I bet you come out to roughly 1 hour per drop.

I pull at least two cat wires everywhere-

need 1, pull 2
need 2,pull 3

cant tell you the number of times this has saved me from either a wire that got damages or when the customer decides to surprise you with something he wants to add.

Unfortunately there are many variables that effect his labor time. When we implemented D-Tools, we realized that we had been undercharging for pre-wires for the last decade, and using material margins to subsidize the labor costs.

We ended up taking several typical roughins and averaging the labor times for the different cables installed. Additionally, we bundled some cable pulls and used the an efficiency factor for pulling multiple cables. D-Tools also allows you to change the standard length of cables being pulled and adjust labor accordingly.

Our goal was to generate an acceptable margin on each run, knowing that we may be off in some instances. Be consistent on your estimating, go back and check your actual times against your estimated times, and make adjustments when necessary.

Even though two contractors may take identical times to run cables, one may have a different cost structure due to different overhead costs. The trunk slammer can afford to do it for less, and still make the same amount of profit. And unfortunately, some contractors don't know their true costs and loose money trying to compete with the other guys.

Hold your ground and pricing. Sell based on value, not price. (i know you didn't ask for selling advice).

I have told the guys for years I'll never get mad at them for pulling an extra wire. Having too many wires in a location is not a problem I run into, having to few on the other hand...

So why would you not pull 2 cables to an AP when budget allows? We have a dual Cat6 that goes to all AP and network locations.

I do a generous estimate, then tell the customer he either pays the quote or time and material logged, which ever turns out to be less. I really overestimate the cost and let the customer know it could possibly be less. They like the idea.