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Cowboy cabling
This thread has 9 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 08:07
cmo
Founding Member
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April 2002
295
O.K. anyone wish to give me their thoughts on this one:

I was recently asked by a customer to give them a qoute / solution for their property.
"We want a basic 3 zone multiroom system for our newly finished property" they said, "the cables have already been put in place by our builder about a year ago, who has unfortunately recently died of a heart attack".

Sounds easy enough, so I arranged for a site visit.
I got to the house, recent building, very attractive.

They showed me to a small cupboard in a side room with a bunch of speaker cable resembling bell wire hanging out.
so 3 rooms = 3 pairs of speakers = hang on 5 cables?
first problem - the kitchen has only one cable going to it.
Of course the second problem was: No CAT5E cable to be seen anywhere, in fact where the hell are the mains sockets?
"Oh, the're in the next cupboard along came the reply"
"O.K." I replied "can I see the other rooms".

Kitchen - 1 single cable sticking out about 30cm down the wall.
"Is it possible to have an in-ceiling speaker in here?" they asked.

Living room - two cables (getting better) situated half way up the wall behind blanking plates hidden by a made to measure cupboard unit spanning up to the ceiling.

Bedroom - very nice room, big double bed facing a full wall wardrobe with two speaker cables coming out the floor! either side of the bed (head end).
Customer thought that they could have two little bookshelf speakers housed in a cabinet either side of the bed. Of course they didn't quite grasp the concept of the speakers facing the wrong direction and firing into the room away from their ears.

Any ideas??

On a simple note how do I get a mono signal with both left and right channels out of a stereo amplifier and send it down a single cable?

Thanks as usual.
Post 2 made on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 10:52
McNasty
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January 2002
1,322
I'll tell you what I tell my boss...I would never take a job that someone else wired, because once you touch those wires they become "your wires", and they become your responsibility. I would tell them that the wires are not suitable for the application they want, and if they want them used then they would have to findo somone else to do the job. My boss never listens to me and always takes over jobs, and it ALWAYS gets us in trouble. We did a camera job that he bid pretty low because all the wires were where they had to be and we got screwed because what we didn't know was that the dipshit that wired it made 3 different locations where the wires had splice points. It took us over 6 man hours to find the last splice point. Taking over other peoples work is never good. Especially if an electrician ran the audio wires. They are great at what they do, but they don't care about good quality audio wiring.
Post 3 made on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 10:54
DBDElectronics
Founding Member
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December 2001
46
and how
Post 4 made on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 11:46
Ian Schatz
Long Time Member
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July 2002
107
I concur, don't bid the job based upon someone else's wiring. Treat it like your own, new retrofit job, and you will come out okay. Remember that being busy does not necessarily equate to being profitable.
Post 5 made on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 14:23
ItsColdInMN
Long Time Member
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June 2002
461
Sounds like being busy in this case equates to swearing up a storm trying to get this to work. Might also want to inform them, when you pass on the job, that alot of other professionals will probably feel the same way you do, and that the pre-wire that was done by the builder is pretty much useless. It sounds like a bad situation, but with a few tests, if they all work out okay, then it might not be such a bad situation. It might just need a little adaptation. Sounds like there's no volume control locations to any room. So ya might need an RF remote system, mono speaker in the kitchen, and put a pair of walljacks in the bedroom, or go with the speakers they hoped for, it doesn't make sense for you and I, but they might shell out more moolah if you're willing to do what they want.
Post 6 made on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 21:58
Larry Fine
Loyal Member
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Posts:
August 2001
5,002
I would just give a high-enough-to-cover-the-worst-case estimate, and/or a rate to test for usefulness of the pre-wiring, with an explanation that the bill will reflect actual time.

If they say yes, you'll have a high-dollar job. If not, say thank you pleasantly, please call if you decide you want me to tackle the job, and leave your card.

If other installers back up your explanation, either before or after diving in, you'll look better for knowing ahead of time what lay ahead.

Sometimes, it seems like half of my work is a call back after the customer thanks, but wants a second opinion. I just look at it as a cold call where I already know the layout.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com
Post 7 made on Monday July 15, 2002 at 15:02
ItsColdInMN
Long Time Member
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June 2002
461
Larry's got it spot on, you actually could have a workable system here, but make sure you get what you deserve for putting up with not getting what you need to work with.
Post 8 made on Tuesday July 16, 2002 at 18:43
avgenius1
Founding Member
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May 2002
448
When will people realize that we are Technicians NOT Magicians
"Some may never live but the crazy never die" ~ Hunter S. Thompson
"There will be plenty of time to sleep when I am dead" ~ Me
Post 9 made on Tuesday July 16, 2002 at 19:13
ItsColdInMN
Long Time Member
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June 2002
461
When you stop doing magical things
Post 10 made on Thursday July 18, 2002 at 02:52
Keith @ Mr. Hookup
Founding Member
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Posts:
May 2002
26
There may be a couple of wires that could be used for something-- mabe an AM antenna. I would probably re-wire the house. Many times we don't get the luxury of wiring before drywall. Usually we can get wires through most walls without a single noticable incision in the drywall. This is one of the many things that separates us from hack electricians.

It also never ceases to amaze me at how many audio/video contractors don't know the first thing about speaker placement, wire, amplifiers, etc. Doing this kind of work should require a license with a test that requires audio/video knowledge. In California, you need almost no knowledge of audio video to be licensed to install speaker, data, telephone, or cable wiring. I guess electricians have a strong lobby.

Sorry I don't have an easy fix. Sounds like a can of worms to me. If you can't re-wire, I'd probably let some know-it-all electrican screw himself by taking the project on. I pity the cleint. No wonder the contractor died of a heart attack with subs like that.


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