When we sell a prewire to a clients through our builder because of pricing we are not able to price in wall plates for termination locations. To try an get by this we try to sell it as a post settlement option. For some reason most people won't take on it. So the solution becomes a wall plate that the wiring is just fed through. The biggest problem I have is allowing the proper length to reach the components. Many of our clients have finished basements and leaving a pull wire with the wiring bundled up in the basement is out of the question. I have tried to lay the wire between floor joist on top of some thermo pan in order to create a trough so when I do the final install I can just pull them through. This is successfull the majority of the time. But I am not satisfied with it. If I end up in a situtation around plumbing it ends up being a struggle. I am just trying to find some different options that might make this easier on me.

Your not gettig paid, so don't worry about it. Leave whatever you would need at whatever location, and move on.

This is like a cabbie saying, "well, I couldnt find you the best route home, so no charge on this one"

Do what you think is right, and let it be. Let them worry about the rest.

Leaving the wire long enough for the owner to terminate themselves, you might as well go out and terminate it for them for free. ;-}

raidencmc
I'm thick. Can you explain what it is that your doing? I'm not following you at all. What do you mean you can't price in wall plates? Why would you use a plate that you pull wiring through? Just use a blank plate. I wouldn't run wire for a builder who told me that I couldn't terminate, because he's too cheap...
Maybe I'm not understanding what it is that your talking about...
You do this with phone, cable, network?

Ditto. What in the world? Plates for a decent sized house would be like $250 plus labor. If that is too pricey then how do they expect you to do a trim-out? Are you wiring tract houses or something?
If I need to leave a lot of wire to reach the gear then I tie it up neat and wrap it in plastic bags. Then when the drywall is finished I stuff it back in the wall cavity and put a blank on it so they can get a C.O. Most of the time this is in a closet anyway. You just have to get used to working with drywall guys that do not speak english.
I had a house the other day that even though I tied the wire up out of the way, they pulled down 2 cat5's and buzzed them in half leaving me 2 inches to puchdown the plates.1 phone 1 ethernet. I am glad there was enough slack to pull out the 2".

I think you just need to wrap all the wires in plastic when your done prewiring like CCD said and when drywall and painting is done coil it back in the wall and blank plate the hole, OR use the nylon blank plates and drill a 2" or so hole in it and pull the wires through and then leave it in a coil on the floor.

We just had a huge debate in our office about selling prewires...We dont!

we now are only bidding a complete job..how can you wire for something that you dont know what it will be in 6 months?? wire for a VC system and they people will want crestron...wire for basic KP system and they will want video on a KP...

so we dont sell prewires anymore...its now a stage of the job

Maybe you should up the price a bit and include the plates as part of the job

Well put! I never do a prewire if I do not know what I am wiring for. Nailing down all the details is difficult since product changes and discontinues. You should at least have a concept of the system design.

95% of my prewires are phone, cable, network, and surround wiring in a livingroom or family room.
Some of my contractors just want termination to the backboard, and some want boxes on the backboard.
When using a structured wiring box, I will use open house tel hubs, but no network termination, or cable t.v. termination.
The phone company doesn't go into a house, they connect at demarc so I always terminate tel when on backboard or in box. The contractors don't want to pay for network hubs, so I terminate at the wall plate, but customer calls after moving in for network termination.
Contractors don't like to buy amplifiers, plus the catv guys will just bypass anything you do anyway, including throwing out splitters, so no sense in that. I do put compression fittings on at the box.
Everything gets terminated at the wall plate though.
I'm currently working on presenting my builders with a whole house audio prewire package that will contain: prewire from source to V/C, and V/C to speaker locals. TruAudio makes blank speakers, so for looks, I'll install speaker blanks, and blank wall plates at V/C locations.
This is a cheap way out for the contractor with spec homes. Yet appealing to home buyers. Beats mud ring holes or cutting wholes after the customer moves in..
I have one builder that is very interested in this.

With builders as cheap as some of them are, we wrap up the builder in plastic, stuff them in the wall cavity, and put a blank plate over the hole!!!

Plates for a decent sized house would be like $250 plus labor.
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Where are you buying your plates and fittings? I ussually work in 4500 - 7000 sq ft houses, and it has never cost me that kind of coin. $150.00 at the most. Thats using proconnect fittings, ICC cat5 keystones (both blue and white), ICC "F" connector keystones.

The plates I sell are expensive. They are probably the same ones you use but mine have 1 special feature. MPFM.

Instalz,
THANK YOU. I thought it was just me, and that I would insult him by saying, more or less, WTF?


Hilarious!

Thought we were talking cost not retail.
When it all comes out in the wash, gotta make $$$ on everything.

Anyone Think of using "smurf tube" (Carlon nonmetalic flexible tubing).
You can save dollars by not installing wire. And when the client chooses
a system, then you can pull the wires. Your not stuck with VC or KP.
Just my .005 cents. (I can't afford to give you all .02 cents).

Damn...you put Multi-Phase Flow Meters at each plate......sorry just have to ask what you mean by MPFM?