Exercise R Us

Question:

>My wife and I just purchased a home.  Two of the bedrooms are not wired for >cable TV, and I’d like to have this done. >If I were to hire a handyman or an electrical company to come out and do >this type of work, how much would I likely have to pay?

This is highly dependent on the exact layout of your home, where in each room you want the outlets, and where the existing drop and outlets are. Oh yes, and of course where you live. However, it should not cost an arm and a leg. Any competent electrician or freelance telephone wiring person should be able to do it. Think in terms of an hour or two of that person’s time, which should be in the neighborhood of $100 in most areas. You are doing the right thing to call and get estimates. Make sure you test the cable signal on all outlets before the work starts and after it is completed, but before you pay. — Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA                                           http://oakroadsystems.com My reply address is correct as is. The courtesy of providing a correct reply address is more important to me than time spent deleting spam.

Response:

What you are proposing is a 2 hour job for one of your friends that is more comfortable with the process than you are. The only tool you’ll have to buy that you shouldn’t already own (if you own a house, you should own some basic tools) is a crimper, which you can buy for about $24.  And then you own it. Furthermore, I would get the cable in place, and pull the cable company back out to make the connections.  It is their job, man.  So you don’t even need the crimper, they’ll do it for you.  They won’t run inside walls, but they will go into closets, attics and basements. If you have any interest in the process, email me off line, adn I will explain how simple it can be.   My trust in paying people for this kind of stuff is poor.  You’re likely to get someone that knows less about what needs to be done than you do. Good Luck. Peter

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> My wife and I just purchased a home.  Two of the bedrooms are not wired for > cable TV, and I’d like to have this done.  (One is serving as an office and > one as a workout room.) > The house is one story and built on a slab.  It has a large attic (in fact, > in the center of the attic you can stand upright without any difficulty). > The attic insulation has been blown in. > The cable company came out and said that they cannot run interior cable this > way.  They gave me the cable and said I could do it myself or hire someone. > In doing research on this project it looks like there are a number of tools > I’d have to borrow, rent, or buy, and there also is the additional problem > that comes with my having no experience doing this previously. > If I were to hire a handyman or an electrical company to come out and do > this type of work, how much would I likely have to pay?  I plan to make some > calls this week to get estimates, but I have no idea what would actually be > reasonable.  Would it be better to contact a known company in the area or > would I save a bit by going with a licensed handyman from the newspaper? > The job would involve splicing into the existing cable in the attic and then > adding two runs to the other end of the house.  Fortunately the two rooms > have an adjoining wall, so they’d really only have to go down the wall one > time to access both rooms.  My guess is that for someone with experience > this would be a pretty typical/trivial job for them. > Thanks for any info anyone can provide. > Tony

Response:

If you hire someone, make sure they understand how to hook up TV cables and don’t pay them until you check that all the channels come in ok. You don’t just splice into the existing line. You insert a splitter, which involves cutting the cable and putting coaxial connectors on it. Be prepared for the possibility that you may need to insert a low gain amplifier somewhere to compensate for signal loss due to splitting and cable losses. You can avoid running 2 cables across the house if you use a second splitter at the far end. Wiring is simplified if there’s a convenient closet you can use to drop down the cable. If so, I’d put the 2nd splitter there so it’s easily accessible. It might be a good place for the amplifier if you need it. Then drill thru the walls just above the baseboard and use baseboard cable jacks. Staple any cable run along the baseboard using rounded cable staples. You can buy the parts and tools to do this at Radio Shack and Home Depot for probably about $50, less the drill. The cable connectors come with instructions how to cut the cable and crimp the connectors. As a homeowner you should buy yourself an electric drill anyway, if you don’t already have one. Don – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > My wife and I just purchased a home.  Two of the bedrooms are not wired for > cable TV, and I’d like to have this done.  (One is serving as an office and > one as a workout room.) > The house is one story and built on a slab.  It has a large attic (in fact, > in the center of the attic you can stand upright without any difficulty). > The attic insulation has been blown in. > The cable company came out and said that they cannot run interior cable this > way.  They gave me the cable and said I could do it myself or hire someone. > In doing research on this project it looks like there are a number of tools > I’d have to borrow, rent, or buy, and there also is the additional problem > that comes with my having no experience doing this previously. > If I were to hire a handyman or an electrical company to come out and do > this type of work, how much would I likely have to pay?  I plan to make some > calls this week to get estimates, but I have no idea what would actually be > reasonable.  Would it be better to contact a known company in the area or > would I save a bit by going with a licensed handyman from the newspaper? > The job would involve splicing into the existing cable in the attic and then > adding two runs to the other end of the house.  Fortunately the two rooms > have an adjoining wall, so they’d really only have to go down the wall one > time to access both rooms.  My guess is that for someone with experience > this would be a pretty typical/trivial job for them. > Thanks for any info anyone can provide. > Tony

Response:

My wife and I just purchased a home.  Two of the bedrooms are not wired for cable TV, and I’d like to have this done.  (One is serving as an office and one as a workout room.) The house is one story and built on a slab.  It has a large attic (in fact, in the center of the attic you can stand upright without any difficulty). The attic insulation has been blown in. The cable company came out and said that they cannot run interior cable this way.  They gave me the cable and said I could do it myself or hire someone. In doing research on this project it looks like there are a number of tools I’d have to borrow, rent, or buy, and there also is the additional problem that comes with my having no experience doing this previously. If I were to hire a handyman or an electrical company to come out and do this type of work, how much would I likely have to pay?  I plan to make some calls this week to get estimates, but I have no idea what would actually be reasonable.  Would it be better to contact a known company in the area or would I save a bit by going with a licensed handyman from the newspaper? The job would involve splicing into the existing cable in the attic and then adding two runs to the other end of the house.  Fortunately the two rooms have an adjoining wall, so they’d really only have to go down the wall one time to access both rooms.  My guess is that for someone with experience this would be a pretty typical/trivial job for them. Thanks for any info anyone can provide. Tony

Response: