Hand-made patch cords & old, worn patch cords: Adds to the list of cabling sins. Whenever we do a campus cabling job- we always include new, factory made patch cords. ALL the old stuff goes to the scrap yard, no exceptions. Hand-crimped patch cords don’t hold their weight.
Now, to reiterate about old cabling- just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Any structured wiring in place should be evaluated before putting it to the scrap yard. Obviously, we evaluated this former cable plant and determined early on that it had to go, and we had no resistance from the customer. Abandoning this wiring did make sense and it was too risky to reuse.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
Although I won’t give them all away, here’s just a sampling that may be helpful to you as a customer, installer, or contractor.
In the past I’ve discussed the issues with removing abandoned wiring on customer premises and the challenges it presents to the contractors and customers. In this case, we knew that the old Cat 5 wiring plant would be abandoned after we completed our installation of a new cable plant. The old wiring consisted of cable jackets with the colors of white, grey, blue, green, yellow and red. So I decided upon a new color and that would be orange. This way, there would be no mistake in which cables would not be touched. I really like the color because it reminds me of fiber orange—so no one dares to cut orange cables.
Before & After: Something that I learned when first installing IP-PBXs was to take a snapshot of the network, and in this case we used the statistics from the managed switches showing all the metrics of the LAN ports. The idea is to use the statistics “before” to weigh against performance after new cabling is installed. This proved worthy, and the discarded packet count on some LAN segments pegged 30% before the new wiring was in place. However, a full-blown network assessment at this juncture was not in the budget. The ADTRAN Netvanta 1524 ST managed switches port statistics showed the immediate issues above:
Create piles: The human visual experience always counts. The IT contractor piled the hubs and switches removed from the campus onto one big heap. We purposely did the same thing with the scrap, old patch cords and plumbing PVC used to route the old cable drops. The visual is always effective, since customers do remember. The picture below is only a small pile of what we removed from the Principal’s office (hanging above her desk), and she does remember the mess hanging above her for the past several years. We made other and larger piles as visuals.
Perform Inventory: Since my guys were in all the nooks and crannies, we learned what other wiring was in place for the existing telephone system, intercom, clocks and bells. Any future work will be a little easier and at least we know now, what’s there and what’s useable. These details won’t be uncovered from site surveys, especially when you “get into” the job and inside these concealed spaces. Documenting what’s there, along with a collection of digital pictures, go a long way in detailing new and future projects, especially since memories do fade.
Giveaways: We always drop off extra cables even when not asked. It’s a habit that won’t likely go away because you do learn to manage your drops and how much wire is being used, and there’s usually wire left over. This buys a lot of goodwill, and contractors know how to manage wire. The old JCO (Job Change Order) attitude doesn’t buy goodwill unless it’s absolutely necessary and fair.
The last niceties are pull-strings. Leave pull-strings tied in the ceiling or concealed spaces, it’s a cheap guarantee to save a lot of unnecessary work if you need just one more drop and besides, needs always change. Pull-strings save hours of labor once they’re in place.
Food & drink: This was an extreme cabling job with unique challenges. Keep the cabling crew well fed and hydrated. Everyone was thankful that this job was done during spring break and not during summer break. So consider this factoid in your planning because concealed spaces get very hot year round and this slows down work progress.
Housekeeping: “Make it look pretty” will always bring customers back. Whenever and whatever you install, if it looks sloppy, disorganized or out of place, then it’s a reflection on your work. Appearance is half the battle. Cleanup isn’t optional, either. Most complaints about contracts in general and cabling projects are about the mess that cabling efforts cause. We are all train-able and yes, we have vacuum cleaners on the trucks and know how to use them.
