How much would you charge to network an office building

[bgovoni]

A buddy has asked me to network his office building. I told him 500 for labor cause anything under 600 they won't give you a 10-99 for tax purposes. He told me that they can get around that and to charge them more. The building is about 2,000 sqf, two stories and I'll be putting in about 16 single outlet drops with cable raceways for the walls. I'll also be sharing documents/printers between users. It's about a day or 2's worth of work. How much would you guys charge. Any help appreciated

 

[Muscles]

About $75/hour

 

[bgovoni]

I kinda wanted to give him a flat rate

 

[woodweave]

First of all 500.00 is way to cheap. Being a buddy, lets say you charge him 65.00/H which is a very good price. You mentioned that it is two days worth of work. 65.00*16 hours is $1040.00 without tax. Who will be supplying the cable? approx .13c per foot. Who will be paying for the raceways, you mentioned? What about the tie raps? What will you be terminating to? 110 blocks? RJ45? Who will pay for the patch panels? Is there equipement in a rack somewhere already? If so, will it support the extra 16 cables? There are more questions, but I think you get the idea. 🙂

Keep smiling, and hope this helps

Woodweave

 

[bgovoni]

Around 1k sounds good. They are will be paying for all equipment once I give them a quote. Thanks for the help, I wanted to make sure i didn't charge him too much.

 

man, he's a buddy, isn't 500 dollars enough for 2 days worth of work.?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: bgovoni
A buddy has asked me to network his office building. I told him 500 for labor cause anything under 600 they won't give you a 10-99 for tax purposes. He told me that they can get around that and to charge them more. The building is about 2,000 sqf, two stories and I'll be putting in about 16 single outlet drops with cable raceways for the walls. I'll also be sharing documents/printers between users. It's about a day or 2's worth of work. How much would you guys charge. Any help appreciated

going rate for cabling is about 150 per drop labor/materials.

 

[Transition]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: bgovoni
A buddy has asked me to network his office building. I told him 500 for labor cause anything under 600 they won't give you a 10-99 for tax purposes. He told me that they can get around that and to charge them more. The building is about 2,000 sqf, two stories and I'll be putting in about 16 single outlet drops with cable raceways for the walls. I'll also be sharing documents/printers between users. It's about a day or 2's worth of work. How much would you guys charge. Any help appreciated

going rate for cabling is about 150 per drop labor/materials.

Yea i pay $100 per drop, but it's done by uncertified monkies who are highly overpaid. $500 is very cheap for 16 drops alone, but if it's your buddy do whatever you want. Just make sure you charge enough to cover the cost of materials.

 

[imported_Paladin]

Originally posted by: mjz5
man, he's a buddy, isn't 500 dollars enough for 2 days worth of work.?

My time, talent, and tools are available to my friends for $50/hour. 16 drops, install raceways, place floor jack, cable to terminal room, install rack, router, patch panels and terminate cables -- I'll bet it is closer to 30 man-hours of work, $1,500 for non-commercial.

For his BUSINESS you should ask for and he should pay you BUSINESS rates. Otherwise you are giving him a couple of thousand dollars for the privilege of being his friend.

 

[skyking]

OOPs, i misread something.

 

[mboy]

Originally posted by: mjz5
man, he's a buddy, isn't 500 dollars enough for 2 days worth of work.?

Then you cut him a big break if it is for house. For his business, he should be paying business type rates with a SLIGHTLY better price then he could get somehwere else.

 

[Agamar]

My certified guys get $125 a drop for any over 10, and $20 for a single drop only. They provide the tools and materials.

 

[Garion]

*sigh*

OK, my turn to chime in with the paranoid voice, as I usually do in these kinds of threads.

If you don't know what you're doing and don't have the proper equipment to certify the cable plant as fully compliant and error-free, you shouldn't be doing the job. ESPECIALLY for a friend.

Businesses these days live and die by their networks. Cabling problems are one of the more common network problems and by far the most difficult to diagnose - After all, it's just a cable and it works, right? Something simple like a cable run to the server (or even to Bob's desk) that isn't done right and is causing occasional interference is VERY, VERY difficult to troubleshoot and can have drastic effects on the ability of a business to function. Take down Bob's computer and he can't do payroll or pay the bills and you've got very, very bad trouble.

Don't take this the wrong way, but cabling is something you should leave to the experts. They do this for a living and have $10K+ testers to certify a cable plant as being compliant and error free. They also carry liability insurance and understand how to write a contract to relieve them of liability when they aren't responsable.

I'm sure you're a competent cabler. But what happens IF something goes bad and causes the company signfiicant monetary damages? Are you carrying liability insurance for this kind of thing? How about your friend, who picked you to do it and it's his responsability? What happens if your fishtape slips and shorts something out that you are responsable for paying for?

Yes, you're probably going to go ahead and do it, but just keep this in mind. Be SURE to get them to sign something that says you're not responsable for related problems down the road, and especially not damages due to related problems. And triple-check everything.

- G

 

[martind1]

Agreed, we get these posts all the time. You really need to be careful what you volunteer to do for friends in a corporate environment. Charge whatever you and friend want. just make sure you cover your butt.

You'll need to read up on any codes that are applicable to yoru area. Jsut remember if somethign goes wrong YOU will be getting the phone calls.