 What will a cat 5 installation cost for my building? A common question to our project team is how much is a cat 5 installation cost? Also how much does it cost to install the cat 5 cable? Cat 5 installation is the generic term used by most clients. However, the specific specification for the cable is the enhanced cat 5e. A general guideline for cat 5e in the UK is £35 to £50 per point. Conversely, the information below will guide you through how that cost can fluctuate depending on many factors. However, every project is unique and therefore every quotation has a multitude of factors that can affect the overall cost and price. Thus the main consideration is always to make sure the quotation includes everything you need. Furthermore, it allows for your scheduling. Finally, the quotation can be compared like for like with any others you have. Common factors that can affect the cost of cat 5e cabling in its overall value and its price per point. Overall number of cables installed within the location. The cat 5e cable layout. The distance those cables are run to the main communications cabinet. The ease or difficulty of installation routes. The density of the cabling outlets. The type of building, warehouse, residential, school, etc. The presence of containment or the requirement of additional or new containment. Whether there is a requirement for external cat 5e or external grade cat 5e such as armoured. Ensuring that the installation has a fire rated cat 5e cable and cat 5e CCA as a minimum. The presence of false floors or ceilings. The scheduling of the works whether it be regular hours, weekends or evenings. Location of the project. Access into the building, security limitations. Parking, congestion charge, and other factors. Cat 5 installation cost, network cabling installation estimate. As an overall average, the cost of cat 5e cabling including the cable, patch panels, and cat 5e modules will range from 35 pounds per point up to 50 pounds per point. This would be based on a cat 5e cabling project starting at 20 to 24 outlets as a minimum. There are of course certain projects where the price per outlet will be less than this range or in some way more than this estimate. The common factors above are part of how that quotation will build up and how it contributes to the overall price. What factors keep a cat 5 installation cost to the lower range? If you are comparing the price per point for cat 5e cabling consider the following factors. Generally, this will enable the quotation to be at its most competitive and most economical cost. The overall number of cat 5e cabling outlets. The more cables installed within the cat 5e cable layout leads to an overall lower price per point. There are economies of scale when installing more cabling outlets within a building. The same labor can pull in more cables at the same time, for example. Therefore installing 100 cat 5e cables in an office will cost less per point than installing 50. The ease of the installation routes. The more modern the building is and the more it's suitable for installation of service the lower the cost will be. If false ceilings and false floors are present then installation of the data cabling will be easier. At the same time, those with solid ceilings and floors will be more difficult. Open routes result in lower installation costs. The density of the cat 5e cabling outlets. The greater the density of the data cabling outlets the lower the overall average price will be. In situations where larger bundles of data cabling can be pulled into the same area, economies of scale of installation come into play. For instance, in a hotel environment, you generally have 6-8 data cabling outlets per bedroom. In addition, each of those cabling outlets is in a different part of the room. Subsequently, this results in a much higher price per point installation compared to a large number of outlets in a single office space. What factors increase a cat 5 installation cost to the higher range? Absence of containment or specific routes. False ceilings and false floors were a contributor to easier installation and better overall costs. However, if buildings have solid ceilings, floors and walls and not pre-installed containment to run the cables in then the cost of containment needs to be added to the overall cabling installation cost. Depending on the containment required and how much is required this can at time increase the overall installation by 50-100%. Location and access. For projects in central London, considerations are required for congestion charge and parking. Thus at times, this results in almost £100 a day in additional costs. A project in outer London will not have these costs and therefore the central London projects will have a higher average cost. The larger the number of outlets the lower this impact will be. Scheduling and working hours. The requirement to undertake projects out of hours or in bespoke timescales can result in an increased price. At times working out of hours can increase the speed of completion of the project due to easier access. But in a like for like situation unfriendly working hours will increase the overall cost. What factors increase cabling cost out of the range? Unusual or difficult buildings. Building that requires complicated installation, difficult routes or bespoke access equipment would result in a quotation that exceeds the range above. Buildings such as the following. Warehouses. Large-scale buildings with high ceilings requiring powered access increase the time to install the cabling and the additional cost of the equipment. Care homes. These buildings are usually a solid construction with no visible routes so require a lot of containment or builders work to create the routes. Hotels. A hotel can have a large number of overall cables but they are split into single outlets spread through the bedrooms and hotel. They are usually solid ceilings also for design and their routes are difficult to negotiate. Projects with a large range of individual outlets. Projects that involve the majority of outlets installed with a single cat 5e cable to a single location and repeated will move the pricing out of the average range. These projects may involve Wi-Fi access points, CCTV cameras or door access control, all of which are dispersed outlets all in single installation runs. Low number of required cables. If the requirements for cat 5e cabling are only outlets then the economies of scale don't contribute to bringing the overall price per point down. With labor being a fixed cost for a certain number of outlets a low number of outlets have a larger average labor cost. Fire rated cat 5e cable and cat 5e cca cable. On the 30th of November 2017 British standards issued BS6701 to 2016 plus a1 2017. An amendment to the frequently used standard entitled telecommunications equipment and telecommunications cabling specification for installation operation and maintenance. This states that to comply as fire rated cabling it must be installed as a minimum of a cat 5e cca cable. This classification structure covers seven euro classes fire rated cat 5e cable of which cat 5e cca cable is the minimum. Further information can be found by visiting the link in the description area. Other considerations. As detailed above there are many factors that contribute to your overall cat 5e cabling cost. Consideration should be taken on the initial installation to allow for the requirements of the current technology and any future requirements. Allowing for 100 data points instead of now to cable a whole floor instead of partially cabling 50 will increase the overall cost by a significant amount less than double. However if you install a further 50 cat 5e outlets after an initial 50 cabling outlets the cost for the second project will not be the same as the previous but more than likely more. This is because the now finished cabinets floors desks and staff will have to be disrupted and the installation time will be increased. It may also now require out of hours installation and additional elevation in price. For further assistance or a free survey please email or call on the details below and click like and subscribe if you have enjoyed this video.