How many minutes to re-cable each run?

[paulexander]

Hello all, I have seen a number of posts regarding how much someone would charge to re-cable a bunch of connections, but not much involving time. I have also searched for any tech or industry docs I could find, but am getting nowhere.

We will be doing a moderate re-cabling project ourselves, and I would like to set some realistic expectations for a particular executive as to the amount of time it would take us to finish the job.

We have 204 Cat5e connections going to from one "core" network rack, to 10 server racks, that need to be recabled. The last team did not properly use cable management, so the lengths are all wrong. Most of the current runs are currently laying across the tops of the server racks, in clusters of 30-40 cables each.

As an example, the server rack with the most connections is about 20' from the switch.

Our team has guess-timated that this would take *at a minimum*, 10 minutes per run. (Needless to say, this is "best case" scenario)This would involve a two-person team, one at each end.. possibly a third in the middle, to help with the tracing.

This includes:
1. Identifying each cable, end to end, to ensure the replacement goes to the proper switch port
2. Disconnect and pulling that cable back
3. Running the new cable through cable management
4. Terminate and properly dressing the cable in each rack
5. Label or document that connection

One coworker, who had worked with Datacom professionals in the past, vaguely remembers that they would typically quote this kind of job at 20 minutes per recabling run.

Any thoughts?
thanks

 

[trvlr1]

Experience and access will play a big part in doing a job like this, especially when it comes to doing the punch downs and then of course labelling, so it would be hard to say exactly.
You would then have to factor in removing the old cables too.
You might want to consider just extending a switch(s) to that location, possibly over fiber and cut out all those cables.

 

[paulexander]

I wish. That would definitely be one of the better ways to do it, but the coffers are dry, so I cannot buy any more hardware. Hence the reason our little team of three will be responsible for getting this done...

 

[trvlr1]

What overall distance are you talking about?

 

[trvlr1]

Sorry, I see you have noted about 20 feet.
If you think it will take 10 minutes, double it to allow punch down, testing and labeling, more if you do not have anyone experienced in punch downs. Then add time for removal of the old cable. I would definitely consider not trying to do this as quickly as possible, it sounds like that is possibly what happened the first time round.
Another consideration for you. Check out Panduit Pre-terminated cable assemblies, they will certainly speed things up and add to accuracy.

 

[paulexander]

Thankfully we don't have to do any punch downs. These will all be pre-made Ethernet cable. When I say "terminate" I mean simply plug it in.

Does anyone know of any site that I can refer to for industry cabling standards pertaining to this kind of stuff?

thanks
-Paul

 

[trvlr1]

You got lucky, then 10 minutes may well do it!

 

[wires]

10 minutes per cable X 204 cables = 34 hours X 2 people? Essentially 2 man weeks! I can't imagine...

I think you have your workflow upside down:
1. Identifying each cable, end to end, to ensure the replacement goes to the proper switch port
2. Disconnect and pulling that cable back
3. Running the new cable through cable management
4. Terminate and properly dressing the cable in each rack
5. Label or document that connection

I'd go at it this way:

1. Set up connectivity test. Depending on how well you know the network either by familiarity or documentation this could take 10 minutes or a day. Ping will likely do the job. There is lots of freeware available that will ping a bunch of IPs from a list. If you want to be sure of switch port locations then use switch management to dump a list of MAC addresses along with their port locations. If you do this part right the rest is easy. Step 2 will mostly be verification of what you have already created.

2. Identify each cable, end to end, document connections and desired length. (1 person 1 day)

3. Prepare cables with labels on each end. (1 person 1 day)

4. Running the new cable through cable management. (2 people 1 day)

5. If you can shut down the network do so. Remove all the old cables and insert the new. (2 people, 2 hours) If you can't shut down the network do them one at a time (2 people, 1 day)

6. Test connectivity. (10 minutes)

7. Check MAC list, if needed. (20 minutes)

8. All OK, remove rat's nest of old cables. (2 people 1 hour)

I come up with 50-60 man hours and that is being VERY generous. I could likely do this in 2-3 days by myself but...

 

[wireman50]

You are aware that to stick to the standards your patch cables can be no longer than 10 metres in total? So 33 foot in old money.

20 foot distance could easily becaome 35 foot by the time you have finished making the 'neat'....

 

[dbm0011]

I clean up messes all the time. (head turd polisher)...Something of this nature ,,,, if there were correct or at least recent documentation of switch port cabling ,,,All patch cabling would need to be verified.

2 men 40-50hrs each.... 5 days

no documentation.... count on 7 days - 2 men 70hrs each.