Well you will certainly have your work cut out for you! I would strongly suggest buying an hour or so of someone's time who has done this kind of work to lay you out with what you need, it may save a lot of work later.
You will need to find a supplier for supports and wiring products. I would start with an electrical supply house, or even better a datacom supplier like graybar or anixter. Next I would choose a brand of products you want to use. There are many to choose from, start inexpensive with Allen tel, Sprint products group or ICC. These products will meet your needs and all have enough variety to get you what you need for phone and data drops. If you want to spend more money, then you are looking at Amp, Ortronics, Hellerman-Tyton, Panduit, and a host of others. Then select your wire. I would suggest good quality 5e for your data (General, Belden, Berk-tek, Mohawk) and a minimum of Cat5 for your telephone. Generally I use blue for data and white for voice, just nice if they are a different color. Oh, BTW, drop ceiling alone does not constitute plenum space. Many drop ceilings have HVAC units above them and are completely ducted to intake and discharge vents. Plenum is substantially more money, but it is always safer if you use it. My appologies to manufacturers I didn't list, just pulled up what came to mind quickly. So now you have selected your brand of products and your cable, you are ready to look at the raceways and supports.
Normally you would have a conduit hub or nipple leaving the data room. For your installation, a couple 2" EMT conduits should be ample. They should be secured to the structure, and have a connector on each end to avoid hurting the jacket as you pull wires through it. From that point into the general floor area it is up to you. There are many manufacturers that have products to support your cable (which should be supported every 4-5 feet as a minimum). One that has a wide variety as well as the hardware you need to clamp it onto the building structure is Caddy/Erico (
They have hooks, brackets, etc. Be sure to run your cables in neat straight lines, you should make your corners as close to 90 degress as possible while still maintaining the minimum bend radius of the cable (1" or so), and try to stay in the hallway accessible areas with your runs. It is much easier to add to later if you don't have to go raise ceiling tile in each office on the way from the equipment room to the far office. Try to avoid placing the run right over the florecent lites, preferrably 18" above them if you are going right over them.
So now, we get this mess to the top of the wall and need to get the wires down. Remember wherever you go through the metal stud you will need a bushing/grommet or conduit. Personally, in these installations I prefer to have a 4 by 4 electrical box with a single gang mud ring and 3/4" EMT conduit stubbed up to above the drop ceiling. You may want to find out if the electrician will do this for you, it makes things easy and certainly clean. If that isn't your deal, you will need to drill or punch the metal studs and snap in the plastic bushing or grommet that protects the wire before pulling any wire through it. Those parts can be obtained from your electrical supply house. Then the easiest way I know of is to get single gang 'mud' rings, these are the metal plates they put on the front of an electrical box that sticks through the drywall (mud) and gives you a place to attach your faceplate. If you use mud rings, you should score some of the self drilling pan head screws they use for putting the metal studs together and screw the mud ring to the front face of the metal stud with those.
That should get you close to getting the wiring in there, of course this assumes you are tying the wires up in the supports (not too tight, not tight enough to deform the jacket).
If you can, I'd get catalogs from Leviton, Panduit, Ortronics, etc. Almost all those manufactures have a nice appendix in the catalog showing you what you should do for this kind of job. Also, keep asking!
Oh, telco stuff. The phone company is responsible for delivering your dial tones to their point of demarcation (commonly called the dmarc oddly enough). From there, it is your responsibility. Depending on the telco, especially non-bell companies have a side that does the inside work as well and may be willing to do as much extending of wire as you need for a pretty hefty price. Moving the PBX can be interesting, let us know what type of system you are looking at and we can probably give you some specific advice.
Good Luck!
It is only my opinion, based on my experience and education...I am always willing to learn, educate me!
Daron J. Wilson, RCDD
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com
