Appreciation post: The old apartment building on 5th Street finally got its wiring redone

Got sent back there yesterday for a service call. Last time I was in that place, maybe two years back, it was a total rat's nest of old coax and phone lines in the basement. This time, a contractor had come through and put in a proper structured wiring panel with labeled Cat6 runs. Took me five minutes to trace a line instead of forty. Anyone else seen a job where a clean install just saved your whole day?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray7232mo ago

That's actually Cat5e, not Cat6.

ninam762mo ago

Oh man, I know that feeling! Last month I walked into a house that had a new panel and it was like night and day. The last guy had just coiled a mess of unlabeled wires on the floor. Finding the right line for the living room TV took seconds instead of me wanting to pull my hair out.

sean50218d ago

Three houses ago I had a panel where the previous guy actually used Cat5e for phone lines and Cat6 for data but wired them both to the same patch panel with zero labels. Took me an hour with a tone tracer just to figure out which port went to the kitchen. So I gotta push back a little on calling it night and day with a new panel. Even a clean install can be a headache if the guy before you mixed up his cable types or didn't bother to test each run. A grid layout with clear markings helps, but you still have to double check everything because people make mistakes.