atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Bulk cable by the foot

Just for comparison, Home Depot gets about two times the price for a box of plenum vs: non-plenum. Still, getting it cut by the foot will probably be painful. At my local HD store today, they only had one box of C5e that was plenum-rated and it was tagged as not available for cutting. Maybe my suggestion wasn't so great after all.

That price per box seems reasonable (though I can not speak for the brand). Graybar wants over 200 for General Cable CMP.

I have seen some outrageous per foot prices at HD and Lowe's...
Neither of them sell Romex by the foot anymore, BTW.
You have to buy a 25 foot coil at the minimum.

Most of our work is commercial and even though not all commercial requires plenum that's all we stock. Plenum can be used everywhere. To offset the cost of CAT5e we use CAT3 for voice wherever possible.

-Hal

Right at this moment, there are several Ebay auctions that have approx 1000' of Cat5e plenum for just over $100.00 with no shipping charges.

Search for "cat5e plenum"

Why sub it out? Buy a box and keep it on hand for future jobs. If you're a cable installer then at the minimum you should have some cable on hand. What are you going to do when the next cable run pops up that requires plenum? Buy some now and you'll be all set for the next job.

Really?? .... i am surprised at that Hal .... don't you find on a big job that requires pvc that it hurts your competitiveness?

I am not trying to be a jerk or ball buster here but it seems like over the course of a year or two that it would add up to a sizable chunk of money.

I could almost see it on cat 3 because the difference is nominal but when you get into cat 5 it becomes a fairly significant increase.

I'm wondering the same thing. There's no way we could remain competitive if we're going plenum and everyone else is quoting PVC. That's a substantial increase in price.

A big job with PVC? I haven't had one of those in ages. I have so few opportunities for PVC that I seldom keep more than 1-2 boxes on hand.

I too prefer to offset my costs and use Cat 3 on voice. I realize this may be a topic for a separate post but I am a very strong adherent in favor of it unless the customer is otherwise inclined.

Yeah we have our share of plenum installs but its mostly PVC. Starting a 1200 drop job next week that's all PVC. On the flip side we haven't ordered a box of Cat3 in ages. I can't recall the last spec that allowed Cat3.

don't you find on a big job that requires pvc that it hurts your competitiveness?

Of course. If I have to go out and buy cable for a particular job I'll purchase only what's needed. I'm talking about the few thousand feet that I keep on hand to do those small jobs that you get calls for every day. You never know what they are going to be and for a couple of hundred feet it's not going to break the bank if I use plenum where it isn't needed. It would be a real PITA to have to go and buy plenum if it turns out I have to do a 200' run and I have a couple of thousand feet of riser on the truck.

-Hal