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Hello all,

After looking at a few quotes from $5000-$6500 for the installation of
42 jacks in a very "rough" space, I've started considering doing this
myself. I've got 10 years in systems admin in small shops where I
already tend to do just about everything (which in the past has
included dealing with punchdown blocks for telco stuff, making cables,
adding jacks, etc.). After talking to a few people that have done
cable installation in the past, I'm pretty confident I can handle this.

The 42 jacks will all go back to a patch panel in a small co-lo room in
the office. While there are 42 jacks, there will only be drops at 12
locations in the office (a mix of 2/4/6/8 outlet jacks). This is your
typical downtown NYC old office space. Bare ceiling, and when
finished, conduit for power remains exposed on the outside walls. No
jacks for power or ethernet inside any walls, all surface mount.
Office is about 50' x 70', and I will have access after the
electricians, but before any office partitions go up. The quotes
mentioned above are what I call a "typical" NYC wiring job - ethernet
strapped with tie wraps to electrical conduit. Every station I need
to hit follows the path of conduit. Running the actual cable in this
manner is something I can handle I think, since there's not really much
to this type of install (besides time).

We have such a high number of jacks/person since we need a minimum of
two (phone + computer, later VoIP phone + computer) and the
support/tech guys quite often need to get a POTS, DSL, T1, or ethernet
(on another vlan) line patched out to them, and that's a total mess at
our current place. So I figure overkill now should be adequate in 5
years. :)

So now, the specific questions:

-What do you think of this "tie wrap to electrical conduit" install?
Seems hokey, but every downtown office in an old building like this
seems to have it done this way, and that's what two installers quoted
us?
-When following conduit, what's the proper way to "go around" junction
boxes and outlets?
-With tie wraps, what's the recommended spacing to keep things in
place?
-Surface mount outlets that can have 2-8 jacks on them... Who makes
this stuff? Where to buy?
-Hints on pulling 6 or more cables at once?
-66 vs. 110 blocks - no idea, I want to mount a block where all the
telco stuff comes in and patch it out to a 12 or 24 port patch panel,
which type of block do I want for that?

We need tools. I've never worked in a place with so few tools.
Recommendations for decent brands/models are very much appreciated. I
think minimally I'll need:

-decent crimper
-jacket stripper (correct name is?? for dressing the ends of the cable
prior to punchdown)
-cat & mouse to tone things out if we get confused
-punchdown tool (anything special in working with keystones and patch
panels? We'll also have a small block for telco stuff - see 66 vs. 110
issue above)
-is there a punchdown tool that hits all wires at once on a keystone or
patch panel? Good or not?
-suggestions on anything else?

I'm also trying to find a good online supplier where I can get my cable
(about 6500' white cat5e, non-plenum, solid), tools, and jacks. Google
finds a ton, but doesn't tell me if they are reputable. :)

My plan goes roughly like this..

-work from the co-lo room out
-put a few very loose tie wraps along the three ceiling conduit runs
I'll follow to the outer walls
-pull cable for each jack, verify length, etc.
-add more wraps, tighten from co-lo on out
-work my way down to each office
-trim to desired length (you betcha I'm leaving slack!)
-mount jacks
-punch down

Lastly, any insight that you folks that have been doing this for some
time is appreciated. I've got ideas, but I don't want to make the same
mistakes that everyone makes on their first job of this size.

Thanks!

Charles