I’ve reached the limits of my abilities and I’m calling in the professionals to finish up the job. The remaining 6 drops I want are in places I would need more specialized tools, experience, and very likely a second person to accomplish.
I didn’t realize how hard it would be to find someone to do the job. I figured, I would make a call and set up an appointment. I called three places to start. Two didn’t answer so I left messages. The third said he didn’t do residential and gave me a website to look up contractors in my area. So I tried the first likely contractor from that site and left a message (because no one answers their phone anymore).
After not getting any call backs the next day, I called one of the first places back. They said they don’t do residential. I went back to the contractor website and tried another number. That person (who answered!) said he didn’t do residential… usually… but now things were different. Ah, the economic downturn rears its head.
So I explained what I wanted and he explained a little about his business and that he charged $85 per drop. Yeesh. I had read online about some electrician getting hassled by his peers for charging $35/drop. But, what am I up against? No one else is answering, and these guys are professionals. Surely they are insured and if anything goes wrong, they can handle it. You get what you pay for, so they say. And also, times are tough. I don’t want to be someone who takes advantage of someone who’s reducing himself to taking on a $500 job because his 5-figure contracts have evaporated.
But in the meantime, I did get the internet moved to ethernet, which allowed me to yank the coax out. I identified two coax runs that ran the length of the house and each had like 30 feet of slack. They were used for DirectTV and didn’t lead anywhere but outside, so they got eliminated.
The wire in the attic is looking better. I have a technique for the cable staples that works for me, where I hold the staple against the cable in a set of locking pliers while I hammer it in. I was able to secure a couple of wires this way. I just need to get up and do some more.