c/cable-installers

Vent: Duct pull string snapped, now I pre-run everything twice

Tried that cheap pull string on a 300 foot run through an attic in Phoenix last Tuesday, and it snapped halfway with 4 bends left. I spent 3 hours fishing it out with a magnet and a coat hanger, and my customer watched the whole mess from their driveway. Do you guys double your pull string or just trust it when the job looks easy?

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noraroberts•4d ago

House wrap inspection caught a hidden staple nest on a 300 foot run

I was pulling cable behind a new build in Columbus and stopped to check the vapor barrier, found 14 staples bunched in a 2 foot section that would have shredded the jacket on pull, has anyone else added wall checks to their pre-pull routine?

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the_faith•5d ago

Ladder levelers saved me after a parking garage job in Tulsa

Last Tuesday I had to run cable along a sloped ceiling in a parking structure downtown. My ladder kept rocking on the oil-stained concrete, so I finally broke down and bought a set of levelers for $45. Totally worth it, I finished the run in 40 minutes instead of fighting the legs for 2 hours. Has anyone else tried those magnetic base plates for metal beams, or do you just stick with rubber feet?

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faithpatel•6d ago

That one attic pull that took me 6 hours yesterday

Customer in Wichita had a home theater in the basement. No dropped ceiling, no crawl space. Ran the line through the attic, hit a fire block I couldn't see from the access hole. Plus the insulation was the blown-in kind, knee deep. Took 6 hours for one cable run that should've been 90 minutes. How do you guys handle tricky fire blocks when you can't get a good angle? I'm thinking about picking up one of those flexible drill bits, has anyone actually tried one on a job like this?

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hernandez.gavin•9d ago

Fiber drop got yanked by a lawn crew, who eats the rework cost?

Last Tuesday a landscaping crew in Boise snagged a fiber drop I'd just buried on a residential install, the conduit pulled right out of the ground box. I had to redo the whole 120 foot run and re-terminate both ends, which ate up my whole afternoon. Should the homeowner's contractor pay for my time, or is that just the cost of doing business for us cable guys?

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casey268•11d ago

That fiber splice test from a grumpy veteran changed my whole setup

An old timer in Dayton told me my OTDR readings were worthless unless I tested both directions and averaged them, took me a week to realize he was right. I had been chasing ghosts on a 400-foot drop for two hours, now I never trust a single direction. Anyone else run into techs who skip the second test?

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carr.luna•12d ago

Raccoons chewed through my drop line three times this month

Last month I had a service call in Lakewood where the customer kept losing signal every couple nights. First visit I thought it was a bad connector at the ground block. Second visit I found chew marks near the roofline and figured it was squirrels. Third time I actually sat in my van at 2am waiting and watched a fat raccoon climb the pole and start gnawing on the aerial drop like it was corn on the cob. I ended up re-running the line through some flex conduit but it looks ugly as hell. Customer said they'd rather have that than lose Netflix again. Has anyone else had animals target a specific line like that? I'm wondering if the old cable had some kind of sweet coating or if that raccoon is just a repeat offender.

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the_faith•14d ago

The RG6 I ran last spring is already showing green corrosion

I did a house in Austin back in March, used outdoor rated RG6 with compression fittings. Went back this week for a signal issue and the connectors were green and crusty, not even 8 months in. The homeowner has a sprinkler system that hits that side of the house every night, so water was pooling right at the ground block. I pulled the fittings and the copper braid was dark, signal was down to like -15 dBmV. Anyone else seeing this fast corrosion on newer cable batches, or is it just the constant wet cycle?

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michael_williams•15d ago

Wednesday in Phoenix was a nightmare, then Thursday saved it

Hit 5 jobs in 105 degree heat, third attic run had me soaked through my shirt before noon. Then Thursday, first house had a clean drop ceiling and the customer gave me cold Gatorade. Has anyone else had a brutal day turn around that fast?

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smith.lee•17d ago

Took 8 years to realize I was coiling coax the wrong direction

Been doing residential installs since 2016. Always wrapped cable around my elbow, clockwise. Felt natural. Then last Tuesday I'm on a job in Fresno and the homeowner, older guy, used to do cable for a living. He watches me for a minute and goes "you're putting a twist in that line every loop." Showed me the over-under method. Took me 20 minutes to get it smooth. Next three jobs, no kinks, no fighting the bend. I feel stupid. How long did it take you guys to figure out the right way? Or am I the only one who did it backwards this long?

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mason.drew•18d ago

Two years I swore off toners, last month I caved and now I get it

I used to think those fancy toners were pure hype. Had a buddy swear by his, but every time I borrowed one it felt like a waste of time, especially on older drops where the signal was already sketchy. Then last month I got stuck on a 12-unit apartment in Columbus where the lines were a mess and my old beep method took forever. Borrowed the contractor's toner for one hour and traced three dead ends that would have taken me all afternoon. The kicker was the noise filter, which I always figured was a gimmick, but it cut right through the buzz from the building's power lines. Now I carry one in my van and I'm honestly annoyed at myself for being stubborn for so long. Anyone else have a tool they refused to try and then turned out to be a lifesaver?

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morganl71•19d ago

That tip about labeling drop cables with colored tape backfired on me

A foreman from a job in Phoenix swore by color coding every drop with electrical tape, so I did that on a 12 unit apartment build last month. Turns out the sun baked the tape off by week two and I spent a whole day tracing lines with a toner. Anyone else tried a labeling hack that just made things worse?

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noraroberts•20d ago

Ground rod hammered 3 feet at a condo and the modem finally held sync

Went back to a repeat truck roll in Austin where they'd swapped their modem twice and still dropped connection every night. The old ground rod was only sunk about 8 inches into dry dirt, so I drove a new 8 foot copper one near the utility entrance. After that, the signal levels stayed flat for 48 hours straight, no more resets. Anyone else see flaky internet traces clear up just from redoing the ground bond?

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the_betty•22d ago

Just realized my termination kit was the weak link all along

Been doing cable installs in Cleveland for 6 years and always blamed bad connectors when a drop failed the meter. Last week I swapped out my old crimp tool for a $35 one with a ratchet handle and suddenly my return loss numbers were clean across the board. Turns out the cheap tool was squeezing the ferrule unevenly, only showed up on longer runs over 150 feet. Anyone else had a tool that caused intermittent issues you wrote off as something else?

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carr.luna•25d ago

Turns out I was coiling coax the wrong way for 8 years

I was doing the standard over-under coil on a job in Austin and a senior guy stopped me, said my wraps were twisting the cable core. He showed me how to flip my wrist every loop and it clicked instantly. Anyone else get handed down a basic trick that made you question everything?

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kellyallen•26d ago

I finally talked to a senior installer who changed how I run cable through attics

Last week I was on a job with this older guy named Dave who's been doing installs since the 90s. He watched me spend 20 minutes threading coax through a tight attic space and just shook his head. He told me I was fighting the house instead of working with it, and showed me how to use the roof pitch and joist direction to plan my path before even climbing up. It hit me hard because I've been doing this for 3 years and never once thought about reading the structure first. I always just went in and started pulling until something worked. Now I'm wondering if there are other basic tricks I'm missing that could save an hour on every job. Has anyone else got tips from a veteran that made you feel like you learned the hard way?

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alex820•1mo ago

Debate: Is it better to run coax through the attic or crawlspace for a long house?

I was out on a job last week for a 3 story house in Austin and got into it with another installer about the best path for running lines. He swears by attics every time because you avoid moisture and critters. But in my experience, attics can be a nightmare with blown insulation and summer heat that makes you miserable in 10 minutes. Crawlspaces might have spiders and dirt, but at least you can move without roasting. The customer wanted the modem in a back bedroom so it was a long haul either way. What do you all lean towards for tricky runs like this, attic or crawlspace? Has anyone had issues with one over the other long term?

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ben_fisher•1mo ago

Noticed a huge shift in how we handle terminations over the last 5 years

I've been doing cable installs for about 7 years now, and I remember back in 2019 we used to spend a ton of time stripping and crimping each coax end by hand. Now with those compression connectors and better strippers, I can knock out a termination in under a minute. The push from ISPs to standardize on compression fittings really sped things up. Has anyone else seen their termination time drop that much in the same period?

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danielk84•1mo ago

Old timer at a supply house in Memphis called me out for my strap job

Was picking up some coax last month and this grizzled guy behind the counter just goes "you the one who left that birdsnest on the side of that brick house on Poplar?" Felt like a heat miss, seriously. He said my straps were too loose and the cable was gonna sag in the summer heat. Told me to pull it tighter and use a smaller spacing between straps. Now I space them every 18 inches instead of 24 and make sure the cable lays flat against the wall. Has anyone else gotten roasted like that by a random old timer?

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lisas78•1mo ago

Had to climb through a wet attic in Phoenix after a homeowner swore the drop was 'super clean'

Turns out their idea of a clean drop meant old coaxial wrapped around an AC duct with mouse droppings everywhere, and now I bring my own fish tape and a headlamp to every job no matter what they say, has anyone else dealt with customers who lie about how bad their setup really is?

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danielowens•1mo ago

Used a cheap toner from Amazon on a cat5 run and it fried my tester

Picked up one of those $15 toner kits off Amazon last week to trace a line in a drop ceiling at a commercial building in Portland. Hooked it up, hit the button, and my Fluke tester gave me a error code and then just died. $400 tool gone. The toner must have been putting out way too much voltage or something. Has anyone else had a cheap tool wreck their gear like this?

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nancyramirez•2mo ago

I dropped $200 on a Klein tone generator and I'm not impressed

I mean, everyone in this group swears by Klein tools but I grabbed their tone and probe kit and it keeps giving me false positives on live lines. The green label one with the LED indicator. I've had to double check everything with my old beat up Fluke from 2018. Maybe it's just my unit but has anyone else had issues with these newer Klein models?

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kevinw94•2mo ago

Ngl I didn't know coax cable can go bad after 10 years until last week

I was troubleshooting a customer's signal loss in a house near Denver. Pulled out the old RG6 that was installed back in 2013. Swear it looked fine on the outside but when I cut it open the copper was all corroded and green. Found out from a supplier that moisture gets in through tiny cracks in the jacket over time. That explained why their internet kept dropping out at random times. Has anyone else run into old cable that looked okay but was actually shot?

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charlie198•2mo ago

Had to pick between two termination tools on a tight deadline

Last week I was doing a big job in a commercial building downtown. 24 drops, all cat6, and the customer wanted it done in one day. My old punchdown tool broke halfway through. I had two backups in my van. One was a cheap $15 plastic one from a hardware store. The other was an Impact brand one I got on sale for $40. I grabbed the Impact tool because I trusted it more. Bad move. The Impact tool's blade slipped on the third keystone and I ruined it. Ended up using the $15 plastic one for the rest of the job and it worked fine. Anyone else had a favorite brand let you down like that?

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zaranelson•2mo ago

Finally figured out how to run coax through a finished wall without patching drywall

Had a job last Tuesday in an old house in the historic district. Customer wanted a cable line from the basement to the second floor bedroom. No drop ceiling, no crawl space, just plaster and lathe. I was about to cut a bunch of holes when an old timer I work with sometimes told me about using a glow rod and a magnet. Basically taped a small rare earth magnet to the end of the rod, used another magnet on the outside to guide it around fire blocks. Worked on the first try. Took maybe 20 minutes total. Has anyone else tried this method for tricky wall runs?

3 comments