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Buying a new home - Upgrades
Nakatomi2010
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, rather than continually making new threads everytime I have a question I thought I'd just try to make a generic one for people to offer advice in about this and that based on their own experiences...
So, I'll throw in some general information and perhaps some folks will have answers for me, and perhaps not...
Wife and I are buying a home from D.R. Horton home builders, the home will be built from the ground up, due to a few scenarios and a crappy housing market we've been able to get free upgrades here and there amounting to about $16,000, from washer/dryer, to fridge, to their 2nd tier interior design package, and their 4th tier exterior package, we're still below our maximum home price, which is a good thing.
The next step is to determine the value in having someone else wire the home for networking/home audio and doing it ourselves. After spending a reasonable amount of time at Monoprice.com I've determined that I can buy all the supplies I need to wire the home myself for both networking, and home audio, for about $500 total ($350 on networking supplies and about $110 on home audio supplies+shipping)
What are the odds of the prices these people quote me for doing it cost less than $1,000? Do they sometimes allow people to supply the materials to bring the cost down? What's the best way to verbally approach this approach without insulting them?
Also, from a "Do-it-yourself" standpoint, what would the difficulty be in wiring this stuff in after the fact? Obviously going up into a crawlspace above the ceiling to run wires and such, but does one typically find insulation between the walls in homes built in Florida? And are there any safety measures one should be aware of to prevent accidental death while working in a crawlspace above the ground?
Thanks
So, I'll throw in some general information and perhaps some folks will have answers for me, and perhaps not...
Wife and I are buying a home from D.R. Horton home builders, the home will be built from the ground up, due to a few scenarios and a crappy housing market we've been able to get free upgrades here and there amounting to about $16,000, from washer/dryer, to fridge, to their 2nd tier interior design package, and their 4th tier exterior package, we're still below our maximum home price, which is a good thing.
The next step is to determine the value in having someone else wire the home for networking/home audio and doing it ourselves. After spending a reasonable amount of time at Monoprice.com I've determined that I can buy all the supplies I need to wire the home myself for both networking, and home audio, for about $500 total ($350 on networking supplies and about $110 on home audio supplies+shipping)
What are the odds of the prices these people quote me for doing it cost less than $1,000? Do they sometimes allow people to supply the materials to bring the cost down? What's the best way to verbally approach this approach without insulting them?
Also, from a "Do-it-yourself" standpoint, what would the difficulty be in wiring this stuff in after the fact? Obviously going up into a crawlspace above the ceiling to run wires and such, but does one typically find insulation between the walls in homes built in Florida? And are there any safety measures one should be aware of to prevent accidental death while working in a crawlspace above the ground?
Thanks
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Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
Nakatomi2010 on
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It's sweaty and uncomfortable work to run wire yourself (from the attic), but not especially difficult. Most of your effort will likely be spent making it look nice at the jacks. Don't step through the ceiling (walk from joist to joist).
Personally I wouldn't want to wire more than a few rooms for Ethernet myself just from time, convenience, and "working in a hot attic sucks" perspectives.
If the walls aren't on yet, it's incredibly fast, and electrical work is billed by the hour. Furthermore, the electrician will do it all correctly -- no wiring held together with scotch tape because you just want to finish this damn box tonight -- and will pass inspection easily. Most independent electricians will listen to your needs and happily do it all to spec, and it's not that expensive.
Now, if you have electrical experience, go for it. Just make sure you do everything to code. Note that my wife does our electrical work, which for the most part is "replace this outlet, change this socket, install this ceiling fan," and it's surprising how many times you need to plan a trip to the store for a part. Monoprice is cheap, sure, but it's far better to just have a fat spool of cable.
You mention just audio and computer networking -- what about electric? If the builder is doing the electric, simply ask them to include audio and computer networking into their work -- it'll probably be cheaper than you doing it yourself because they're already in there doing the electric.
I'm also slightly obsessive compulsive, so I'm not the type to use scotch tape and such to "Get the job done tonight", I would do it properly... Just wasn't sure what we'd be looking at cost wise... You're saying $1000 for various electrical upgrades, so perhaps I wont get too terribly raped... My wife and I have room in our budget for maybe about $1,500 to $2,000 worth of upgrades, which has to be devided between her and me, and she wants tile everywhere but in the bedrooms... Sadly I think I'm going to loose...
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I'm a second year electrician in Canada, and here's what I have to say about all this:
1) Electricians =/= home audio guys. We will usually run your phone/data(usb)/coax but home audio is done by other companies. Or at least it is here. Because it's such low voltage anyone can do it - there isn't really any code for running Cat5 and similar low voltage wire, again I'm in Canada.
2) Low voltage wires are *fragile* running them loose in the attic as you suggest is a recipe for disaster if you ever want to store stuff in your attic space.
3) There's alot of wires involved in a home-audio system. Depending on the system and how extensive you want to be you're looking at dozens, up to 100 depending on the size of the house. That's alot of wire, and as noted fishing through attic spaces suck.
4) If you've never used a drywall saw or done any audio layout (setting soundstages and such), let someone else do it.
Doing it at the rough-in stage is just so much easier. And it's brave of you to want to DIY. But it's quite a pain.
Since you're in Florida, there are a number of solar applications you can take advantage of.
Yeah it blows, unless you enjoy having fiberglass shards in your hands and forearms. I know I do!
However, I would wonder if the builder would let you get in there between when the thing is framed in and the drywall goes up. Then you could run your own network cable pretty quick.
Or you could just go wireless on the network and be done with it.
Also, the builder had a document that we had to sign that says that we cannot ourselves, or any other contractor, go in and add stuff... Though I do intend on asking anyways...
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I'm a little concerned that your budget for a home is tight enough for $1500-$2000 to matter that much. You're looking at around $12/month for $2,000 in additional mortgage. Of course if you hire someone to do it after the fact, they probably won't let you pay for it over 30 years.
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Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
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So?
I clearly can't do math, there's a much larger margin for upgrades here than I'd previously thought...
Clearly I'm tired.
Doc, your responses are quite entertaining and educational....
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Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
but yeah, folding that into your mortgage at 4.8% is way better than putting it on a credit card or whatever at %15. if you want something like that done to the home, and can afford it, get the builder in on it/get it done before the walls go up. you'll save money in the long run.
That being said, my wife and I have done some audio and cable stuff in our house, since we're in a 2 story and everything eventually feeds into the basement. If you ONLY have to mess with audio or ethernet, it's not that bad to do it after the fact, depending on the layout of your house.
For example, my wife and I installed a plasma on a wall, and we fed the cables into a "2 gang faceplate hole" that we got from Monoprice. A few feet below that, another "faceplate hole" that carried electricity and HDMI, as well as the audio cables from the receiver. We then simply ran that in the basement to the other side of the room, coming up through an HVAC vent. Not as pretty as a custom job with little jacks right behind the speakers, but cheap and efficient with minimal visual intrusion.
We've also dropped Coax cable from bedrooms to the basement, also usually along HVAC. If some audio cables and some Cat5 is really all you have to do, and the options are limited to something you can only do after the fact, you can definitely accomplish it yourself for rather cheap. Wrap the ends in tape so they don't snag on shit, and feed through to the basement if possible. Attics are doable but, as illustrated above, usually suck ass to actually work in.
Of course, the reason to do it before the walls are put up is because not all houses are layed out the same, and you may spend more time learning about the guts of your house than you may want to.
And has your wife seriously priced out tile for every room but the bedroom? You guys must be getting the deal of the century to be able to afford that...
The electric wiring is one company, and everything else is another company, so two different negotiations there.
Also, in Florida you typically don't get basements, it's just a normal single story family home...
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Foody Things
Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
man what
not at all accurate
The 4.8% will be charged over 30 years (over the life of it you will pretty much pay 2x the mortgage), wheras the credit card will be paid off a lot sooner than that.
If he can do it and afford to pay it off right away, that's absolutely the way to go.
Indeed. By putting that $2000 on the mortgage you're going to pay the 2000 PLUS 2880 PLUS interest on that interest. At least if my math is right. Definitely just charge it and pay it off. Even if it takes you 12 months to pay the card off you're only going to pay around 400ish in interest at 15%.