Echo24Blog

A week and a half ago I performed a site survey with a customer that needed to install a demarc extension into a shared tenant space. When the building maintenance supervisor opened the door to the shared space, I was completely appalled by the sight I beheld.

This was a newly remodeled space that had been cabled for voice and data by (I hesitate to even use this word) a “competitor”. The pictures you see are of a project that this contractor is calling complete. The space is occupied and the contractor is off the job, presumably paid in full.

Cable Management - NOT!
Dresswork and cable management are often what separates the professionals from the amatuers. In the front of the rack you can observe the lack of vertical cable channels and poor planning of patch cord lengths. This is a very sloppy job of patching. Often the contractor can legitimately blame the customer for creating this mess, but who can they blame for the back of the racks and the cabling on the ladder trays?

What can be observed here is extra cables that are coiled and not terminated, inadequate cable tray with cables overflowing, no attempt at support / strain relief on the rear of the racks, extremely sloppy dresswork, and cable tie ends not cut off. I have to wonder if this company (who shall remain nameless) is proud of this work.

Life Safety Anyone?
One of the first things I noticed besides the overall complete mess is the fact that cable slots through the floor that allow cables to pass up from the first floor ceiling were not firestopped in any way, shape or form. Should a fire break out on the first floor, toxic smoke, gases, and fire would spread through these openings like a chimney. Besides being a code violation, this could be a major liability to the contractor, the tenant, and the building owner. Forget about network performance and system administration for a moment; lives can actually be lost!

Poor Housekeeping
I don’t know about you, but nothing aggravates me more than a lack of clean-up. As you can see from the photos, no attempt was made to clean up cable and wire scraps. Why is this a problem?

First, loose debris is a safety issue. Such items can be a major slip and trip hazard. When cables are not supported or managed (as in this case), a slip / trip / fall can only lead to catastrophe in a telecommunications room.

Second, anyone with a clue about electronics knows that loose scraps of metal (wire) are begging to cause a short circuit!

Third, should one really have to tell their “professional” contractor to clean up after themselves?

System Administration Nightmare
Perhaps only someone with a trained eye would notice the lack of wire wrap labels on the cables terminated on the rear of the patch panels (an EIA/TIA 606 violation). Add to this the “extra” cables and poor dresswork/cable management, and it adds up to hours and hours of wasted time on behalf of the client trying to administer moves, adds, and changes in this mess.

In Conclusion
Some might ask “why doesnt’ the government do something to protect customers from such disasters?” Am I advocating more government regulation? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Even with the national and local codes that exist today the firestop problems never should have flown on this job. Let’s face it, governmental agencies never get it right, despite the best of “intentions”. In the end, they are more interested in separating us from our hard earned dollars than protecting the consumer. Even worse, attempts to shore up licensing and permitting often end up being veiled efforts to eliminate non-union contractors from being able to conduct legitimate business - and this has absolutely nothing to do with protecting consumers.

Instead, we believe that nothing beats an educated client; and that is what we are attempting to facilitate here.

It’s okay for one to be an amatuer, but it’s quite another to masquerade as a professional and get paid for such slop on the customer’s hard earned dollar. At Echo 24, we demand much more of ourselves. We don’t claim to be perfect, but with our safety, training, and quality control programs, messes such as the case study detailed here simply do not occur.

Do I think this is just an isolated incident? No I don’t. The truth is, we see installations such as this routinely; we just aren’t always afforded the opportunity to photograph them.

Want more evidence? Why are new clients still asking us questions during kick-off meetings such as:

• Will you test the cables before we connect them into our network?
• Will you provide technicians for support during cutover to help us troubleshoot cable problems?

Then after asking these questions they proceed at length about all the time they lost troubleshooting cable problems from a job their previous contractor completed. And although they make these statements in frustration, some clients actually think this sort of thing is normal and to be expected. Amazing.

Next time you are considering buying from that “low bidder”, do some diligence. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.