I was running cat6 through this older house in Springfield and the guy kept writing down every single cable length I measured. He said he wanted to 'audit my footage' and I just laughed, but he was dead serious. Has anyone else dealt with a homeowner who micro-managed every pull?
So I'm out on a job last Tuesday, doing a standard RG6 run for a new build in Phoenix. Old timer from the next truck over walks by while I'm terminating and just stops. He asks why I'm using the compression tool like a hammer. I didn't even know what he meant at first. Turns out I'd been leaving about an inch too much jacket on every single connector for like 4 years. That little gap was causing signal loss on maybe 1 out of every 10 jobs and I never connected the dots. Anyone else have a senior installer catch a bad habit you never noticed?
I had this one job last summer at a house in Phoenix, woman in her 70s named Linda. She pulled up a lawn chair and sat right next to my ladder while I was running coax from the pole to the side of her house. She kept saying "you missed a clip" or "that bend looks too sharp" every few minutes. I tried to explain that a slight bend is fine for signal strength but she wasn't having it. After about 45 minutes of this I finally asked if she wanted to just hand me the tools and do it herself. She laughed and backed off a bit but still watched me through the kitchen window the whole time. Has anyone else dealt with a homeowner who won't let you work without commentary?
Was working on a new drop in this lady's attic and my go-to Klein crimpers just broke right at the hinge. Had to crawl back down and drive 20 miles to Home Depot for a replacement. Anyone else had a tool fail on them at the worst possible time?
I kept fighting with standard crimpers in tight attic spaces near the roof edge, so I picked up a pair of offset ones for $30. They let me get leverage without scraping my knuckles on rafters. Anyone else use a tool that feels like a cheat code for cramped areas?
Been doing installs for about 6 years now and never really tracked my daily totals. Last Tuesday we had a big new apartment complex job and I ended up pulling that much between 7am and 3pm. My foreman checked the spool count at the end and I didn't believe him until he showed me the math. Has anyone else ever hit a crazy daily pull number like that?
I used to pull those service loops tight until a retired Bell guy told me to leave at least 3 feet of slack at the demarc. Has anyone else found that extra loops actually save you from a second trip when the box gets moved?
I was on a job last Tuesday at a house in Austin and the homeowner watched me strip a cable and asked why I was cutting the braid off with my knife instead of using the proper tool. He showed me his little strip tool that does it in one twist and I felt like a total idiot. How long did it take you guys to figure out you were doing basic stuff the hard way?
Had a customer last week point out that my 90 degree bend on their cable line was pinched pretty bad near the ground block. I brushed it off at first thinking it was fine since it still passed signal. But after he showed me the kink and I checked the signal levels on my meter, the return loss was way off. I went back and redid it with a proper sweep bend, took maybe 10 extra minutes. Signal cleaned right up and the guy was happy. Made me rethink how I route cable around corners now. Anyone else had a customer call you out on something that turned out to be good advice?
That thing paid for itself on the first pull through a conduit full of dried mud and old wire, so why did I wait this long to upgrade?
Ran into a job last Thursday where a customer's house had coax that was stapled so tight I spent 45 minutes trying to cut it clean with my Klein cutters and still got a bad bend. I know some guys just torch the end to melt the jacket off but I'm worried about messing up the copper. Which method do you swear by for getting through those tight spots quick?
I used to rely on that electric stapler for everything (thought it was saving my wrists). Then I got a call for a new build in Phoenix where the drywall was so hard the stapler just bounced off, took me twice as long. Switched to a $15 hammer tacker halfway through that job and never looked back. Has anyone else hit a wall where a staple gun just won't cut it and went manual?
I was on a three-story townhouse roof in Cincinnati yesterday, and the homeowner swore the roof deck was solid. I stepped onto the ridge and my boot went through a rotted spot, dropping me right through the attic insulation up to my waist. Has anyone else had a near-miss like that, and do you carry any specific gear for checking roof integrity before you climb?
Guy stopped me while I was running a new drop in his attic and asked why we don't just use those flat ribbon cables that go under baseboards. I told him about signal loss and interference, but then I thought about it later - he's got a point for basic internet setups, maybe I'm overcomplicating some jobs. Anyone else ever had a customer point out something simple that made you question your whole approach?
I always had trouble getting a clean 90 degree bend on RG6 without kinking it. Kept blaming the cheap cable until my buddy Dave from my shop in Denver showed me his trick. You put your thumb on the inside of the bend and pull the cable tight around it, not just push with both hands. First try came out perfect and I felt like an idiot for messing it up so long. Anyone else got weird little tricks for new guys that nobody teaches in training?
I started installing cable back in '98 and we used to strip and crimp every single connector by hand. Took me about 3 minutes per connector at first. Now these new guys come in with these compression tools that do it in 30 seconds flat. I fought it for years, swore my way was better. Then last month I had to redo a whole 48 port patch panel because my hand-crimped ends kept failing. Borrowed a compression tool for the second try and it worked perfect. Anybody else notice the old tools just don't hold up like they used to?
Last Wednesday in Denver, I was running a 150 foot drop through a finished basement and the homeowner kept following me around saying I should go through the wall cavity instead of along the joist. I stopped, handed him my drill, and said go for it. He stared at me for 10 seconds then went back upstairs. Has anyone else had a customer try to micromanage a simple install?
Picked up one of those fancy Fluke toners last month thinking it would save me hours tracing lines in a new build in Denver. Turns out it kept picking up phantom signals from nearby live wires, sent me chasing the wrong coax for 3 hours straight. Anybody else had a toner that just flat out fibbed on you?
Tbh I thought this old timer on a job in Nashville was just being extra. He said to zip tie the coax cable at every single joist instead of every few. I ignored him for like 3 months on different jobs. Then last week I had a service call where a homeowner was getting pixelation on their main TV. I traced the line and found a bunch of the cables were sagging between joists. That little bit of movement was enough to mess with the signal over time. So I went back to that spot and redid it his way with a zip tie at each joist. Signal cleared right up. Guess the old guy knew what he was talking about. Anyone else ever get humbled by advice from a veteran installer?
I was running lines in this old house and my favorite Klein crimper slipped right out of my hand, fell through a floor register, and landed in the ductwork below. Spent 45 minutes fishing it out with a coat hanger and a magnet on a string while the homeowner watched from the kitchen. Has anyone else lost a tool in a really dumb spot and had to MacGyver it back?
Last Tuesday I was stuck on a job in an old house near downtown, trying to get coax through a wall that was packed with that blown-in cellulose insulation. After fighting with the fish tape for like 20 minutes and getting nowhere, I grabbed a shop vac and taped a piece of PVC pipe to the hose. I shoved the hose into the wall cavity through a small hole and let it run for a minute to clear out the insulation. Then my fish tape slid right through like butter. Saved me from having to cut into the drywall and patch it later. Any of you guys ever tried something like that for tricky runs?
Went to a job in Phoenix last week and the guy had moved the coax line himself. Wrapped it around a tree branch. Signal was garbage. How do you handle customers who mess with your work before you even get there?
Back in the early 2000s I swore by crimp-on F connectors for every residential job around Austin. Then I tried compression fittings on a big apartment complex last month and finally saw the difference - zero signal losses across 60 units. Anyone else make the switch later than they should have?
Ngl I used to just pull cable as fast as I could through attics in Phoenix. This one guy in his 60s watched me for like 2 minutes on a job near Camelback and goes 'youre gonna snap the copper core doing that.' He showed me to always leave a 6 inch service loop and use a little tension gauge. Has anyone else had an older installer teach them one little trick that saved them a ton of callbacks?
Honestly, I never really thought about it until our warehouse guy showed me the numbers last week. I found out my crew alone goes through about 3,200 feet of RG6 coax cable every month, which blew my mind. That's almost a mile of cable just from three trucks running residential installs in the Nashville area. We're doing an average of 12 jobs per truck per day, and each one takes about 80 to 90 feet for a standard home run. The stat came from our inventory system that tracks every spool we pull. Has anyone else ever checked their monthly totals and gotten surprised by how much cable you're burning through?