Planning a network cabling project: a practical checklist

Before the site survey

Gather these so the survey is quick and the quote is accurate:

• Floor plans, with desk, meeting room and device locations marked.
• The number of outlets you need now, plus a margin for growth.
• Where racks and comms rooms are, or could go.
• Any existing cabling or containment you want to reuse.
• Building rules: permissions, working hours and access arrangements.

What the survey should cover

A technical site survey turns your plans into measurements. It should include laser distance metering for accurate run lengths, scans for electromagnetic interference near power and machinery, and mapping of the ceiling, floor and conduit routes the cables will take.

Design and bill of materials

Before work starts, you should receive CAD drawings showing cable paths and outlet positions, rack elevations and a complete bill of materials. This is where the cable category, containment and rack layout are agreed — and it makes proposals from different installers comparable.

Plan the installation window

Agree when work can happen — after hours, weekends or in phases — so the installation fits around your operations. Confirm who provides access, where materials will be stored and how the site will be left at the end of each day.

What you should receive at handover

• As-built CAD floor plans showing where everything actually went.
• Patch matrices mapping every outlet to its panel port.
• Every outlet and panel labelled to match the drawings.
• Certification results for every link, including the original Fluke .FLW files.
• Manufacturer warranty documentation, where eligible.

Questions to ask any installer

• Will you carry out a technical site survey before quoting?
• Which standard will links be certified to, and on what equipment?
• Will we receive the original test files, not just a summary?
• Who supervises the work on site, and how are faults fixed after handover?