[Scottish] Floodwiring new houses

[Colin McKinnon]

Julian Gibson wrote:

> All
>
> Thanks for the replies so far.  I should have perhaps
> worded the question differently.
> A friend of mine is building some houses and I suggested
> to him he ought to offer them pre-wired.  What premium do
> you think the average (and I realise we here are not)
> punter would pay over a standard house to have it wired
> as previously described?
>
> Cheers
> Julian 

Hi J,

I'm sceptical as to how many house buying punters would perceive 
structured cabling as a benefit. When I was commissioning wiring for 
offices, a typical cost was a bout £30 per point (yes I know that 
someone would have done it cheaper - but lets just use that for 
arguments sake). I would reckon you would want (say) 4 points per room - 
thats £120 per room. 3 Bedrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room - 
thats £720 as the cost for flooding it with wiring.

I reckon that the best way to make it look more attractive would be to 
chuck in some more electronics - e.g. front door surveillance camera 
linked into the telly system (available off the shelf for about £150) 
and an ADSL link / preconfigured router, some method of routing audio 
through the house. That way you're not just selling (boring) structured 
cabling, you're selling a techno-house!

The capital cost of this is relatively small in  relation the value of 
the property - so I expect that offered as 'dealer option' on a new home 
it could be a winner for, say £3500 (healthy margin) on top of the 
£100,000+?

I wouldn't go out looking for it as an option - but then I won't spend 
£100 on Microsoft Windows ;)

Colin