I got a bid for running 1500' of fiber optic cable (12 strand, single mode, about $.70/ft for the cable) underground. The installer would use a directional boring machine, and the cable would be pulled thru a 1.25" HPDE conduit ($1/ft). There would be four 2'x3'x2' "subsurface hand holes" (about $1000 each) and four above ground "equipment closets" (don't know what size or cost). Each equipment closet will contain a Fiber Distribution Unit (aka, FDU, about $100 each).
The job also includes pulling a 2" HPDE conduit ($2/ft) for electrical power, which he said just adds the cost of the materials to the estimate since it is pulled at the same time. A different company will do the installation work for the power, including pulling the wire/cable.
The pulls are all straight. The ground is flat. The soil is clay (located 50 miles south of Houston). No rocks, no roads, driveways, etc. to go under. He has to go under the natural gas main trunk link.
It looks like the costs I can calculate (cable, hand holes, FDU's, conduit) add up to about $10K.
The guy said it was an easy job that would take a day and a half.
The bid was $41K. I know there's other materials involved (the equipment boxes, stands, etc.), labor, the directional boring, and profit, but $41K seems really high unless directional boring itself is very expensive. All he's going to do at the equipment boxes is terminate the fiber strands at the FDU's.
I can get a trench dug for $2/ft.
Anyone have any experience with this stuff that can explain why it's a reasonable bid (if it is)?
I know pretty much nothing about this. But my neighborhood had fiber optic cable installed about a year ago. First. I am so incredibly happy and impressed with fiber optic. I am getting 1Gb up and down. No slow downs. I was surprised to learn how often I need the fast upload speeds.
Second, they trenched the narrow slot through our entire neighborhood through the existing asphalt streets. It seemed very straightforward, and I would think that (narrow) trenching makes more sense than a boring machine.
Good luck to you.
The fiber is not connecting my home to the Internet. That will be done by Xfinity cable, which unfortunately is not fiber optic. All the fiber will be used for is security cameras and maybe driveway gate control/intercom/video. It's connecting the driveway gate area to my home LAN.
The job doesn't include any work in the house. They are bringing the cable to the inside of an exterior garage wall, and I will have a LAN switch at that point to convert to cat6.
Your description sounds like a commercial install for a backbone install to an ISP from a business campus. That does not seem required for a feed to a gate. A 2 pair direct burial could be installed with a vibrating plow.
Does your install stay completely on your private property? Horizontal drilling is generally required for fiber installs on public right-of-way.
The installer normally does commercial/government work. I'm having a hard time finding someone that does residential underground jobs.
The entire job is on my property (about 11 acres). He suggested pulling 12 strands because it isn't that big of a cost increase, i.e., only additional labor is the terminations at the FDU's. I guess he's right if the total job cost is $41K and the 12 strand cable is only about $500 more than six strand cable.
A big part of this project is getting power from the house to the gate area, and that will require trenching or boring.
I considered solar power in conjunction with directional wireless AP's for the cameras. It gets very expensive to provide the equivalent of about 500 watts of power with 99.9% reliability. Lots of batteries, lots of solar panels, etc.
To be clear, getting power to the gate area is a requirement, but getting some type of LAN access (fiber or wireless) is just as important. Since I don't need a lot of power at the gate (maybe 5 amps at 120VAC), running underground power lines will probably be less than $10K. I was hoping that running fiber in the same trench would save quite a bit of money.
I usually use $5/ft all in for underground fiber run estimation. So I would even argue that is even a bit "cheaper" than I would expect.
But I also fully admit there can be a WIDE range of cost depending on the detailed scope. I've seen it much cheaper than $5/ft, and have seen it much higher too. Depends on # of terminations, soil type, trench vs boring, number of hops/termination points, IP/waterproof stainless steel cabinets or not, etc.
There are two intermediate terminations along with the two endpoints. Soil is clay, which I've heard is good for boring because it is less likely to cave in. He said that this would be an easy job that can be completed in a day and a half.
The estimate is for boring. He can bore from each hop to the next without having to come up for air (between 300' and 500' between each cabinet).
I know 12 strand is overkill, but it's what he suggested because "it doesn't cost much more than 6 strand".
@WarlockWeary I agree 12 strand is way overkill, but it only adds about $500 over the cost of six strand. It's still way too expensive at $40,500 instead of $41,000.
I don't have the time/desire to do this myself. It involves multiple termination points, setting up equipment boxes, etc.
One option I'm thinking about is having the electrician do the trenching and running the fiber cable, then have a fiber guy come in to do the termination points, etc., assuming I can find someone.
I obviously can't multiply correctly. LOL. Yeah, that seems a bit high then to me. For $27/ft I can usually get fiber in metal conduit ran, which is much more expensive than PVC.
According to the installer, the directional boring cost is $15K. He said he's willing to take that off the estimate if I leave him an open trench to lay the cable, so that brings it down to $26K.
He said the equipment cost at each drop (hand hole box, equipment closet, stand, FDU, etc.) is about $1500, which is another $6K (four drops) of the total cost. The 12 strand cable maybe $1K. The conduit is maybe $1500, and I wonder if it is even necessary.
He also mentioned the number of strand terminations that need to be done (24 in each of the two intermediate drops and 12 in each of the two end drops, for a total of 72). From what I can find, it only takes about 10 minutes per strand. Sounds like a good reason to use six strand cable to cut the number of terminations in half.
That still leaves over $17K for the labor, which sounds like a lot for what can probably be done in a day.
I've considered directional wireless access points, and haven't rulled them out. Ubiquiti has some hardware that looks good. The downside is that it will be hard to get a line-of-sight (lot of trees), and I still have to dig a trench between the house and gate area to get power at the gate.
I'm now wondering if network extenders and cat6 cable would be a good solution. 10/100mbps would be plenty. My main concern is if it would pick up interference from the power cable in the same trench,
