I have an AV guy coming to my house on Monday and my request for him will be as follows:

1) mount 50"+ plasma on wall in Living room along with front surround speakers and center channel. Rears and sub would also be installed. Component wire visibility, of course, would be none (base board install, i imagine).

2) components would be in the basement or in another room (not sure which one).

Depending on the complexity, how much is the going rate for an AV install? if the components were to go in the basement, I imagine that quite a bit of effort would be involved in snaking the wires down without breaking up any drywall.

I know this is vague information, but I just wanted to understand (ballpark) what kind of costs i can expect to incur for this?

Thanks!

$1500 +or- $1000 based on what you've described. In other words $500 to $2500

You need a lot more specific details and who provides cabling. Lastly whether you are likely to be taken by the expensive cables he will want to sell you.

Thanks. I plan to give a more detailed description of the job after he comes to check it out. Thankfully, I've done some research on this board regarding cabling and have an idea that it should not cost more than ~$500. Anyhow, thanks, that was helpful.

I can pretty much gaurantee that by the time your "AV guy" gets through with it, it will be FAR more than a "simple AV install."

Based on some older threads here don't be surprised when he says..."Oh. You want that hole in the drywall fixed, too? You said hide the wires, that's what I did. Repairs are extra. Repaint the baseboards that got cut and all nicked up? You're kidding, right? You want me to hook this stuff up, too? Here let me just plug in this yellow cable here and your HD should be all set to go."

As Big says, he could EASILY charge you $500 for the cable itself. And you don't say what part of what country you're in. Labor costs will vary widely.

Good luck,
Tom

Thanks, Tom. I understand those things and will be definitely conscious of that when he comes out. I'm in Montgomery Co., MD.

In that case you need to add the current DC rip off factor. When times are slow just increase your rates to make up for a decline in business. In Fairfax county they are actually contemplating increasing permit and inspections fees by up to 50% because of the decline in the number of required permits and the associated reductions in revenue.

Guess a job with the county is a "job for life". If I was in charge I would be scaling back expenses.

AAAHH....MoCo. In that case, the BPE (Ball Park Estimate) is 30K. Oh wait...that's to BUILD something. With the push that BB is putting on their installation services, it will be interesting to start figuring out the real BPE for those services.

Not to mention the impact on price the sheer number of "simple AV installs" that will need to be done with the switch to digital next Feb 19. I'd be guessing these guys are going to start testing "what the market will bear." I'd bet we're going to start seeing a LOT of "Did I get ripped off by my installer" threads.

thanks, Tom. Do you think an outfit like MeyerEmco is a better alternative than a small two man shop that specialzes in networking/AV installs?

An excellent question and one YOU will be in a position to answer. I really dont know. Logically, ME will have higher overhead and SOMEONE has to pay for it. I WILL say that I found comparable prices on equipment there during the warehouse sales. I DID have a Sirius radio installed by them and they did a fine job. I didn't think the cost for that work significantly more than BB. But that's really all I know.

It will really depend on the knowledge of the two guys. From reading some of the threads here, there is a VERY wide spectrum of what constitutes an AV pro. After re-reading my previous post, it's also quite possible that you could be in the front of the curve and these two are willing to work a little cheaper to build a clientelle and references list to be ready when the real wave hits.

Post back your experience.
Good luck!

well, I had the installer come in and he gave me an estimate. For $800, he will mount the TV and run HDMI wires from the TV to the component center (which would be about 10 ft away off in a corner). Without getting too specific, they will have to break drywall and run the wires across through the 2x4 studs from the TV to the components. He does not repair drywall.

He also quoted me $350 to wire the room for surround sound. that includes mounting speakers and running wire.

The rest of the materials - wires, etc., was estimated at a pretty reasonble amount (~ $250), but he said I could buy the material myself if I wanted to.

So, I'm looking at ~ $1400 for this install. I was shooting for $1k, so I don't think I'm that far off.

What do you all think?

Now you know why a lot of us learn how to DIY. You could invest $200 in tools, $200 in materials (cables/Wire included) and do this job over a couple of weekends. This includes patching the holes and repainting the wall.

Then you have the tools for the next project.

Now we know. Thanks for posting back.

Personally, I think it's really high for not repairing the drywall too. At minimum, take him up on his offer to supply your own cables. 800 to do the TV (run ONE wire) then 350 to run 6 for surround sound? Sounds out of whack to me. Maybe it's because he will already have the wall open.

I paid to have a pro come in and run coax and phone cable through the rest of house when we first moved in, 5 years ago. I COULD have done it myself (and even tried), but I couldn't find an easy way to get it to run from the basement up to the attic. HE figured it out in, like 3 minutes. It's a decision we all need to make....is it worth my time and effort to DIY, or do I just sub it out? I will say that even though I don't remember what I paid the guy, I DIDN'T pay $800. And now I know how he did it, so I figure I paid for the lesson, and got the work for free (it's all in how you look at it).

Good luck. And I'd get another estimate, just to be safe.

Thanks everyone. Yes, I thought it was high as well. I plan to get other estimates.

just do it yourself...

Besides, you wife will think you are a hero!

just do it yourself...

Besides, you wife will think you are a hero!

Unless you drill a hole in a water pipe. Then you are a $hit-head.

Yeah, I'd rather practice on someone else's house. :)

Ok, I have a question for the board...

I have a rather difficult family room to frame an entertainment area around. It's rectangular shape and roughly 15x23'. It's a very big space and I will have a 58" plasma to mount (yes, I know, projector is ideal for big spaces but I like the plasma better for the family room:)). Anyhow, I wanted to show you 3 pictures of the room so you can see my options.

This first picture represents the family room as it was with the previous owners. They had set up their projector/TV caddycorner style over to the left:

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2808/lr1bi2.th.jpg (http://img118.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lr1bi2.jpg)


This picture shows the left of the room if I'm standing in the center of it.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6245/lr2rf2.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lr2rf2.jpg)

This picture shows the right of the room if I'm standing in the center of it.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5539/lr3by0.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lr3by0.jpg)

My ideal is to the left of the fireplace/mantel. The space is big enough and I can use that back left corner (to the left of where the TV placement would be) as my component center and get a nice corner unit for that. I would use a Sanus full motion tilt mount so that I can tilt the TV away from the wall and to the right in order to provide an optimal viewing angle for the couch (which would face the fireplace and is situated on the right hand side of the room).

Above the mantel is another possibility but 1) it would be too high, I think, and 2) we plan on putting a mirror above the mantel.

What are your thoughts?