# Is 1000$ for pre-wiring on a 5.1 for a new home worth it?



## srvi (Sep 24, 2017)

Hello.. Builder is charging 1000$ for pre-wiring of a 5.1 system... How much would a DIY cost? Considering it is a new house, is there value in paying a little extra to get it done by the builder?

Thanks for your advice


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

Is the drywall up yet? If not, that's about $500 an hour. I'll do it for $250. 

To me that doesn't sound realistic. You may want to get a second estimate.


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## srvi (Sep 24, 2017)

Problem is builder doesnt let any external contractor in, before the completely finished (100%), so drywall would be up.... So does that change your opinion?


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## theJman (Mar 3, 2012)

Nope, it's still way too much for the job. I've never had a house built - so I don't know much about the process - but it seems to me the one paying the bills gets to make the decisions, not the person working for you. Running speaker wires through studs is not complicated or time consuming, so a couple hundred is the most it should really cost. Maybe if he was wiring 11 ATMOS speakers and a few subs $1000 would be OK, but 5.1? I don't see it.


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

We had the electrician put it in when they did the lights and power along with the Cat 6 networking.


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

As an installer I can tell you that's a ridiculous price...

My cost on a box of in wall rated 12g (500ft) is $188.41 plenty of wire to do 5.1
add $30 of shielded RG6 for a sub location 

Most labor I would charge is $300 and time wise would take me less than 1 hour to do it if drywall is NOT up yet...


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## dickfantastic (Aug 10, 2017)

There are other things to consider as well. I was a DirecTV installer for a few years. I'd have nightmare installs in very nice pre-wired houses because whomever did the wiring job didn't know what they were doing really at all. And this was just with satellite TV. Imagine if this builder doesn't know the first thing about room placement of speakers? Make absolute sure the final design makes sense.

The price does sound pretty high as well considering the walls are not in yet. This is the kind of price I'd charge for an "after the walls are up" kind of install where it's going to take a LOT more hours to make things look nice.


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## enigami (Sep 18, 2017)

DIY, it'll make more sense if you have to make changes in the future.


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