I guess I would ask, why are people stepping on the wires?

Can you not put a bridge over them, like the ones the fire department uses when a hose is ran over the roadway?

One of the tell tale signs of a good electrical installation is the neatness given to the manner in which the wire and cable is run and supported. The same also applies to the appearance of a distribution panel (aka 'fuse box'); and the care shown in making up splices inside junction boxes.

I used to absolutely hate those who would do a sloppy job. Every time I would have had to install either a switch or receptacle where the wires leading to a splice were so short one could barely connect the device, I would curse the $#!thead that did that job. The same would apply when I had to open up a 'fuse box' and fix some dodo's screw up; and the inside looked like 'Marconi's Nightmare'.

It never hurts to leave a bit of slack; just in case. I once had this boss who complained about leaving "too much slack". One day, I went to finish a house that had been vandalized. All of the wires going into the 'fuse box' were cut; and the boss was there p---ing and moaning about how much that was going to cost him. Since I had wired that house, all I had to do was grab the ends of the cable; and give each one a good tug. Voila, the extra 2 feet of slack that was in the attic suddenly appeared. I gave him a dirty look, and said nothing. From then on, I never heard one word about leaving "too much slack".

The installer did you no favors by not leaving some slack cable.

Too many network cable "installers" are just phone techs or electricians eho took a 2hr (if that) course on netwrok installation.

They come; they install; they go; and leave it to IT to make it all work.

Oh well, keeps me busy

The utility company I worked for before retirement had an old building with an open floor plan with cubicles all over the place. All the wiring , power telephone, and data were in troughs in the floor. There was a spaghetti of coax serving 3270 data. Each time a change was needed, we had to get the company's Utility Construction and Maintenance Department (UCM: the people who built substations and their controls) to come in and string (or subfloor) the coax. That was time taken from their primay duties and had to bescheduled when they were free. No coax was removed in the process.

Somewhere in time, our telephone contractor, whose cost per hour was WAY less than skilled UCM people, and who did everything for us from PBX the desktop came up with an idea. They were already running 8 pair station wiring for the desk phones. Why not use similar wiring for the 3270 as well, using coax to UTP baluns? Cheaper, simpler, faster, and not as sensitive to impedence variations as from crushed cable, for example.

I could not find the specific baluns we used in a search today, I found that prices for these things range all over the place. On e-Bay today, someone is selling them for $3.00 each but they range on up to nearly $60.00 singly. I don't see a reason to spend on the high end for this purpose.

I realize that this is after you have completed your installation but perhaps it is food for thought for the future.

Here's another reason for a service loop - it keeps the rain from running into the switches. My wiring closet is on the 2nd floor of our 15 storey mouldering building. When we get a good rain, the water seeps from the roof down through the elevator shaft and also through the wiring closets on each floor. I have my paper towels taped tightly around the cables running down the wall, just above their junction with the router, and I've put a sheet of plastic over the UPS and Cisco router. Nonetheless, it is the slack, the service loop, that ultimately protects the equipment. In case some water seeps past my hokey dams, the service loops insure the drips fall to the floor rather than run into the ports.