Project estimator
Apartment or condo building: what the job needs
Apartments, condos and student housing. Units, floors and unit size drive the panel dressing, riser ties, bonding lugs and low-voltage supplies.
Answer a few questions
Or describe the project in your own words on the estimator page.
Prefer to just describe it? Tell us about the project in your own words.
How this estimate works
Each quantity comes from a stated rule of thumb applied to your answers. For a typical apartment or condo building (48-unit, 4-floor residential building), these are the rules and the items they point to:
- NR-4x200 Harness tie, 40 lb, 7.9 in, 3.5 mm wide
- Panel dressing: 2 small ties per circuit × 696 circuits (13 per unit, plus common areas)
- NR-8x300 Heavy-duty nylon tie, 120 lb, 11.8 in (300 mm)
- Bundling in unit ceilings and corridors: about 1 tie per 50 sq ft
- NR-9x600 Heavy-duty nylon tie, 175 lb, 23.6 in (600 mm)
- Riser tray: 2 bundles (power and low-voltage) tied every 18 in over 96 ft (2 risers)
- NR-HL12x200 Hook-and-loop strap, 12 mm wide, 7.9 in
- Dressing at unit panels (2 per drop) and floor closets (20 per closet)
- NR-NC7 Nail-in cable clip, 7 mm (0.28 in) cable, 1.8 × 17 mm nail
- Data, coax and security cable in units: 1 clip every 4.5 ft over 14,400 ft (5 drops per unit × 60 ft)
- NR-DRS-25 Heat shrink tubing 2:1, 25 mm (1 in), 50 m roll
- Heat shrink over large lug barrels: 3 in per lug
- NR-SC16-6 Copper tube lug, 16 mm², 1/4 in stud
- Bonding at each floor's ground bar and telecom closet: 2 per floor per riser, plus 4
- NR-SC70-10 Copper tube lug, 70 mm², 3/8 in stud
- Service entrance and meter center grounding and bonding: 12 large lugs
We add 10% for waste and offcuts, round up to whole packs of 100 and whole rolls, and show a low to high range because real jobs vary with routing, spacing and spec. Your drawings and spec sections beat any rule of thumb: send them with your quote request and we'll price from them.