Different Methods To Manage Messy Cables (Yes, Access Flooring Makes the List!)

Are you tired of tripping over cables in your office?  It doesn’t take a lot of workstations to generate a tangle of wires.  Even a single computer with peripherals can lead to half a dozen cables running across the floor.  A room full of computers can start to look like some kind of high-tech pigsty. 

At the very least, it’s an aesthetic nightmare. It’s enough to haunt an interior designer’s dreams.  At the worst, it’s a major safety hazard.  Slips and falls are a costly, serious problem for businesses. 

We recently wrote about trip hazards in the office and how you can reduce accidents and save money on insurance claims. We've also got a great article on basic methods of cable management for an entire building.

Some of the feedback we got told us we had really hit on a big issue that organizations of all types face. We decided to write a second post about it, with more tips on cable management.

Even More Ways To Manage Cables

If you are looking for a way to get those wires under control quickly and easily, here are a few ideas:

• Create some wire spools. If you have excess wiring which is longer than you need, you can try to spool it up to get that excess length out of the way. The best way to do this is to create an actual wire spool. An old spool for industrial wire works well for this. 

• Put your power strips inside of boxes. A lot of people want to conceal their power strips because they can be so unsightly and chaotic. The wires love to get tangled.  One way to do this is to cut holes in a shoe box, put the power strip inside, close it, and run the wires in through the holes. This prevents tangling and hides the unsightly strip. Alternatively, some people like to just slice a foam pipe and run their cables into that, concealing the power strip inside. Check out the tweet below for more on this dangerous method!

• Buy some cable ties. These are great for holding together coiled-up cords, and they are also perfect for consolidating multiple cords. Tie them together in spots along their length, and you will keep them all together, instead of strewn across your floor. Many office workers also resort to using binder clips. 

• Modify your workstations. This is a pretty admirable effort from a guy who attached a wire basket under his desk, ran his cords through it, and then concealed the basket. The resulting workstation looks very tidy, and it’s an impressive job all around. It would be a ton of work, and probably not a practical solution for an office full of computers! If you have more than a dozen employees or so, this method gets old real quick.

• Consider cable tracks.  Cable tracks allow you to run your cables neatly along the floor. They go over top of your carpet, wood, or tile, mounting directly to the surface. Your cables run through the raceways, which are then covered to contain them in place and keep them out of sight and out of the way. This is actually a pretty nice solution, but the raceways themselves still may trip your employees since they are not flush against the floor.  They

• Get your cords up along the ceiling. Here is one desperate but neat solution. This method definitely got the power strip off the floor as well as the cable leading to it, and seems more or less the same idea as installing an overhead cable track system. It is hardly practical, however, and will not help you if you have dozens of cords to get out of the way. It is also not the most pleasing method aesthetically.

None of these are inherently bad, per se—but they are not permanent fixes. They're stopgap measures.  They are not long-term solutions, and the more complex your wiring becomes, the more you will struggle to keep up with all your cords. 

If You Do It Like This, You Might Start a Fire

In a recent episode of a show called "Fab Life", they gave some terrible advice to viewers: hide your modems, routers and cables inside of paper and cardboard boxes. True, this show is for your average homeowner, but the basic idea is the same. Some methods of cable management aren't just ugly and messy, they're downright dangerous. We couldn't let that bit of 'advise' go without calling them out on it (That's not to say we got any official reply, but at least we tried, for the safety of their viewers):

Cable Management Access Flooring to the Rescue...Again!

This is why a solution liked raised access flooring works so well. What is great about raised flooring is that it does not require you to make any modifications to your existing structure. The new floor just goes in on top of the existing one. Your cables and wires run underneath it through a system of raceways. 

Why is raised access flooring superior? Consider the problems it solves which those stopgap measures do not:

• With the raised access flooring, your aesthetic challenges are fixed once and for all. You no longer see the wires and cables at all. With the stopgap measures, you consolidate the wires, but they are still unsightly and potentially dangerous.

• There is absolutely nothing to trip over when you use an access floor. Even cable raceways laid on top of your flooring pose a tripping hazard.

• Your cables are easy to access.  Even though they are out of sight, you can easily raise panels and reach the wires or reroute them when you need to. Trying to negotiate cable ties and pipes and boxes like in the stopgap measures above is a real pain and is far more difficult in the long term.

Raised access flooring does require installation, but it is a quick and easy process, and when it is done, you will finally have a permanent, streamlined, effective solution for managing wires and cables. Your cables will be under control now and in the future, no matter how many changes you make to your office setup!

How Can an Access Floor Help with ADA Compliance?

It’s been more than twenty five years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect.  Since 1990, the ADA has been changing the way that public spaces are structured.  Thanks to the ADA, disabled people are able to enjoy a quality of life which is comparable to that of their non-disabled counterparts. 

Even though the ADA has been in existence for some time now, it is really a work in progress.  Each year, revisions are made to ADA accessibility codes, and keeping up with them as a business owner or structural designer can be an ongoing chore. 

Maybe right now you are planning the development of a new office building.  Or perhaps you are looking into upgrading your existing workplace to achieve full ADA compliance.  Either way, you have a big task ahead of you, and one of your many challenges is figuring out what to do with all your wires, cables, and pipes.

One great starting resource for accessible office design is the Office of Compliance Fast Facts Sheet.  This simple checklist provides clear, concise instructions on office doors, walls, floors, and more.  While it is not a comprehensive document, the instructions are at least in plain English and focused exclusively on office buildings.  You can however find more in-depth directives in the ADA Standards for Accessible Design. 

Neither of these resources specifically delves into the issue of wiring, but you will find references in each to wheelchair accessibility.  The Fast Facts Sheet for example mentions that office carpeting should be firmly affixed to the floor with a pile of less than one-half inch. 

Anytime you have an obstruction on the floor, you are creating an obstacle for a person in a wheelchair.  As an able-bodied person, on foot, you can just step over a cable, but a wheelchair-bound person doesn’t have this option.  Rolling over obstructions can be annoying at best, difficult or impossible at worst.  No one should need to exert an unnecessary amount of force just to cross over top of a cable or hose in your office.  Plus, when cables and wires are not taped down, they pose additional hazards for workers in and out of wheelchairs.

What are your options for getting these cables, pipes and wires out of the way and getting ADA-compliant?

• Reroute the cables entirely and get them off of the floor.  Obviously this could be extremely difficult, and may in some cases even be impossible. Check out this post which covers different ways to manage cables.

• Opt for an ADA-compliant cord protector.  This is a structure with channels which lies relatively flat on the ground and maintains a fairly low profile.  You run the cords through it.  The top is smooth, and allows a wheelchair to cross.  The downside to this is that cable protectors don’t look very professional, and they can be tripping hazards. Cord protectors degrade over time, due to physical wear as well as exposure to light.

• Cover cords with access ramps.  Some people choose to cover their cords with actual wheelchair ramps.  Of course, this only makes sense if you actually are in a space where you need a ramp.  Otherwise, the ramp is simply in the way.

• Run your cables under the floor and get them completely out of the way.  If you want a floor with a low profile, nothing beats no profile.  A product like our Netfloor USA raised access floor systems allow you to take care of your accessibility problems once and for all.

Built-in cable raceways make it easy to organize your cables, and easy access panels let you reroute wires at any time.  There are no ramps, no bumps, no loose wires, and no other obstructions that could possibly get in anyone’s way.  Best of all, you can integrate our cable access floor into any existing building design. 

If you’re a bit unfamiliar with access flooring, check out our post which covers the basics; it’s a great place to start.

If you'd like some more info on low profile, cable management flooring, we've got another great post for you.

Finally, if you need some help deciding which access floor is right for you, you can read up here. (Or just send us a note on the contact form!)

ADA-compliance is mandatory by law, but it’s also the right thing to do.  Your workers are the people you depend on, and you owe them a comfortable, safe working environment, whether they are in or out of a wheelchair.

At Netfloor USA, we’re committed to creating inspiring spaces that are safe and convenient for everyone.

Wires, pipes, and cables pose an ongoing hazard until they are safely stowed away.  If you are ready to get compliant with your facility, give us a call today at 1-844-NET-FLOOR (638-3566) to discuss your project!

Would a Tech Firm Benefit From Access Flooring?

We got a call the other day from a tech startup firm. It was pretty exciting, because I had actually heard of their product (it's a new app/software package) a few weeks ago. I thought to myself: "This is cool! These guys are on the cutting edge!"

Maybe I was a little surprised because, of all the things they have to think about, one of them did some research online about access floors and found us. Their list of questions was long, and their time was short. So after a quick but very detailed conversation with them, they said they liked our product and wanted to use it. They were getting ready to move from their current location (it's a "communal incubator" in New York City) to a slightly larger, slightly less communal shared office space.

Oh, There's One More Thing

Why would a small tech firm that is just starting up care about access floor in the first place? Their biggest concern is getting their product into beta testing and releasing it to the public (Hello World!). Oh, and scoring that first round of venture capital would certainly help things move along. So why would they care about access flooring?

That is a very good question, and the answer is because even though in the 21st century everyone seems to be talking about 4G Wi-Fi hotspots, we live and work in a more wired world today than we did 5, 10, 15 years ago. Many tech startups are heavily reliant on servers, graphics, video, apps, and web development. Therefore, there are going to be a lot of cables and a lot of power wires associated with this type of tech work.

What do startups have? They has a couple dedicated people who are willing to do whatever it takes to turn their idea into reality. It also carries with it a lot of risk and uncertainty and that risk and uncertainty should be minimized as much as possible.

With a low-profile cable management floor, you minimize your risk and uncertainty. Maybe I've been hanging around access floors too long, but we're like a super awesome FUD-destroyer.

Been There, Done That

Most businesses that I've toured, whether large or small, have very messy server rooms. Unless we are talking about a dedicated data center, most businesses have a problem with wires. If you're a small tech startup firm, the last thing you need to worry about is your power and wire situation.

A Netfloor USA low profile access floor lets you run all your wires and cables in a neat and orderly fashion, and when you need to add or change cables out (because of your explosive growth, of course!), it's simple to do.

Maybe this seems like small potatoes to you, but an access floor gets wires and cables out of the way of your creativity.

If this sounds interesting, keep reading our blog or some of our articles, and if you have more questions, give us a call or use the contact form.

Oh, and by the way, we'd be happy to join your beta testing program!