Smart-Home Wiring: What to Rough In While Walls Are Open

Here's a rule we repeat in every design meeting: walls open once. Whatever wire, conduit, or backing you put in during a remodel costs almost nothing while the framing is exposed — and ten times as much the day after the drywall goes up. Smart-home tech will keep changing; the pathways for it don't have to. If you're planning a whole-home remodel, here's what belongs in the walls before they close.

Hardwire what hates wireless

Wireless is wonderful until it's your only option. Some things simply work better on copper:

• Wired access points. One ceiling-mounted access point per floor, fed by Ethernet, beats any router-in-the-corner arrangement. San Diego's stucco-over-wire-lath walls are notorious Wi-Fi killers — plan around them.
• Cameras and doorbells on PoE (power over Ethernet) never need battery swaps and never drop the clip that mattered.
• TV and office locations. A conduit and a couple of Cat6 runs to each spot future-proofs streaming, work-from-home, and whatever comes after both.

Conduit is cheaper than clairvoyance

Nobody knows what cable the 2035 house needs — which is the argument for smurf tube (flexible conduit) rather than betting on any one wire. A few one-inch conduits from a central media/network closet to key rooms, plus one to the attic and one toward the garage, mean the next technology pulls through in minutes. While you're at it: leave a pull string in every run. Future you will be grateful.

Power where the future needs it

Low-voltage gets the attention, but ordinary outlets in unusual places are half the smart-home game: inside closets for hubs, high on walls where displays might hang, under eaves for holiday lighting on a switch, in drawers for charging. And one big-ticket item that's much easier mid-remodel: a 240-volt circuit to the garage for EV charging. Even if you don't drive electric today, the panel capacity and the run are dramatically cheaper to install while the electrician is already on site — and increasingly expected by the next buyer.

Speaking of the panel: many older San Diego homes are still on 100-amp service. A remodel is the natural moment to evaluate an upgrade, because induction ranges, heat-pump water heaters, EV charging, and AC add up fast. Your electrician can run a load calculation early in design so the decision is made on numbers rather than guesswork.

What not to bother with

Skip the walls of proprietary in-wall gadgetry. Standards have consolidated (the industry's Matter protocol has finally made mixed-brand devices play reasonably well together), and device-level tech churns every few years. The durable investments are dumb and physical: wire, conduit, power, and solid backing where heavy things might mount. Devices come and go; pathways are forever.

More on this in Staircases as Centerpieces.

Planning a remodel and want the invisible infrastructure done right? Request a consultation or give us a call — we'll make sure the walls close over a house that's ready for anything.