A smart home is only as good as the wiring behind it. The flashy part — the app, the automation, the voice control — all depends on infrastructure that has to go in before the drywall. Get the prewire right and almost anything is possible later. Skip it, and you are stuck with battery gadgets and WiFi workarounds.

Here is the room-by-room checklist we use when we prewire smart homes across the New River Valley.

Start With a Central Hub Location

Everything comes back to one spot — a closet, pantry, or mechanical room with power and ventilation. This is where your network gear, video recorder, and control equipment live. Running every cable back here keeps the system clean, expandable, and easy to service.

Entries and Doors

Video doorbell wiring at the front door
Smart lock and keypad wiring at the doors you want controlled
Camera drops covering entries, driveway, and back yard

Living Areas and Kitchen

CAT6 behind every TV for streaming and wall-mounted displays
In-ceiling or in-wall speaker wiring for whole-home audio
A ceiling drop for a WiFi access point so coverage is strong where you actually live

Bedrooms and Office

At least one hardwired CAT6 jack per room
Extra drops in the home office for a wired desk connection and a webcam or second display

Whole-Home Essentials

WiFi access point drops on each floor, hardwired back to the hub
A network panel where everything terminates and is labeled
Conduit or pull-strings to a few key spots so future upgrades are painless

Why This Has to Happen at Rough-In

During the rough-in stage, the walls are open and every cable is a clean, straight run. Once drywall is up, adding a single drop means cutting, fishing, and patching. Doing it right the first time costs a fraction of retrofitting later — and it means your smart home can grow without tearing into walls.

We Plan It With You

We walk your plans room by room, mark every drop against how you actually intend to live in the house, and coordinate with your builder's schedule. The result is a home that is ready for automation, cameras, strong WiFi, and audio — all wired, all reliable.

We prewire smart homes in Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Radford, and across the New River Valley.