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Building or Renovating? What to Think About Before First Fix
You don’t need to know whether you want a “smart home” yet, and this isn’t about filling a house with gadgets. If you’re building, extending or substantially renovating, a handful of cabling decisions made before your electrician starts first fix keep every option open. The same decisions made after the plaster goes on mean opening finished walls.
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In many cases they are, and a good electrician will wire and certify the electrical installation properly. We don’t replace your electrician; we work alongside them.
The difference is that specialist home technology involves more than installing the right cable. Someone also needs to design what those cables will serve, specify the equipment, understand how the different systems work together, and then return at second fix to install, configure, programme and commission everything properly.
Most electricians aren’t set up to design and commission whole-home WiFi, audio visual, lighting control, automated blinds, integrated security and home automation. Equally, we don’t want to be installing consumer units or wiring general sockets.
So our role is to design the technology side properly, hand your electrician clear first-fix requirements, and then take responsibility for the specialist side through second fix and commissioning. Our guides on working with electricians and working with builders explain exactly where the lines are drawn.
“You don’t really need any of that” is the one we most often hear from builders, and it usually just means your builder hasn’t built a smart home before. Most haven’t, so it’s fair comment from where they stand rather than bad advice. It stops being guesswork the moment we’re introduced: we slot into the build programme like any other trade. Builders tend to find that makes the programme easier, not harder, and once they’ve seen the finished house they rarely ask the question again.
Nine Things Worth Deciding Before First Fix
None of these commits you to buying anything. Each is a short conversation now, a cable run while the walls are open, and an option kept for later.
WiFi & Networking
One router by the front door rarely covers a whole rebuilt house. Planning cabled access-point positions at first fix is inexpensive compared with fighting poor coverage once the house is finished. Learn more →
TV Positions
Think through likely TV positions before furniture, joinery and sockets are fixed. Power, data and signal cabling in the right places lets screens sit neatly on the wall with nothing trailing. Learn more →
Speakers & Audio
In-ceiling speakers need only a cable run before plastering. Wire the rooms you might ever want music in; fit speakers whenever you like, or never. Learn more →
Lighting Control
Smart lighting can change how the circuits themselves are wired, especially where centralised dimming or keypads are on the cards. If you might ever want it, it needs discussing before the house is wired conventionally. Learn more →
Blinds & Curtains
Automated blinds need power or cable at the window head. A short run now, hidden in the reveal, saves chasing finished walls when you decide you want them. Learn more →
Cameras & Door Entry
Gate intercoms, doorbells and cameras all want cable in the right places: the drive, the door, the eaves. Far easier before the render goes on. Learn more →
Power in the Right Places
Extra double sockets where technology lives: behind every screen, in the kit cupboard, at window heads for blinds. Cheap items on your electrician’s first-fix list once they’re on the plan.
Where the Kit Lives
Routers, amplifiers and controllers need one tidy home with power, cooling and cable routes back to it: a cupboard, a corner of the plant room, even under the stairs. Learn more →
Spare Routes for Later
Empty conduit and draw cords from the kit cupboard to key rooms cost almost nothing and quietly future-proof the house for whatever comes next.
What It All Looks Like When the House Is Finished
The best technology shouldn’t make a finished home look technical. These are our installations: from discreet WiFi and audio through to lighting, automated blinds and complete Control4 systems.
Cabling Simply Gives You Options
“Isn’t it all wireless these days?” Some of it genuinely is; we fit radio-based lighting control in period homes for exactly that reason. But the things that feel wireless are fed by wires: reliable whole-home WiFi is built around cabled access points, and screens, speakers and cameras still earn their reliability down a cable. The good news is that the cabling and the finished technology are separate decisions. Plenty of clients wire the house while it’s open, add equipment over the years as budgets and priorities develop, and installing cable commits you to buying nothing, from us or from anyone else.
Still Here Long After the Scaffolding Comes Down
Most of the build team’s job ends at handover; ours carries on. During the build we’re on the end of the phone for your builder and electrician whenever a question comes up. Afterwards, the same six people who designed and programmed everything are the ones who support it: tweaks as you settle in, new equipment years later, and remote access that sorts many issues without a visit. The company you choose before first fix is the one you’ll be calling in year five, so it’s worth choosing one that answers. Our aftercare plans explain exactly how we look after finished systems.
We’ll Look Over Your Plans With You
Based in Shrewsbury, working across Shropshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, the West Midlands and the Welsh borders — see the areas we cover.
Send us your architect’s drawings, or just the planning reference from your approval letter and we’ll pull the publicly available drawings from the planning portal ourselves. We’ll spend up to an hour talking through what’s worth considering before first fix and what probably isn’t. You don’t need a specification, and nothing is sold at a plans review.
Not sure what to ask for yet? Book a demonstration first. It is the quickest way to find out what your home actually needs.
Want to Read a Little More First?
When Should You Involve a Smart Home Installer?
Why the right time is normally at plans stage, before electrical first fix, and what deciding early saves.
Read Guide →Working With Electricians
Who does what during first fix, second fix and commissioning, and where the lines are drawn.
Read Guide →Working With Builders
How specialist technology fits into the wider build programme without slowing anyone down.
Read Guide →Keep exploring: Our Solutions · Home Cinema · Control4 Costs · Areas We Serve