Working With Builders: How We Fit Into Your Build

If you’re a builder or main contractor — or a homeowner whose builder is already on site — the short answer is this: we slot into your build programme like any other trade. We come in at the plans stage to mark up drawings, run our cables alongside the electrician’s first fix, come back for second fix after decoration, and commission everything at the end. We’ve been doing it since 2006, on new builds, renovations and extensions across Shropshire, and we’d like to think we’re easy to have on site.

Where we fit in the build programme

Smart home work isn’t one visit — it’s three or four short ones, timed to your programme. Here’s the pattern we follow on almost every job:

• Plans stage: before anyone is on site, we sit down with the drawings and agree what goes where. This is the visit that saves everyone money later.
• First fix: we run our cabling alongside the electrician’s first fix — same window in the programme, before boarding and plastering. Speaker cable, network cable, control wiring, blind power, containment where it’s needed. We coordinate with your electrician directly so nobody is waiting on anybody.
• Second fix: after decoration, we come back for keypads, speaker grilles, wireless access points and the visible kit. By this stage the messy work is long done.
• Commissioning: at the end, usually in the final week or two, we set the system up, test every room and hand over to the client. This is the part the client remembers — and it reflects on you as much as on us.

If you want the longer version of what happens at each wiring stage, we’ve written it up separately: when to involve a smart home installer in your wiring.

What we do at the plans stage

The single most useful thing a builder can do is send us the drawings before first fix. Give us a set of plans and we’ll return them marked up with everything your trades need to know:

• Cable routes — where our runs go, so they can be allowed for alongside the electrical design rather than argued over on site
• Keypad positions — agreed with the client (and the interior designer, if there is one) so back boxes go in once, in the right place
• Speaker positions — coordinated with downlights, smoke detectors and joist runs before the ceiling is boarded
• Blind pockets — concealed blinds need a pocket formed in the window reveal or ceiling, and that has to be in the drawings, not improvised later
• Containment — where we need conduit or trunking left in, particularly through steels, slabs and external walls
• Plant and rack location — the equipment cabinet needs a home with power, ventilation and sensible access; a plant room, garage corner or understairs cupboard agreed at plans stage beats a loft compromise every time

None of this costs the builder anything at drawing stage. All of it costs money to put right after plastering. That’s the whole argument for early involvement, and it’s why we’d always rather see a plan than a finished wall.

What we’re like on site

Builders care less about what a system does and more about whether the subcontractor turns up, works clean and doesn’t hold up the programme. Fair enough. So, plainly:

• We’re insured and used to site rules. Inductions, CDM requirements, permits, signing in — we’ve worked on managed sites for years and we don’t need chasing on paperwork.
• We work tidy. Cables dressed and labelled, our waste off site, first fix photographed before boarding so there’s a record of exactly what’s in the walls.
• One point of contact. You get a named person who knows your job, not a call centre. Design, installation and programming are all done by the same in-house team, so there’s no finger-pointing between a designer in one company and an installer in another.
• Someone always answers the phone. We’re a six-person team with a real office and showroom in Shrewsbury. If your plasterer is standing next to a wall and needs to know whether a cable can move, you can get an answer that morning — on 01743 234945.
• We fit your programme, not the other way round. Dates slip on every build; we know that. Tell us the week, we’ll be there in the week.

And the part that matters at the end: when the client walks through at handover and the lighting, heating, audio and blinds all just work, that reflects on the builder who ran the job. Our aim, honestly, is to make you look good on handover day.

Already past first fix? It’s not too late

If the walls are closed, don’t panic — and don’t assume the client has missed the boat. A good deal of what we do, from lighting control to audio and networking, has wireless options designed exactly for this situation. Lutron’s wireless lighting control, for example, was built for finished houses.

Two honest caveats. First, wired is still the gold standard for speakers, networking and anything that needs to work flawlessly for twenty years — so if there’s any wall still open, or a floor still up, it’s worth a phone call before it’s closed. Second, first fix is always the cheaper and cleaner route: running a cable through an open stud wall takes minutes; getting the same cable into a decorated one takes patching, filling and repainting. If the plasterboard is going on next week, this week is the time to ring us.

Working alongside other professionals is normal for us — we’ve written about how that works with interior designers, and the same applies to builders: we’re not tied to anyone, we don’t keep a closed list, and we genuinely welcome a call from any local builder with a job on, whether it’s a one-off plot or you’d like an installer you can bring to every project. The whole picture — designers and electricians included — is on our working with the trade page.