Prewiring a New Build in Calgary: What to Run and Where

Framing stage is the only time to get this right

Once drywall goes up, every change becomes a repair. Structured wiring during a new build costs a fraction of what the same work costs as a retrofit, and it removes the guesswork about where equipment, cameras and access points will eventually live. Here is what we actually run, and where.

Conduit before cable

Even when we pull cable at framing, we recommend empty conduit to key locations: the equipment rack location, the TV or media wall, and any spot likely to need something we haven’t thought of yet. Conduit is cheap insurance against a technology change five or ten years from now; cable without conduit is a wall that has to be opened to change.

Network cabling: how much Cat6/6A and where

We typically run at least one Cat6 or Cat6A drop to every room that could hold a TV, workstation or access point, plus dedicated runs to the locations for wireless access points so Wi-Fi coverage doesn’t depend on a single router in a basement. Kitchens, home offices and media rooms usually get two drops instead of one. All of it terminates at a central panel location, not wherever the internet happens to enter the house.

Speaker drops

For whole-home audio, speaker wire runs from each zone back to the equipment location, sized and labelled by zone. For a home theatre or media room, we plan speaker positions against the seating layout before the wire goes in the wall, not after the drywall is hung and the couch has already been placed.

Panel location

The equipment panel or rack location should be central, ventilated, and accessible for service, not a leftover corner of a mechanical room. We plan panel location alongside the electrician and HVAC trade so power, network and low-voltage all land in a location that will actually work once the house is finished.

Camera prewire

If cameras are part of the plan, we run PoE cable to exterior camera locations at framing, before siding or stucco goes on. Adding a camera after the exterior is finished usually means surface-mounted conduit, which is avoidable with a small amount of planning during construction.

Coordinating with the other trades

Low-voltage wiring doesn’t happen in isolation. It has to be coordinated with the electrician for power locations and panel clearances, with the framer for backing at TV and speaker locations, and with HVAC for a rack location that won’t overheat. On a new build, we try to get in front of the builder or general contractor early, so our rough-in happens on the same schedule as electrical rough-in rather than as an afterthought that holds up drywall.

What documentation you should get

Before drywall closes the walls, ask for a simple record of what was run and where: a marked-up floor plan or a few photos of open stud bays showing cable routes. It costs nothing to produce and saves real time and drywall repair the first time someone needs to locate a cable years later. We label and photograph structured wiring as a standard part of the job, not an extra.

Why do it at framing instead of after

The cost difference is not subtle. Pulling cable through open stud bays takes minutes; fishing the same cable through finished walls means patch, paint and access risk, and sometimes a route that isn’t possible at all. If you are building or doing a full renovation, get your low-voltage plan in front of us before framing is closed in.