Pre-wiring a Calgary new build: what to run, and when
·7 min read
There's a short window in every build — after framing, before drywall — when adding infrastructure costs almost nothing. Once that window closes, the same work costs many times more, and some of it becomes impossible without opening finished walls.
Almost every expensive regret we see in Calgary homes traces back to that window.
The principle: run cable, decide later
You do not need to know today which speakers you want, or whether you'll automate the lighting. You need to make sure those decisions are still available in three years.
Cable is cheap. The labour to place it while walls are open is minor, because someone is already in there. The cost of adding it afterwards is disruption — and disruption in a finished house is what makes people give up on the idea entirely.
So the goal at rough-in isn't a finished system. It's optionality.
What to run
Network cable, generously. This is the single highest-value thing on the list. Run Cat6 to every TV location, every desk or office, every spot where a wireless access point might go, and to any exterior camera positions. Two runs where you think you need one. Wi-Fi does not remove this need — good Wi-Fi depends on it, because access points want to be wired. See why your Wi-Fi is bad in a big house.
Speaker wire to ceilings and the patio. Even if audio isn't in this year's budget. The patio run in particular — through an exterior wall or soffit — is the one that becomes genuinely awkward later.
Cable to every TV wall, plus a path. Not just power and network: a conduit or at minimum a smooth path between the TV position and wherever equipment will live. Video standards change; a route you can pull a new cable through is worth more than any specific cable you install today.
Control wiring for lighting, if automation is even a possibility. This one has a deadline attached and it's the hardest to retrofit.
Doorbell and camera positions. Cheap now. A ladder and a drill later.
The decisions that genuinely can't wait
Most things can be deferred. These can't:
Keypad locations. If you might want lighting keypads by the doors, the boxes need to be there. Adding them later means opening walls at exactly the spots people notice most.
Where the equipment lives. You need somewhere for a rack or shelf: ventilated, not in a bedroom wall, reachable, and with power and network. Mechanical rooms and basement storage both work. Deciding this late means cable runs get improvised.
Shade wiring. Motorized shades need power at the window head. Doing that at rough-in is trivial. Doing it afterwards means either a visible cord or opening the wall above a window — and if the window is in a two-storey space, that's scaffolding.
Anything crossing a poured or finished area. Once concrete is down or a ceiling is closed, routes disappear.
The Calgary-specific parts
Basement development. A great many Calgary homes are built with the basement unfinished and developed a few years later. That's the classic trap: the basement gets finished by a contractor who isn't thinking about a future media room, and the chance to run cable up from the mechanical room to the main floor quietly closes.
If your basement is going to stay unfinished for now, that's actually your friend — it's the easiest route in the house. Use it while it's open, and at minimum leave a conduit or a pull string between floors.
West-facing glass. New builds in the west and southwest take serious afternoon sun, and the shade conversation almost always arrives eventually. Powering the window heads during the build is what keeps that option cheap.
Detached garages. Common here, and awkward later. If you'll ever want a camera, Wi-Fi or music out there, the trench is only open once.
When to bring someone in
Earlier than most people do. The useful visit is at framing, before insulation and drywall, and it usually takes an hour or two: walk the house, mark positions, agree what gets run.
Talking to an integrator at that stage doesn't commit you to buying a system from anyone. It commits you to having the wire in the wall — which is the part you can't do later.
If you're building or renovating in the Calgary area, get in touch while the walls are still open. That conversation is worth having even if the equipment purchase is years away.