New construction - prewiring options (floor, roof, Home Depot, pool)

[Tampaite]

We are looking at purchasing a lot to build with a major builder and at the design center meeting, I believe they will walk us through the pre-wiring options but am not sure what'll needs to be in place.

The home is a 6 bed/4 bath with a game room and media room and a covered lanai.

I'd like to prewire the home as follows:

1. Music in all bedrooms - meaning option to install atleast 2 speakers(in future) in ceiling.
2. Music in all bathrooms - option to install 1 speaker(in future) in ceiling
3. Music in game room and covered lanai - option to install 2 speakers(in future) in ceiling.
4. Ability to have a projector in the media room and project a movie/video onto the wall. Do I need to be pre-wired for surround sound?
5. Ability for a security camera system in future.

These are basic requirements, I may obviously be missing other things.

I can post the floor plan layout if that helps.

so, what should I ask the builder or the low voltage contractor? Is there a terminology or jargon so they understand what needs to be done and provide an accurate quote?

I have a $3K budget to pre-wire the entire home and obviously, I know speakers. stereo system, projector etc will need to be purchased at a later time.

[Coldjensens]

1. Music in all bedrooms - meaning option to install at least 2 speakers(in future) in ceiling.
2. Music in all bathrooms - option to install 1 speaker(in future) in ceiling
3. Music in game room and covered lanai - option to install 2 speakers(in future) in ceiling.

You can do this if you want to, but you will probably never use it. Wireless technology is so good now, there is not need for wires. You also will likely find you need to position different kinds of speakers differently as technology changes or sound fads come and go. Remember the Bose 901? Still the best sound out there as long as you position them exactly as directed in relation to walls. For a time, the tiny speaker system with 8 or 12 speakers was in. Now it seems to be soundbars with some satellite speakers and a subwoofer. Next year ???

Will your family all want to listen to the same music at the same time, or will they want to listen to their own music? If the latter, then you will likely need to either wire it for different music in different rooms (which is expensive), or just put a separate system in each room. Our kids use Ipods or their phones to listen to their music. They have no interest in listening to my Dead Kennedy's CD or INXS. One of my kids and I love Jazz, the others dislike or hate it, three of them and I love classical music, two hate it. One likes Dubstep (I have learned to kind of like it in small doses). One likes music form musicals and Disney movies. One likes techno swing and acid rock. If I played my music, or any one type of music loved by one family member in all rooms we would have a riot.

When our kids were little, I woudl jam out Stevie Ray Vaughn or Tainted Love at maximum volume to wake them in the morning and we would all scream out "Ballroom Blitz" or dance and sing along to other "Dad music" as we got ready for work/school. It was riotous and fun for a while. It would have been cool then to have speakers in every room tied into the same system. However after they got to be about 13, that all suddenly died. They wanted their own music, period. Mornings to be in complete silence, even when awake.

4. Ability to have a projector in the media room and project a movie/video onto the wall. Do I need to be pre-wired for surround sound?

We did this. Never used it. Big TVs are way cheaper than a good projector and do not need replacement bulbs that cost an arm and leg, do not generate massive heat, do not get shaded out if someone walks through the beam of light, and have better clarity. Plus with a TV it is pretty easy to move it to a different location in the room, and you do not need complete darkness for it to work. I saw a Phillips 70" TV on sale for $699 this weekend. Do you need more than 70"? That is really huge. Can you reduce the cost by $700 if you skip the projection system. I do not know what they cost now, but several years ago a good projector was about $2500 - $3000.

If you get the projection system are you going to get one that comes down out of the ceiling either by pulling or electronic, or will it just hang down below the ceiling all the time? Will you bonk your head on it?

5. Ability for a security camera system in future.

These can be very entertaining. They are not much use for security unless you are going to stare at the monitors all the time. They can be good if you cannot see who is at your door or in your driveway. We have windows and a dog, but a camera system that connects to my phone would be fun. Best use - keep an eye on teenagers. If someone breaks in, you will be able to see what color hoodie is currently popular among thieves. That will be helpful if you are a counselor for at risk youth and want to seem cool with all your hip and up to date knowledge.

so, what should I ask the builder or the low voltage contractor? Is there a terminology or jargon so they understand what needs to be done and provide an accurate quote?
"Please don't rip me off" ? No particular jargon, but research what you want and be as specific as you can. Remeber an electrician or a developer is not a sound engineer, so if you want good sound you will have to work out locations yourself or hire a professional acoustics engineer. Once you set your speaker locations, you cannot just pick them up and move them to a better location.

I have a $3K budget to pre-wire the entire home and obviously, I know speakers. stereo system, projector etc will need to be purchased at a later time.

We spent $3k on a high end surround sound system by itself. That was way back (about 2000 - 2002) It is still superior quality, but so complex no one remembers how to set it up. It was neat for a while, but we got bored with it. A lot of trouble, plus mice got into sub-woofer and chewed up the wires (twice). There was this problem then that one. The speaker locations did not work with our revised furniture placement so we ignored the hard wire system and ran exposed wires to the speakers in new locations. Wireless came later. Now we just have a fancy sound bar on the TV in our bedroom and that is where everyone ends up gathering to watch TV. We have a big TV in the game room in the basement and another in the back parlor, but no one uses them anymore. Mom watches TV in our room and one by one any kids who are home gravitate to wherever mom is.

[NC211]

Originally Posted by Tampaite

We are looking at purchasing a lot to build with a major builder and at the design center meeting, I believe they will walk us through the pre-wiring options but am not sure what'll needs to be in place.

The home is a 6 bed/4 bath with a game room and media room and a covered lanai.

I'd like to prewire the home as follows:

1. Music in all bedrooms - meaning option to install atleast 2 speakers(in future) in ceiling.
2. Music in all bathrooms - option to install 1 speaker(in future) in ceiling
3. Music in game room and covered lanai - option to install 2 speakers(in future) in ceiling.
4. Ability to have a projector in the media room and project a movie/video onto the wall. Do I need to be pre-wired for surround sound?
5. Ability for a security camera system in future.

These are basic requirements, I may obviously be missing other things.

I can post the floor plan layout if that helps.

so, what should I ask the builder or the low voltage contractor? Is there a terminology or jargon so they understand what needs to be done and provide an accurate quote?

I have a $3K budget to pre-wire the entire home and obviously, I know speakers. stereo system, projector etc will need to be purchased at a later time.

CEILING FANS!!!!!!!


Ok, now that I've pointed that out...


Speakers in all the rooms is nice, but I do agree about everyone listening to the same music, and the advancement of technology. Our home is 17 years old, we're second owners. Previous owner had ceiling speakers wired in to the living room. We took them out and patched up the ceiling. Why? Because the speakers age, get blown, grills look nasty with years of dust and faded color, and just say (hey, look at me, I'm really old and need to be replaced). We also hooked up a Bose single-speaker with sub in the cabinet for our main TV (same room). The technology aspect here - that single speaker and sub work so well that anything else would be overkill. Personally, I've never really seen a room speaker setup like you're talking about that sounded little better than a clock radio (ok, maybe little better), but you're only going to get so much quality sound out of a little 6 1/2 speaker that opens to the space above it.


Movie projector - I disagree with Jensen - DO IT! You can buy a full HD 1080p 3D projector for like $700 and have a screen the size of a 300 inch TV if you want. I did this myself in my old house. Bought an Epson 1080p 3D from Best Buy for $699, hooked it up to a Costco Bose system, and with a little creativity with door trim, back felt, "silver screen" paint from home depot, had myself a movie theater room in the basement with a screen that was over 11 feet wide, full HD. Perfect!! In my current home, we have an old theater room where the previous owners had one of the those massive brick big-screens with custom cabinets built around it. We're taking out the cabinet (tv is junked) and going to do a movie room similar to our old house, but this time not using special paint but actual screen material with a 1x4 frame underneath.


It cost me $1,500 to have my old movie room wired up after construction. It's not hard to do, but certainly takes some experience. That was to run an electrical outlet to the projector location, an HDMI cable, and 4 of those little bose cubes. This was wood frame and drywall. We loved that room. In fact, that's what sold our home in a week's time! They wanted the projector and stereo equipment to convey. I figured I spent $2,000 total for it and they're giving me my full asking price inside of 7 days, no-brainer!


Ceiling fans though man. Get them wired up in all the bedrooms, and if you have a tall family room, there too. It's one thing to have them wired up after construction if they can access from the attic. It's a whole different ball game if you want one wired up on the main level under the bedrooms. Ceiling fans are crucial, in my opinion. I'd spend my money on those long before I'd spend it on stereo speakers. Just buy the kids their own Bose portable speakers that blue-tooth to their iGadgets, and enjoy the peace of not having to hear them fight over why Dad's listening to Michael Bolton again...

[NC211]

Oh, and one more thing, if you want security cameras, you probably want a security alarm system too? You can go wireless if you'd like, but a wired system will hide the contacts better, and can easily be upgraded later in life with a new panel and control pads. NOW is the time to have that wiring done. I'm right in the middle of updating our system. It's original from 2000, wired. All wiring works great, just updating the control panel and keypads to new controls and touchpad interfaces. Basically bringing it up from when aol.com ran the world to current iWorld. Costing me around $1,500 in gear to do it ($1,000 are in 4 touch panels). My neighbor basically just called an alarm company for his. They just upsold him to ditch the existing and go wireless. So he did. Now he has all of these visible sensors on all the windows and needs wifi expanders everywhere, and locked into a long-term contract for a lot of money, probably 5x's more than what I'm spending for a far better setup.....that was already there because it was wired during construction!

[Robino1]

Have your low voltage guy install Cat6. Have it in your head what you want placed where. Are you meeting at the model home of the one that you are having built? If so, he/she will walk you around the model and you can point out what you want and where.

We had ethernet run to each room and chose where they were to be placed in the new build. Also had a network connection added to the garage. Hubby may need to have a laptop set on a workbench to watch a youtube video of something that he may be fixing.

We also have a central wifi in the ceiling in the living room. It's plenty for the whole house for those that don't need to hook up to the ethernet in the bedrooms.

We only went with two speakers in the living room area (open concept) and two speakers outside. I am in my office now and can hear the music just fine. Remember, each room that has speakers will up the cost. Might be cheaper to get an ipod for the bathrooms and bedrooms. Each place that you have it setup for anything will cost. Even if you don't have the system put in, you still pay to have those drops put in and capped.

Electrical, you will get walked through where you want all the outlets (if you have any added above and beyond what comes standard). Hubby works out of his office and has several (4! not counting tablets and laptops) computers and other gadgets so he added quite a few outlets to handle the load that comes out of is office. We were so focused on the office outlets we totally didn't think about the garage. Only one was installed in the garage. We have a chest freezer and planned on a garage fridge (which we now have, comes in handy for water, beer, soda storage) so we had to have an electrician come out and install a couple more to handle whatever we could think of.

We also had the rooms wired for cable tv connections but the electricians didn't do the termination of the cable connections. The cable company came in after we moved in to do all of those. It was just a matter of pulling the cable out and terminating the ends then reconnecting the plates.

You can ask for a quote with all the things on your wish list then narrow down what you absolutely want to include in the build. Easier to have them prepped before walls are in place.

We also had them prep for cameras. We have 8 around the perimeter of the house: 1 on each corner, 2 in the pool area to watch the 2 doors leading to the yard from the pool cage, 1 in the front porch area and 1 above the sliders in back. We didn't like the cameras that the company had so we bought our own and after Hubby finally decided on what he wanted, he had them install the cameras.

The picture quality is like watching tv. Details are Clear.

It's fun to get all the stuff that you want when you like tech stuff.

[Robino1]

Absolutely have ceiling fans wired like NC211 stated. They specify ceiling fans because those have to have the boxes that hold that weight. Even though I am not a fan of them, we did have them wired and later we bought them and had them installed.

[Gettingouttahere]

I did what you're thinking of back in 1998 and it was (mostly) a waste of money.

We have every room wired for sound, a control panel, RG-6, CAT-5 and fiber (there wasn't fiber back then, at least no service here, so we ran conduit).

The only two things I'd do today are RG-6 and CAT-5. Why ethernet, in this day of wireless? Because it's way faster than wireless, still. And it's nice as a belt-and-suspenders thing.

The speakers were put in as we could afford them - we didn't have them installed at construction. That means we STILL have bare wires hanging from holes in a couple of rooms! And none of it actually works, because we never had the money for the spiffy head-end system I envisioned when I sat down for my special meeting with the electrical contractor (that's who you sit down with, btw). Just take everyone's advice and give up the surround-sound idea. In real life? You will NEVER miss it.

Definitely do the ceiling fans in every room.
I don't think I'd do security wiring, but then again, it's not an issue where I live.

I would DEFINITELY do way more outlets than you ever think you'll need. Count your electrical devices -- all of them, every light, cellphone, hair curler, kitchen appliance, battery charger -- and double it. Get extra in the garage, as stated earlier. Think about a trash compactor outlet and where you'd put it if you want one.

Get the outlets with built-in USB connections.

I'd also do whole-house surge suppression (we did) and get a built-in generator.

Outside lights: don't make the mistake we did, if you have a tall (higher than two stories) house - our motion detector light was perched at the very top of the roof peak and when that light bulb died, that was the end of it. We had to have another one installed where we could actually reach it.

[Threerun]

Our current house is for the most part wired, but we pretty much don't use any of it. Our phones our wireless, we have no land line, we just ditched our DISH network and have gone streaming through our home internet (which itself is a dish receiver- it's wireless). We have no cable service where we live.

In a few years I'll get a wireless receiver capable AV receiver and place speakers where I want them, when I want them.

Saves a lot of headache.

[MsMetal]

Just built a house a year ago & the pre-wire ALONE for each speaker, not including the speakers & not including the music source was $300 each. It was around $500/ea with the speakrer! We were at around 15K when we just scrapped the whole idea for a variety of reasons, including that wireless options abound & will only improve & that the odds of everyone in the house wanting to listen to the same music at the same time was virtually nil (even though there's only 2 of us, but 1 of us is in meetings a lot & would want no music). Plus talking to friends who had distributed audio (I think that's what they called it), it turns out, most of them didn't use it.

We had our gym pre-wired for a tv on the wall, ceiling fans & being a work-at-home couple, we paid a lot of close attn to computer layout & internet access. We also put the computers, in separate offices on a 20amp dedicated circuit each, b/c it's critical that they stay up & running.

I'm in a hurry right now, so will post later if I think of more. Just wanted to give you a heads up that the pre-wiring added up VERY quickly in our case, to a number that made it very obviously not worth it for us. Not a fancy builder either, a typical decent quality production builder & using a local low-voltage contractor that you had to use with them.

ETA: We were gonna do ceiling fans in every room, but were convinced to only do them in upstairs rooms & the gym, not any basement rooms & I think it was a smart decision. It stays cool down there.

[Tampaite]

Thanks for your response but am still very confused.

The model home we walked thro' had lot of bells and whistles and music in every room including bathroom looked like very pleasant thing to do.

I don't know what kids may/may not want when they grow up but if I'd guess - they want to have their own way - so should I still prewire for music in all bedrooms, maybe bathrooms but definitely kitchen and lanai area?

I understand going wireless but also, like to have speakers in ceiling as opposed to by my desk. Can I still have speakers in ceiling and yet be able to play music from my phone?

At the minimum, am reading that I need to run Cat 5 or Cat 6 wires but for what purpose, to carry audio and video?

We use internet over Wi-Fi currently and probably will continue to do so in the new home.
We have a phone(mothership) with 5 handsets that's placed in each room so phone rings in all room or anyone in those room can pick up the phone and dial.
We have no cable(probably will not get cable) but need the ability to play movies or videos in the media room.