Smart Home Wiring: What to Run During a Renovation

If you\'re planning a renovation — whether it\'s a full gut job or just opening up a few walls — you have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to set your home up for smart home success. I cannot stress this enough: the cheapest time to run wire is when the walls are already open. Adding a single ethernet drop after drywall is up can cost $150-300 from an electrician. During construction, it\'s a fraction of that because the labor is already there.

Here\'s my room-by-room guide for what to run, why it matters, and what you can skip.

The Non-Negotiables: Every Room

Cat6A Ethernet

Run Cat6A ethernet to every room. Not Cat5e, not Cat6 — Cat6A. The cable cost difference is marginal (about $0.15 more per foot), and Cat6A supports 10-gigabit speeds up to 100 meters. You probably don\'t need 10-gig today, but this wiring will be in your walls for 20+ years. Future-proof it now or regret it later.

At minimum, run one drop per room. For offices and media rooms, run two. Terminate everything at a central location — a utility closet, basement corner, or dedicated network panel — where you\'ll put your switch and router.

Why not just use WiFi for everything? Because WiFi is a shared medium that degrades with distance, walls, and device count. Smart home hubs, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and security cameras all benefit enormously from wired connections. Your WiFi network also performs better when high-bandwidth devices are taken off it.

Neutral Wire to Every Switch Box

This is the single most important thing on this list for smart home readiness. Run 14/2 with neutral (white wire) to every single switch box in the house. Many older homes only have a hot wire and a switch leg at the switch box, with the neutral staying up at the fixture. This makes most smart switches impossible to install without rewiring.

Smart switches from Lutron Caseta don\'t need a neutral, but they require a proprietary bridge and use Lutron\'s own wireless protocol. Nearly every other smart switch on the market — from brands like TP-Link, GE/Jasco, Zooz, Inovelli, and Leviton — requires a neutral wire. Having neutrals at every switch box keeps all your options open.

Tell your electrician explicitly: "I want a neutral wire in every switch box, even if code doesn\'t require it." Some electricians will run the minimum required. Be clear about what you want.

Heavy-Rated Ceiling Boxes

Install fan-rated electrical boxes in every bedroom and living area ceiling, even if you\'re not putting a fan there now. A standard round box is rated for about 50 pounds. A fan-rated box handles the weight plus the vibration. Swapping a ceiling box later means opening the ceiling. Putting the right box in during construction costs nothing extra.

Room-by-Room Extras

Living Room / Family Room

• Two ethernet drops behind where the TV will go (one for streaming device, one for game console)
• Recessed outlet behind the TV mount so cables sit flush
• Consider a low-voltage conduit from the TV location down to a media cabinet — you\'ll thank yourself when you need to run HDMI or new cables later
• Ethernet drop near where you\'ll place a smart speaker or hub

Kitchen

• Under-cabinet outlets for smart LED strip lighting — far easier to install during renovation than after
• One ethernet drop near where a smart display (Echo Show, Nest Hub) might sit
• Outlet inside a cabinet for a smart hub or bridge you want hidden
• Four-way switch circuits should all get neutrals — kitchens often have complex switch layouts

Bedrooms

• Ethernet drop behind each nightstand location (for bedside devices or a hub)
• Consider hardwired occupancy sensor locations if you\'re into automation — ceiling corners work best
• USB outlets at nightstand locations are a nice touch but not critical given how fast charging standards change

Home Office

• Two to three ethernet drops at the desk location — you\'ll use more than you think
• Dedicated 20-amp circuit if you\'re running multiple monitors, a desktop PC, and peripherals
• Ethernet drop at the ceiling for a WiFi access point (this is the ideal AP placement for most homes)

Exterior

• Weatherproof outlets at each corner of the house, under eaves — these are for security cameras, smart holiday lights, and outdoor smart plugs
• Ethernet drops at each planned camera location (PoE cameras are more reliable than WiFi cameras)
• Outlet near the front door area for a video doorbell transformer or PoE doorbell
• Outlet in the soffit for seasonal string lights — so you\'re not running extension cords across the roofline

Garage

• Ethernet drop for a smart garage controller or camera
• Dedicated circuit for future EV charger (240V, 50-amp) — even if you don\'t drive an EV now, this is massively cheaper to run during construction
• Outlets on the ceiling near the garage door opener for potential smart controller

The Central Hub Location

Designate a spot where all your ethernet runs terminate. This is where your router, network switch, and any smart home hubs will live. Requirements:

• A dedicated shelf or small closet with ventilation (network equipment generates heat)
• At least two electrical outlets on a dedicated circuit
• Coax input if you have cable internet
• Good enough WiFi signal reach to the rest of the house, or plan for ceiling-mounted access points wired back to this location

What You Can Probably Skip

Don\'t run speaker wire to every room. Wireless multi-room audio (Sonos, AirPlay 2, Chromecast) is good enough for most people, and in-ceiling speakers are a commitment to specific locations that you might regret.

Don\'t install a centralized smart home panel like those $5,000 Crestron or Control4 setups. They\'re expensive, proprietary, and today\'s open-standard hubs (Home Assistant, SmartThings) do most of the same things at a fraction of the cost. Run the wiring and let software handle the smarts.

Cost Expectations

For a typical 3-bedroom home during a renovation, expect to spend roughly $1,500-3,000 on wiring labor and materials for a comprehensive smart-home-ready setup. That breaks down to about $100-200 per ethernet drop (materials plus termination), plus a few hundred for the extra switch wiring with neutrals and outdoor outlets. Compare that to retrofitting the same wiring after the fact, which could easily run $5,000-8,000.

The bottom line: you don\'t need to buy a single smart device right now. Just run the wires. Having the infrastructure in place means you can add smart home tech gradually over years without ever cutting into a finished wall. That flexibility is worth every penny.