Future-proofing your property and cabling
Whether you’re looking at a new build or renovating an existing property, it’s the perfect time to look at future-proofing your home. To do this requires some good planning in advance to design the necessary cabling infrastructure to allow for robust wired and wireless networks, high-definition video distribution, multi-room audio, lighting control and the integration of smart home technologies.
Whilst the initial outlay for some or all of these items can soon start to mount up, provided the property is correctly pre-wired you can look at starting with core parts of the home and adding additional zones or rooms on in the later months or even years.
Allowing for space for the necessary cabling routed throughout the property is something that should be considered as early as possible. Consulting with your architect or building contractor at this stage to make them aware will save a lot of time and potential costs during the build. If this all sounds a bit daunting we have years of experience dealing with the various trades and can liaise directly with them on your behalf saving you time and avoiding the potential headaches.
You’ll also need to consider an area to house the rack and equipment needed to distribute the various sources around your home. Typically known as the ‘Head End’ this would need to be placed in either a plant room, office, basement, outbuilding, utility or boot room. It needs to have good ventilation as the equipment can get hot which can seriously reduce the lifespan of the products and lead to system instability.
You may be surprised to see the amount of cable potentially required to run to various rooms of the property from the ‘head end/plant room’. This is best loomed to a good quality AV rack that allows ease of access and maintenance for the future.
Also consider carefully if you are a property developer, architect or building your own home with a view to selling in a few years, a correctly wired and future-proofed property can be more enticing to a client or potential buyer and set you apart from the rest of the crowd.
If you’re looking at a new build or renovation of an existing property make sure it’s future-proofed as much as possible as needing that all-important cable in the right place in the future can cost a small fortune and be very messy chasing walls etc. On the average cost of a build or renovation, the cost of design, supply and installation of the cable is often under 3% of the overall cost of the project. As this infrastructure has been installed, this then leaves you with the option to add ‘features’ at a later date when budget or requirements permit.
Whilst there is a general rule of thumb for the right cabling for each purpose, every design is slightly bespoke as each individual property has a different layout and therefore good design will leave you options for the future without compromising the initial system.
Give us a call or drop us a line about your project and we’ll be more than happy to help and discuss your options.
