New Home Technology Checklist for Utah Homeowners (2026)

Quick Summary: If you are building a new home or planning a major remodel in Utah, the technology decisions that matter most have to happen before the walls close, not after. This checklist covers the six systems worth planning at the framing stage: structured ethernet runs, Wi-Fi access point locations, security camera conduit, smart home hub placement, home theater pre-wire, and a dedicated home network closet.

Why Pre-Wire Timing Matters More Than the Equipment You Choose

The router, the camera brand, the smart thermostat model: all of that can be swapped out years from now without touching a wall. The cable path behind the drywall and the rough-in location for a network closet cannot be changed nearly as easily once framing is covered and insulation goes in. That is the core difference between a home tech "upgrade" on an existing house and a pre-wire plan on new construction or a gut remodel: on an existing home, you are working around finished walls. On new construction, you get one narrow window, between rough framing and insulation, to plan for structured cabling, access points, camera runs, a smart home hub, and a home theater before the opportunity closes.

Most homeowners are not managing that window themselves. A general contractor is coordinating framing, plumbing, and electrical rough-in on a schedule, and low-voltage wiring for network, security, and AV systems has to fit into that same phase or it gets left out. The checklist below is what to raise with your builder or a low-voltage trade partner before that window closes.

The New Construction and Remodel Pre-Wire Checklist

Walk through each of these six items with your builder before the electrician pulls permit. Every one of them is far cheaper to plan now than to retrofit after drywall.

1. Structured Ethernet Runs

Every ethernet drop should run its own cable back to a central point, not daisy-chain from room to room. That central point is the network closet covered in item 6.

• Where to put drops: a home office desk, a media room or theater, a kitchen wall for a mounted display or smart home hub, any bedroom where a hardwired desktop or gaming console is even a possibility, and any covered patio, garage, or detached structure that might later carry a camera or access point.
• Cable grade: Cat6 is the standard choice for most residential runs, and it already supports 10 Gbps speeds over distances up to about 55 meters, which covers most rooms in a typical home. Cat6A is worth discussing for longer runs, such as to a detached garage, guest house, or shop, since it holds 10 Gbps over the full 100-meter maximum length and is rated for future 25G and 40G speeds.
• Label as you go: every run should be labeled at both ends and tested before drywall closes, not sorted out later by trial and error.

WITS's ethernet wiring page covers what a Cat6 and Cat6A installation involves. That page describes retrofit pricing for an existing home; new construction pre-wire is scoped differently as part of a builder engagement, covered further down.

2. Wi-Fi Access Point Locations

A single router in a utility closet was never going to cover a two-story home with a finished basement. The fix is ceiling-mounted or in-wall access points wired with their own cable run, planned at framing instead of surface-mounted later.

• Plan for coverage, not one router location. A typical two-story home needs access points spread across floors, not one unit reaching every room from a single spot.
• Run a home run to each access point location, using the same Cat6 you are already pulling, so the access point is powered over the same cable and does not need a separate outlet.
• Include the garage, basement, and any detached structure if you want reliable coverage there; these are the areas most often left out of the original plan.

3. Security Camera Conduit Runs

Camera placement is a coverage decision, and coverage decisions are far easier to get right before the exterior siding and interior walls are finished. Running a cable, or a conduit sized for a future cable, to each camera location during framing avoids drilling through finished stucco or brick later.

• Plan runs to every entry point: front door, back door, garage, driveway, and any side gate.
• Use Power over Ethernet (PoE) cable runs where possible, so each camera location gets both power and data through one cable and does not need its own electrical outlet.
• Leave conduit, not just cable, where you are unsure. A conduit stub lets you pull a different cable later without opening the wall again if your camera plans change before move-in.

WITS's security camera installation page covers how camera placement and PoE wiring work on a finished home; the same coverage-design thinking applies to conduit runs planned during framing.

4. Smart Home Hub Placement and Low-Voltage Switch Wiring

A smart home system needs a central hub location with reliable power and, ideally, a hardwired network connection rather than Wi-Fi. Deciding that location during framing also affects whether your lighting control system needs low-voltage wiring behind switch locations, which is far simpler to add before drywall than after.

• Pick a hub location near the network closet so it can be wired instead of relying on Wi-Fi for its own connectivity.
• Decide on wired versus battery smart switches early. Wired lighting control needs a neutral wire and sometimes a low-voltage run behind the switch box, a decision that has to be made before the electrician finishes rough-in.
• Confirm which rooms get smart devices (thermostats, locks, lighting) so any wiring they need is included in the same rough-in pass as everything else.

WITS's smart home integration page notes that WITS designs smart home systems for new construction as well as existing homes, and recommends involving a low-voltage partner before drywall goes up so wiring and device placement are planned into the build instead of retrofitted afterward.

5. Home Theater and Whole-Home Audio Pre-Wire

A dedicated theater room or a whole-home audio system depends on wiring that is nearly impossible to add gracefully once finish work is done.

• In-wall speaker wire to every planned speaker location, including in-ceiling positions for a surround setup.
• Conduit behind the TV or display wall for power and signal cable, so no visible cable runs down the wall to a media console.
• A dedicated circuit and, ideally, ventilation for an equipment rack or closet, since AV receivers and network gear generate heat and are easiest to house together.

A separate home theater and audio installation page covers TV mounting, surround sound, and whole-home audio once the pre-wire is in place.

6. The Home Network Closet (Structured Media Panel)

Every run from the first five items above terminates somewhere. If that "somewhere" is a shelf added after the fact in a random closet, you end up with a tangle of equipment and no clean way to expand later.

• Size it for a patch panel, a network switch, your router or gateway, and ideally a small battery backup (UPS), not just a single outlet behind a door.
• Give it its own dedicated electrical circuit and some airflow, since switches and routers run continuously and generate heat.
• Locate it centrally. Run length from the closet to the farthest drop matters, and a closet in a far corner makes every other run longer than it needs to be.

Because every item above depends on where this closet sits, decide it early, ideally at the same meeting where you finalize the electrical panel location, rather than after the electrician has already finished the rough-in layout.

Working With Your Builder or General Contractor

These items fall through the cracks when structured cabling, networking, cameras, smart home, and home theater are treated as four or five separate subcontractors instead of one coordinated scope. If your builder does not already have a low-voltage trade partner lined up, or you want one point of contact handling all six items as a single written pre-wire specification before your electrician pulls permit, that is the scope WITS describes for custom home builders in Utah. Share that page with your builder or general contractor directly; it explains how a pre-wire specification, design-phase coordination, and a single trim-out visit are meant to work from the builder's side.

What This Costs

Pricing works differently depending on who is coordinating the work. If your builder brings in a low-voltage trade partner for the full pre-wire scope across all six items, that work is scoped and quoted in writing as part of the project; no fixed price is published for it since it depends on square footage, run count, and how many systems are in scope.

If you are coordinating pieces of this yourself, outside your builder's process, such as ethernet wiring, smart home configuration, or camera installation as an individual project, each begins with a flat-rate on-site assessment: $165 on a weekday, $205 on a weekend, or $300 after hours, credited in full toward the project if you proceed. That is current pricing as of September 2026; confirm it has not changed before booking.

A Simple Pre-Wire Timeline

• Framing complete, before insulation: the low-voltage rough-in window. Ethernet runs, access point cable, camera conduit, and speaker wire all get pulled here, alongside the electrician's rough-in.
• Insulation and drywall: once this closes, only what was planned and pulled during rough-in is available without cutting into finished walls.
• Trim-out: patch panel and switch termination, access point and camera mounting, smart home device configuration, and TV or speaker installation, all after finish work but before your final walkthrough.
• Final walkthrough: every system should be tested and demonstrated before you sign off, not left for you to figure out after move-in.

If framing has not started, this is the right time to raise this with your builder. If framing is already underway, ask now rather than after insulation goes in.

Next Step

WITS's pricing page lists current rates for individual home services, and Get Started is where to book an on-site assessment or share a builder-coordinated project with our team. Call 385-313-9898 with questions about timing your pre-wire window around your specific build schedule.