A checklist and a timeline for a new build in West Georgia. What to decide, in what order, and the exact point in the schedule to call — because the failure mode on a pre-wire is almost never choosing the wrong cable. It is finding out too late that nobody chose anything.
If you read nothing else on this page,Read these four.
There is a lot of new construction going up around Villa Rica, Temple, Carrollton and Bremen right now, and a pre-wire call comes in one of two forms: early enough to plan, or a week after the drywall went up. The distance between those two calls is worth more than any product decision on the job.
01
The moment to call
After the electrical rough-in and before insulation and drywall. The framing is up, the line-voltage wiring is pulled, and every stud bay is still open. That is the window. Talk to somebody earlier than that so the plan is ready — but the cable itself goes in during that gap, and the gap is short.
02
Low voltage is a separate trade
This is the most common misunderstanding on a new build. The electrician runs line voltage — the wiring that powers the house. Network cable, access point drops, camera runs and doorbell wiring are low voltage, and on most projects that is a different contractor with a different scope of work. The low-voltage contractor works alongside the electrician, not instead of. If nobody hired one, nobody is running that cable.
03
What has to be decided before then
Where the equipment lives. Where the internet service enters the building. Where every drop goes. Where the access points mount. These decisions all get made one way or another — the only question is whether you make them deliberately or the schedule makes them for you at eleven o’clock on a Thursday.
04
What it costs to miss the window
It is not fatal. Cable can be added to a finished house, and that work is part of what we do. But it becomes fishing walls, cutting access holes, patching and painting, and accepting that a few runs are simply not going to happen — a slab, a stacked wall or a soffit with no path through it. The work goes up, the result goes down, and neither of those is true while the walls are open.
None of these are hardware choices. Every one of them is a decision about the building, and every one of them is cheaper to make on paper than in drywall dust.
Walk the plan and decide where the equipment lives. Where the rack or termination point goes is the single most consequential decision on this list, and it is almost always made badly and late — whatever room is left over once everything else has been claimed. It needs a power circuit, it needs air, and it needs to not be in a closet somebody is going to fill with coats. Not the attic, where the summer heat is the problem. Not an unconditioned garage in Georgia if there is any alternative. A conditioned utility space, a mechanical room or a dedicated closet with airflow is what you are looking for, and it is easier to find on paper than after the walls are up.
01
Where the internet comes in
The demarcation point — where the provider’s line lands on the building — gets placed on purpose or it gets placed wherever the truck stopped. Decide it, and get conduit from the demarc back to the rack while there is no drywall in the way. That one sleeve is the difference between a clean handoff later and a cable stapled around the outside of the house. It also matters if the provider changes, or if a second provider is ever added, because the path is already there.
02
Drop planning
Walk every room and count what needs a cable: each television, each desk, each access point position, each camera, the doorbell, the thermostats where they are wired, and the uplinks back to the rack. Every run home-runs back to one point — no daisy chains, no splices in a wall. Where you think one drop is enough, put two. A second cable pulled beside the first while the bay is open costs almost nothing compared with going back for it, and the device that needs it has not been invented yet.
03
Access point locations
This is the part people are surprised by. WiFi coverage is a cabling decision, and it gets made months before anybody thinks about WiFi. An access point belongs on the ceiling, near the middle of the space it is serving. It does not belong in the equipment closet, in a corner, or above a cabinet, because that is where the signal has the most building to fight through. Mark those ceiling positions on the plan and run cable to them now. Power comes over that same cable, so there is no outlet to add later.
04
Conduit and sleeves
The cheapest insurance in the entire build. A sleeve up to the attic, one down to the crawlspace, one between floors, and one out to any detached structure — the shop, the barn, the guest house, the gate. Leave a pull string in each. Nobody knows what will need to be added in ten years, and the honest answer is that something will. A string in a sleeve turns that from a demolition job into an afternoon.
05
Rough-in inspection, then photographs
Before the drywall goes up, walk the house and photograph every wall — with a tape measure in frame for scale and a fixed reference like a corner or a door jamb. That photo set is worth real money to whoever hangs a television or cuts into a wall for the next thirty years. It shows where the studs are, where the cable is, and where the plumbing and line voltage are, so nobody has to guess with a saw. It takes one pass through the house and it is the single most useful thing handed to a homeowner at the end of a pre-wire.
06
What the plan looks like
Three drawings that decideEverything after them.
A pre-wire is not a shopping list. It is a window and two drawings — when the cable can go in, where the drops go, and how they get between floors — all settled before anybody pulls a spool off the truck.
The one window
Framing, electrical rough-in, low voltage, insulation, drywall. The cable goes in during the highlighted phase, after the electrician and before the walls close, and the gate at the end of the track does not reopen.
The drop plan
Every television, desk, ceiling access point, camera and doorbell marked on the floor plan, with each run home-running back to one point. Decided room by room while the walls are open, not guessed from a standard package.
The riser and the sleeves
How cable gets from the rack in the mechanical space up through a sleeved conduit to the jacks on each floor, with a service loop left at both ends. The sleeve is the part that makes the next pull possible at all.
Common questions
Asked on a job site,Usually with a deadline attached.
Sometimes by the homeowner, sometimes by the builder, occasionally by the electrician who has just realized nobody hired anyone for the low-voltage side.
When exactly should I call about low-voltage wiring on a new build?
For the plan, as early as you like — the useful conversation happens while the drawings are still being marked up, because where the equipment lives and where the access points go are decisions about the floor plan, not about hardware. For the cable itself, the window is after the electrical rough-in and before insulation and drywall. Framing is complete, line voltage is pulled, and every stud bay is still open. That window is short and it does not come back. If your builder has a schedule, ask for the rough-in date and work backward from it.
01
How many network drops does each room need?
There is no honest universal number, and anyone giving you one over the phone is guessing at your floor plan. What we can tell you is the rule that has never once been regretted: wherever you think one drop is enough, run two. The second cable pulled through an open stud bay beside the first costs a fraction of what it costs to go back for it after drywall, and the device that will need it does not exist yet. The count that matters comes out of walking the plan room by room — televisions, desks, ceiling positions for access points, cameras, the doorbell, and the uplinks back to the rack.
02
Does the builder’s structured wiring package cover this?
Sometimes, partly, and it is worth reading the scope rather than assuming. Packages vary enormously between builders, and the things most often left out are the ones that matter most later: ceiling positions for access points rather than wall jacks, conduit sleeves between floors and out to detached buildings, a properly located and powered equipment space rather than a plate in a hallway closet, and labeling and testing at the end. Ask specifically what is included, where the equipment is going, and whether the drops home-run back to one point. If the answers are vague, that is the answer.
03
Can this be done after the drywall is up?
Yes, and we do it regularly — a finished house is not a lost cause. But be clear about what it costs you. Instead of walking an open bay with a spool, it becomes fishing walls, cutting access holes, patching and painting afterward, and working around insulation, fire blocking and everything the electrician and plumber already put in that path. Some runs stop being practical entirely: through a slab, up a stacked exterior wall, or across a framed soffit with no path through it. The work goes up, the number of achievable drops goes down, and you live with a smaller plan than the one you would have had. None of that is true while the walls are open.
04
Who coordinates with the electrician?
We do, directly, and it is the normal way this runs. Line-voltage electrical work is not our lane and we do not present it as such — the electrician owns the power in the building. Low voltage is a separate trade with a separate scope, and the two sit alongside each other during rough-in rather than one replacing the other. In practice that means agreeing on the equipment location early so it gets a circuit, keeping our runs off the power runs, and sequencing so both trades get the walls when they need them. If the builder is running the schedule, we work to it.
05
Who wrote this
CDM Systems, low voltage,Bremen, Georgia.
We run the low-voltage side of new builds across West Georgia — the network cable, the access point drops, the camera and door runs, and the rack it all terminates in. Line-voltage electrical work is not our lane and we do not present it as though it were. The two trades work alongside each other during rough-in, and on a build we coordinate with the electrician directly.
One more thing worth raising with your builder: some jurisdictions require a permit or an inspection for low-voltage work, and the requirements vary by county and by municipality. It is a question to ask locally rather than assume either way.
Send us the plan set. We will walk it with you, mark the drops, the ceiling positions and the sleeves, and tell you where the equipment should live and what the schedule needs to allow for. You get the marked-up plan whether or not you hire us — and if you are already past drywall, we will tell you honestly what is still reachable.
