There is a two-week window in every new build when whole-home connectivity costs almost nothing to get right — after first-fix electrics start and before the plasterboard goes up. Miss it, and the same capability costs three to five times as much to retrofit, with cable trunking down freshly decorated walls. Here's the checklist we work to on plots across Marlow, Maidenhead and the Thames Valley.

The new-build pre-wire checklist

1. Cat6 to every access-point position

Wi-Fi that reaches every room of a modern family home comes from wired access points in the right ceilings — not from one router in the hallway cupboard. For a typical 4–5 bed house that means two to four ceiling positions, each with a Cat6 run back to the comms enclosure. The AP itself can be fitted at completion or by the purchaser later; the cable has to go in now.

2. Data to the TV points, office and garage

Anything that streams or works for a living deserves a wired point: main TV wall, study, and increasingly the garage — EV chargers and their load-management kit are network devices now.

3. CCTV and doorbell positions

Run Cat6 to the front-door soffit, drive-facing corners and any gate or outbuilding position. PoE cameras take power down the same cable, so there's no second circuit to add later.

4. Door entry and gate pre-wire

Plots with gated drives need containment to the gate line before the driveway is laid. This is the single most expensive thing to retrofit on the list.

5. A real comms enclosure

Not a consumer-unit afterthought: a ventilated enclosure with power, sized for a patch panel, a small switch and the broadband termination, somewhere that isn't the master bedroom wardrobe.

6. Test, label, document

Every run tested and labelled at both ends, with a per-plot as-built sheet. It's the difference between "pre-wired" as a sales line and pre-wired as something the purchaser's installer can actually use.

Why builders bother: the sales-particulars line

"Wired for whole-home Wi-Fi, CCTV and EV charging" is a differentiator that costs hundreds per plot, not thousands — and it kills the number-one post-completion tech complaint in larger new-builds, which is Wi-Fi that doesn't reach the back bedrooms. For developments around Marlow, Henley and Beaconsfield, where buyers expect to work from home properly, it earns its line on the brochure.

How the trade arrangement works

  • We mark up AP, data, CCTV and door-entry positions on your drawings, per house type
  • Your electrician pulls alongside their own first fix using our containment spec — or we do the pull ourselves
  • We terminate, test, label and commission at second fix, to your programme
  • You get one fixed price per plot type, repeatable across the development

If you're building in Buckinghamshire or Berkshire — a one-off self-build or a multi-plot development — see our per-plot pre-wire packages, read how we design networks, or price your plots from the drawings.