Building or Remodeling in LA? Call the Integrator Before the Drywall Goes Up

A wire that costs a few dollars to run during rough-in costs hundreds to fish through a finished wall later, if it can be done at all. Every week we walk through beautiful new homes in Westlake Village and Brentwood where the builder finished the drywall before anyone planned the technology, and the owner is now paying to open it back up.

If you are building or doing a major remodel anywhere in Los Angeles, this is the conversation to have early.

When to bring us in

The right time is when the plans are done and framing is underway, before electrical rough-in is finished. That is when we can walk the framed house with your builder and mark every location: speakers, keypads, cameras, access points, shade motors, TV locations, and the equipment room.

Bringing us in at the plan stage is even better. We can place the equipment room where it makes sense, size the conduit, and coordinate with the electrician so the low-voltage and line-voltage work happens in one pass instead of two.

What pre-wire actually includes

Pre-wire is the structured cabling that every future system depends on. On a typical whole-home project it covers:

• Cat6 to every TV location, access point location, camera location, and keypad
• Speaker wire to every audio zone, indoors and out
• Low-voltage wiring to every window that will get a motorized shade
• Conduit from the equipment room to key locations for anything not yet decided
• A dedicated equipment closet or rack location with power and ventilation

The equipment does not need to be chosen yet. The wire does. A home wired correctly at rough-in can add a theater, more audio zones, or more cameras years later without opening a wall.

Coordinating with the build team

We work directly with general contractors, electricians, architects, and interior designers on most of our new-construction projects. On estate builds in Hidden Hills and Bel Air, that means attending site meetings, providing wiring diagrams the electrician can work from, and adjusting as the design changes.

Interior designers care about what is visible, and so do we. Speaker grilles that paint in, keypads that match the Lutron plate finish, TVs that sit flush, and equipment that lives in one closet instead of every room. We settle those details with the designer before anything gets installed.

The systems that go in after drywall

Once the walls are closed and painted, we come back for trim-out: speakers, keypads, cameras, access points, and shade motors go in, then the equipment rack gets built and programmed. Control4 programming and Lutron lighting control happen in this phase, and the final walkthrough with the owner is where every scene and schedule gets set to how the family will actually live in the house.

What it costs to skip this

We see the alternative all the time. A finished home with a soundbar on every TV because there is no speaker wire. Cameras with visible cable on the stucco. A router in the kitchen pantry because there was no equipment room. Motorized shades on batteries in a brand-new house because the windows were never wired.

None of that is the builder's fault. Low-voltage is a separate trade, and if nobody scopes it, nobody runs it. As a licensed California C-7 contractor, that trade is what we do.

Where to start

If you have plans in hand or framing underway, send them over or give us a call. We will walk the site, mark the locations, and give your builder a clear scope. The first call is free and takes 15 minutes. Call (424) 301-7661 or book through the site.