Technology Mistakes to Avoid When Renovating a Villa
Renovation is the cheapest time to plan cables, access points, and power for your home's technology. These mistakes are expensive to fix once the walls close.
Key Takeaways
- Relying on a single router for a multi-floor villa is one of the most common renovation oversights
- Running spare Ethernet and conduit while walls are open costs little but adds significant future flexibility
- TV, camera, speaker, and access point positions should be planned together, not decided separately
- Photographing hidden cable routes before closing walls saves confusion during future work
A villa renovation is a rare opportunity to plan technology infrastructure properly, before walls are finished and floors are laid. The mistakes made during this window are far more expensive to correct afterward, since fixing them later usually means opening finished walls again.
Don't Rely on a Single Router for a Large Villa
It's a common assumption during renovation planning that a single, powerful router will be enough once everything is finished. For any villa beyond a modest single-storey layout, this is rarely true in practice, particularly once reinforced concrete floors and finished walls are back in place.
Plan for multiple access points from the start of the renovation, even if you don't install all of them immediately — running the cabling for them while walls are open is far cheaper than doing so afterward.
Run Spare Cabling While You Can
While walls and ceilings are open during renovation, running a few spare Ethernet cables and conduit routes to key locations — media room, home office, potential camera positions — costs relatively little in labour and materials, since the access is already available.
Skipping this step to save a modest amount during renovation often means a much larger cost later, when adding a single cable requires opening a finished wall specifically for that purpose.
Run at least one or two more Ethernet cables and one spare conduit than you think you currently need. Future technology needs are hard to predict accurately, and the marginal cost of extra cabling now is minimal compared to adding it later.
Plan TV, Camera, and Speaker Positions Together
Deciding TV wall positions, camera locations, and speaker placements separately, at different stages of the renovation, often leads to conflicts — a camera position that clashes with planned lighting, or a TV wall without adequate nearby power. Plan all of these together early, ideally with input from whoever will actually install each system.
This coordinated approach avoids the common renovation problem of finishing a beautiful room only to discover a genuinely awkward compromise is needed for a TV or camera position that wasn't considered early enough.
- Plan for multiple access points in any multi-floor or larger villa
- Run spare Ethernet and conduit while walls are open
- Coordinate TV, camera, and speaker positions together, not separately
- Photograph every hidden cable route before walls are closed
Document Before You Close the Walls
Photograph every cable route, junction box, and conduit path before plastering and painting cover them permanently. This documentation is invaluable for any future work — adding a device, troubleshooting a fault, or simply understanding what's actually behind a specific wall years later.
This is a simple step that costs nothing beyond a few minutes with a phone camera, yet it's one of the most commonly skipped parts of a renovation's technology planning.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many access points should I plan for during a villa renovation?+
For any villa beyond a single-storey, modest layout, plan for multiple access points from the outset — running cabling for them during renovation, even if not all are installed immediately, is far cheaper than adding it later.
Is it worth running spare cabling during renovation even if I don't need it yet?+
Yes. The marginal cost of a few extra Ethernet cables or conduit routes while walls are open is minimal compared to the cost of adding a single cable after walls are finished and painted.
Should I photograph cable routes before closing walls during renovation?+
Yes, this is a simple, free step that provides invaluable documentation for any future troubleshooting or upgrades, since finished walls hide exactly where cables and conduits run.
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