We just finished our pre-electrical walkthrough with our builder. I can honestly say that every day of this home build journey I am learning something new, especially the bigger picture of understanding the building process.
The decisions we make now will have an impact on how we live in and enjoy our home so I’m taking them pretty seriously… That’s why it took me hours of careful deliberation before finalizing our electrical and lighting plan! Thankfully our superintendent and lighting rep have been incredibly patient and helpful!
Here are my top electrical and lighting items to consider when building and I hope they help you with your build.
We took our time thinking about electrical and lighting things to consider when building our house
1. Planning your interiors
As we went room by room through our house, I would ask myself ‘What will we do in this room?’ and ‘Where will our furniture go?’ before committing to any lighting options. Start with function and adapt your lighting depending on the needs in the space — and put a dimmer on every interior light if your budget allows!
2. MAP OUT LIGHT FIXTURES
Now is the time, if you haven’t already, to think about where your chandeliers, pendants, wall sconces and can lights are going to go. It’s also a good idea to know the sizes and drop measurement of these. Your electrician will need to mark out the number of hanging pendants over your island. One big dining room light or multiple over your table? Wall sconces are important to mark here as well.
3. Outlet Placement Matters
You need to be able to turn on all those light fixtures you just mapped out right? It would be nice to not have to walk across the room to turn on and off. Think about where you turn the lights off and on from. For example we are placing a library sconce above our banquette with an individual switch so we don’t have to walk across the kitchen to turn them off. Not a new concept, but this is where you’ll want to plan your dimmer switches as well.
My advice is to place the outlets where it’s most practical and to make them discrete.
4. Exterior Outlets
Here you want to consider what activities you do outside like power washing the patio and driveway, vacuuming your car. Maybe outlets inside or just outside the garage door. Place outlets where you need to plug things in. We will definitely need an outlet at the patio and near the bbq grill.
5. Holiday Lighting
I couldn’t let a list go by without special planning for Christmas lights! I am pretty excited for these extra outlets we will be including. Think about adding outlets outside on the soffits of the house for lights, or around your front door for lighted garland . Inside think about where your Christmas tree will go, in the corner, etc. Don’t forget near the staircase as well as the top of the mantle for your lighted garland!
6. Consider mixing lighting solutions
There are so many options for lighting solutions — recessed cans, flush mounts, sconces, low hallway wall lights, floor lamps, pendants, step lights — and so much more. If you don’t have a lighting expert to help you plan your lighting, I suggest taking the time to research all the lighting options out there before meeting with your electrician so you can develop a plan that works and will add interest to your home.
7. CAT6 CABLE or ETHERNET
I work from home and a fast and reliable internet connection is a must. Installing these lines at the time of build will make life simpler if your home uses a lot of devices that are all trying to connect to the WI-FI at the same time! Directly connecting to these lines when cleanly installed in the walls allows kids to download and play video games while I’m trying to binge shows on Netflix.
8. Plan where TV’s will go
The electrician needs to know this and your builder can beef up the studs here to accommodate heavy wall hanging tv’s and mounts if needed. The outlet should be recessed and can include extra USB ports, direct ethernet lines, cable & phone lines all in one neat box.
9. Decide where to place control panels
Another area of the electrical and lighting to consider when building is where to position control panels — heating and cooling, lighting, home security etc. It’s a good idea to decide early what kind of technology you intend to use in your home so you know exactly what control panels you will have, and can decide on the most practical and least obtrusive place to position them — last thing you want is a panel right next to your beautiful artwork!
10. Make provisions if you’re unsure or budget restricts
Building is expensive and unfortunately by the time it comes to lighting and electrical, the budget can be blown and those ideas of an integrated audio system, or a statement pendant light may be on the back burner. My suggestion is to make a plan for these things by running the cabling you need to those areas — so you can add them later on.
11. Walk through your decisions if you can
It may have taken a few hours but I’m so glad we decided on our electrical and lighting once the house was framed rather than at the planning stage. It meant we could walk through the house room by room and see exactly where light switches, outlets and light fixtures would be placed and spot any potential issues. Walking through your decisions can help you identify and overcome issues early and see new opportunities that you just can’t visualize from a plan.
12. TAKE PICTURES
Once all the electrical components are installed, take lots of pictures. It would be nice to know where all those lines are running through behind the drywall!
13. Take NOTES
Bring a notebook, measuring tape and a pencil with you. Take notes, take time to measure, use your pencil to write plans on the framing itself. Take your time, don’t let the electrician or your builder rush you.
14. BUDGET
Last but not least don’t forget that pesky thing called the budget. Every little addition will add up. So be sure to ask the costs, what is included and what isn’t.
I’ll be posting pics after our final walkthrough with the electrician and the low-voltage tech to show our outlet placements in a later blog post!
Do you have other top electrical and lighting things to consider when building? Share them in the comments below!