Home Networking, Wiring & Electrical in Seattle, WA

Most of our Seattle work is in houses that were never built for a network: the internet comes in at the basement, there's plaster between the router and the bedrooms, and the home office is on the top floor. We run Cat6 through those houses, put wired access points where people actually work and stream, and add PoE security cameras on the same cabling.

We also do the electrical side — panel upgrades, EV charger circuits, new outlets and lighting — so a project that needs both a network closet and a dedicated circuit is one team and one schedule, not two contractors.

About one in five homes and apartments in Seattle was built before 1940. In Wallingford, Ballard, Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, Beacon Hill and West Seattle, that means craftsman houses, bungalows and Tudors with lath-and-plaster walls, sometimes with metal mesh behind the plaster. That mesh is why Wi-Fi can die between two rooms, and it's why we plan cable routes through closets, the attic and the basement before we think about cutting anything. Houses from that era were often framed so the walls are open from the basement to the attic, which helps a vertical run; the plaster is what slows it down. More on that in why Wi-Fi is bad upstairs in older Seattle homes.

In the north end — Lake City, Northgate and much of Wedgwood — a lot of the housing dates from the 1940s through the 60s: ramblers and split-levels with an attic or crawlspace we can work from. Those are usually the quicker retrofits. A single run with good access is a couple of hours, and a house with 6 to 12 drops is typically one or two days; how long home wiring takes explains what moves that number.

Then there are the newer townhomes in Ballard, Fremont and Capitol Hill, and the condos and apartments in South Lake Union, First Hill and downtown. Townhomes rarely have an attic to work from, so drops take more cutting. We keep openings to single- or double-gang size so they can be covered with wall plates, and we don't patch or paint. In condos, the building's rules come first: anything on the exterior, in common areas or through a shared wall usually needs HOA approval, so we check before we pull anything.

Data cabling inside a house doesn't need a permit in Washington, and Seattle's permit office, SDCI, treats most low-voltage work in a single-family home the same way. The exception is security alarm systems, which need an electrical permit. Electrical work is different: new circuits, EV chargers and panel replacements are permitted through SDCI and inspected, and we pull those permits ourselves. Under Seattle's current code, new and replacement panels need whole-house surge protection at the panel, and we include it. If a panel upgrade changes the electrical service itself, that part is coordinated with Seattle City Light.