New construction pre-wiring in Toronto and the GTA
Roughing and wiring start at $120 per drop. We pull Cat6, security, and AV cable while the walls are still open — after electrical and HVAC, before insulation — then come back at trim-out to terminate, test, and hand over labelled documentation.
What does new construction pre-wiring cost in Toronto?
At the pre-construction stage, roughing and wiring start at $120 per drop. That is the base price for standard Cat6 cable on single-floor runs of up to 50 feet, home-run back to a central panel. From there the price moves with the complexity of the scope, how many floors the cable has to cross, and the total distance of the run.
Pricing per drop rather than per project is what lets a builder or homeowner cost the system line by line and decide what to keep. Thirty drops is a number you can budget against before framing starts; “a structured wiring package” is not.
Standard Cat6, single-floor run up to 50 ft, home-run to a central panel, labelled at both ends. This is the rate most drops on a straightforward main-floor layout land at.
Runs beyond 50 ft, and any drop that has to cross between floors, costs more than the base rate — more cable, more drilling, and a harder path through the structure.
Cat6A or shielded cable, speaker and control runs, camera positions at soffits, poured concrete or steel stud construction, and firestopping requirements all price above the standard Cat6 base.
We quote a fixed total off the marked-up floor plan before any work is scheduled, itemised by system so you can see what each line costs. Labour rates for our other residential and commercial services are on the pricing page.
What does a low-voltage pre-wire include?
A pre-wire is every cable that has to be in the wall before drywall goes up: data, coax, speaker, control, and security runs, all terminated back to one central panel. It goes in after electrical and HVAC rough-in, and before insulation and vapour barrier.
The reason it belongs in the build rather than after it is arithmetic. A Cat6 run costs a fraction of what the same run costs once it has to be fished through a finished wall, and some paths — a ceiling speaker over a two-storey foyer, a camera at a soffit corner, a rack feed through a poured basement — are effectively unavailable once the shell is closed.
Structured cabling & data drops
Cat6 or Cat6A home-run to a central panel, with drops at every TV location, desk, access point, camera, and rack position. Drop count and panel size are confirmed on the drawings before we pull anything.
Wireless access point positions
Ceiling-mount AP locations set from the floor plan rather than guessed at afterwards. Placement accounts for wall construction, floor plate, and where coverage actually has to reach — including garages, basements, and outdoor areas.
Security & camera rough-in
Camera runs to soffits, entries, and driveways, plus contact, keypad, and siren positions. Cable is left with proper service loops at each opening so the finish trade is not working against a short tail.
Audio, video & control paths
In-ceiling and in-wall speaker rough-in, TV locations with power and signal in the same cavity, projector and screen feeds, and control runs for keypads, touchscreens, and shade motors.
Rack room, panel, and the documentation that comes with it
We confirm the rack or panel location early — footprint, clearance, power, and ventilation — because it is one of the few low-voltage decisions that constrains other trades. At rough-in every cable is labelled at both ends. At handover you get a drop schedule keyed to the floor plan, panel photos, and device credentials, so the next trade or the eventual homeowner is not reverse-engineering the wall.
Send the floor plan and your framing date — we will come back with a drop count and a fixed price.
Send Your DrawingsWhen does pre-wiring go into the build schedule?
Three visits, and only one of them sits on the critical path. The walkthrough happens while the shell is open, the rough-in slots between electrical and insulation, and the trim-out lands after paint with the rest of the finish trades.
Site walk & scope lock
We walk the open shell, confirm every drop against the floor plan, and lock the rack or panel position. Anything that conflicts with duct, plumbing, or a structural member gets resolved on the spot. You leave with a marked drawing, a drop count, and a fixed price.
Rough-in between trades
We pull and label every run in the window you give us — after electrical and HVAC, before insulation and vapour barrier. Service loops are left at each opening, plates are marked, and we photograph the walls before they close so the as-built record exists.
Trim-out, commissioning & handover
After paint we return to terminate, mount, and configure — jacks, keypads, speakers, cameras, access points, rack build. Everything is tested against the drop schedule, then handed over with documentation and a walkthrough.
Does this work on a renovation or a finished house?
Yes, with a caveat worth knowing before you budget. On a gut renovation where walls are open, pre-wiring behaves almost exactly like a new build and prices close to the same per-drop rate. On a finished house, every run has to be fished, and cost per drop rises sharply while some paths become unavailable entirely.
Open walls: treat it as a new build
If the studs are exposed, take the opportunity. A renovation is the only moment the house will be open again, and adding a drop while the wall is apart costs a fraction of coming back for it later. We plan the same way we would on new construction — full drop schedule, central panel, labelled both ends.
This is also the right time to correct a legacy panel: replacing a builder-grade structured wiring enclosure with something that will actually hold a switch, a controller, and the heat they produce.
Finished house: fish what is worth fishing
In a closed house we fish what can be fished, use surface raceway or a wireless backhaul where a path does not exist, and tell you plainly which drops are no longer worth chasing. Attics, basements, and closet stacks usually give us vertical routes; a second-floor interior wall on a bungalow slab usually does not.
For a fuller walkthrough of what retrofit actually involves, see our guide on running Ethernet in a finished house and our comparison of low-voltage wiring on renovations versus new builds.
Which systems do we rough in and commission?
Everything below is pulled at rough-in and finished at trim-out by the same crew. You can take the full stack under one contract or pick the parts you do not already have a trade for.
Network, Wi-Fi and the rack that ties it together
Structured cabling and network installation is the backbone every other system sits on. UniFi installation covers switching, controller, and access points where a build calls for it, and Wi-Fi optimization tunes coverage once the walls are up and the real conditions are known.
On the AV side we rough in and commission home cinema installation, Sonos installation for distributed audio, and Control4 installation where the project wants lighting, shades, audio, and climate on one interface. Camera and alarm cabling is covered by security camera installation.
For a commercial shell — an office fit-out, a clinic, a multi-suite building — the same crew handles commercial network installation to the same documentation standard.
Who books a pre-wire?
Roughly half homeowners building or renovating their own house, and half the trades running the project: general contractors, custom home builders, architects, interior designers, electricians, and security dealers who want the cabling handled by someone else.
If you are a homeowner, deal with us directly and we will coordinate with your builder. If you are running the build, our trade partner program covers how we slot into an existing trade rotation, what documentation goes to your site office, and how scope and pricing are locked before we start.
Pre-wiring questions — answered.
New Construction Pre-Wiring Near You in the GTA
SetupTeam serves communities across the Greater Toronto Area.
Get a drop count and a fixed price.
Send the floor plan, the stage the build is at, and roughly what the house needs to do. We will come back with a marked-up drop schedule and a fixed price — usually within two business days.
From $120 per drop · WSIB compliant · $2M liability · New builds, renovations and retrofit · One crew, rough-in to handover
