There is exactly one cheap moment to wire a new house for ethernet, and it is short. Once the framing is up and before the insulation and drywall close the walls, a low-voltage installer can pull Cat6 to every room in a day or two for a fraction of what the same work costs later. Miss that window and the price of structured wiring in new construction jumps — because now it means fishing cable through finished walls, cutting holes, and patching paint. If you are building or remodeling in southern Maine, the question of whether to wire your new house for ethernet really comes down to one thing: planning for it before drywall.
Here is the plain-English guide to what to run, where, and who should do it — written for both homeowners and the builders coordinating the trades.
Why before-drywall is the moment that matters
When the studs are exposed, running a cable from a central panel to a bedroom is a straight, open path. There is nothing to fish around, no finished surface to protect, and no drywall crew waiting on you. That is why an ethernet rough-in before drywall is so much cheaper than the alternative.
After the walls close, every new drop becomes a small renovation. An installer has to locate a path through insulation and fireblocks, cut access holes, fish the cable blind, and then someone has to patch and repaint. In older coastal Maine homes with plaster and lath or stone, a retrofit can be genuinely difficult. None of that is impossible — we do retrofit work all the time — but it typically costs several times what the same drop would have cost during the build. The lesson is simple: run more cable than you think you need while it is cheap to do so. An unused drop behind a faceplate costs almost nothing; a missing one costs a wall.
What to run when you wire a new house for ethernet
Good structured wiring in new construction is mostly Cat6 home-runs: each drop is its own continuous cable running back to a central panel, rather than daisy-chained room to room. That gives every jack a clean, full-speed connection and makes troubleshooting straightforward. Here is a sensible plan.
Drops, room by room
- Bedrooms and living spaces:at least two drops per room, ideally on different walls so furniture placement doesn't box you in.
- Media wall and home office: four or more drops. A TV area collects a streaming box, a game console, a soundbar, and a smart TV in a hurry, and an office wants a wired desk plus a printer.
- Ceiling drops for WiFi access points: one in a central hallway per floor, more in a large or spread-out home. These are the most valuable cables in the house — more on why below.
- Cameras and a video doorbell:a drop at each planned camera location and at the front entry. Wired cameras are steadier than battery ones and don't lean on your WiFi.
- Other useful spots: a detached garage or outbuilding, a deck or screened porch you actually use, and a hardwired connection near the main TV for the lowest-latency streaming.
A place for it all to land
Every home-run cable needs somewhere to terminate, so plan a structured wiring panel — the headend — early. This is a central location, often in a utility room, basement, or a dedicated closet, where the incoming internet line meets a network switch, your router, and the patch panel all those Cat6 runs connect to. Pick a spot with power, a little airflow, and a reasonably short path to where the internet service enters the house. On the build, that DMARC path — where the ISP's line lands — is worth confirming early, because a long or awkward route to the panel adds labor.
WiFi vs. ethernet: you want both
A common misread is treating this as wired versus wireless, as if choosing ethernet means giving up on WiFi. The opposite is true. A wired backbone is what makes great WiFi possible. The single biggest upgrade over a stock router pushing signal through walls is mounting dedicated access points around the house and feeding each one with its own ethernet cable. That is exactly what those ceiling drops are for.
Wired access points hand off cleanly as you move through the house, share the load instead of fighting over one radio, and don't sacrifice bandwidth relaying signal the way a wireless mesh node does. Whether you end up with a simple eero system or a more capable Ubiquiti UniFi setup, both perform best with a wired backbone behind them. If you're weighing those two, our guide on eero vs. Ubiquiti for a Maine home breaks down which fits which kind of house. And if you've ever fought WiFi dead zones in an existing home, you already know the value of getting this right while the walls are open.
The three-phase model: how the work actually flows
Structured wiring isn't a single visit. It tracks the build in three phases, each tied to where the house is in construction.
- Rough-in (before drywall). After framing and before insulation and drywall, we pull all the Cat6 home-runs, set the boxes, and stage the panel location. This is the phase that has to happen at the right time — once the walls close, the window is gone.
- Trim-out (after drywall). Once the walls are finished and painted, we install the jacks, faceplates, and ceiling mounts so everything is flush and clean.
- Finish (before move-in). We dress in the panel, terminate and label the patch panel, mount the switch and access points, configure the network, and verify speeds at the drops before handing it over.
For homeowners, the takeaway is to get a low-voltage installer on the schedule early so rough-in lands in that pre-drywall window. For builders, it's one more trade to sequence alongside the electrical rough-in — which is why a single coordinated low-voltage sub who handles all three phases keeps the schedule clean.
Who does the work — and what it costs
Network cabling is usually a job for a dedicated low-voltage installer rather than the electrician, even though the two coordinate closely. Low-voltage cabling has its own rules — bend radius, separation from power lines, proper termination — and a specialist handles those every day. We work as the single low-voltage sub for both homeowners building their own place and general contractors who'd rather hand the network off to one accountable trade.
On price, a Cat6 structured-wiring rough-in in this area typically runs roughly $1,800–$4,200 or more, quoted by total cable footage after a site walk. The biggest driver is footage — how big the house is and how far each run travels. Complex framing, steel-stud construction, or a hard DMARC path can push a job to time and materials, with labor billed at $120/hr. We don't hand out a flat per-drop number sight unseen, because the honest figure depends on your floor plan; we quote it firmly after walking the site. For a full breakdown of what moves the number, see our companion piece on what it costs to wire a new house for internet in Maine.
The bottom line
Wiring a new house for ethernet is one of the rare home decisions where doing it right is also the cheaper option — as long as you act inside the before-drywall window. Run home-run Cat6 to every room, add ceiling drops for access points, plan a central panel, and you set the house up for fast, reliable connectivity for as long as you own it. The hardware will change over the years; the cable in the walls is the part you want to get right once. If you're building in coastal southern Maine or the NH Lakes Region, the smartest move is a quick conversation before the drywall crew shows up.
Frequently asked questions
Should I wire my new house for ethernet?
In almost every case, yes. While the walls are open, running Cat6 to each room is inexpensive compared to the cost of opening finished walls later. Even in a wireless-first home, a wired backbone feeding your access points is what makes WiFi fast and steady. The rough-in window before drywall is the one moment this is cheap, so it's worth planning for even if you don't think you'll use every drop on day one.
How many ethernet drops should each room have?
A practical baseline is two drops per bedroom and living space, four or more at a media wall or home office, plus ceiling drops where WiFi access points will mount and drops for cameras and a video doorbell. Running extra now is far cheaper than adding one later, so when in doubt, add the drop. Your final plan depends on your layout and how each room will actually be used.
Do I still need WiFi if the house is wired for ethernet?
Yes — you want both. Ethernet handles the devices that benefit from a wired connection and, more importantly, carries data to ceiling-mounted access points placed around the house. Those wired access points are what deliver strong, consistent WiFi across the whole house, far better than a single router pushing signal through walls.
Who installs structured wiring — the electrician?
Usually a dedicated low-voltage installer rather than the electrician, though they coordinate closely. Network cabling has its own rules for bend radius, separation from electrical lines, and termination that a low-voltage specialist handles every day. We work as the low-voltage sub for both homeowners and general contractors, scheduled around the electrical rough-in.
When in the build does the wiring get installed?
Structured wiring follows a three-phase model. Rough-in happens after framing and before insulation and drywall, while the walls are open. Trim-out comes after drywall, when jacks and faceplates are installed. Finish happens before move-in, when the panel is dressed in, equipment is mounted, and everything is tested.