If you have ever been through a major home remodel, you know the drill.
Your dining room table is covered in blueprints. You spend your weekends arguing with your spouse over the exact shade of “greige” for the guest bathroom. You obsess over cabinet hardware, marble countertop veins, and whether you want matte black or brushed brass faucets.
It is exhausting, expensive, and exciting all at once.
But amidst all the chaos of picking out French oak flooring and custom windows, there is one critical element that homeowners consistently forget until it is entirely too late: The Technology.
We see it happen in Orange County every single week. A homeowner finishes a beautiful, million-dollar remodel. The drywall is painted, the floors are sealed, and the furniture is moved in. Then they call us to install a smart home system.
And we have to break the bad news: “To give you what you want, we have to cut holes in your brand-new walls.”
If you are planning a remodel, your very first step—before the hammers start swinging—should be planning your technology infrastructure. And if you are aiming for true luxury, that means planning for Crestron Home.
Here is an honest, behind-the-scenes look at why getting an AV integrator involved on Day 1 is the smartest investment you can make for your renovation.
The “Afterthought Tax” (Why Waiting Costs You More)
Let’s be blunt. Installing technology after the walls are closed up is called a “retrofit.” And retrofits are expensive.
When your house is stripped down to the wooden studs, running a high-speed data cable from the living room to the utility closet takes a technician about ten minutes. They walk across the room, drill a hole in the wood, and staple the wire down.
When the drywall is up? That same wire might take four hours to run. We have to use fiberglass rods to fish the wire through the ceiling, avoid plumbing pipes we can’t see, bypass fire-blocks, and inevitably cut patch-holes in your pristine ceiling. Then, you have to hire a drywaller to patch the holes and a painter to match the paint.
We call this the “Afterthought Tax.”
If you design a Crestron Home system while the architect is still drawing the plans, you are paying pennies on the dollar for the wiring labor.
What is Crestron Home?
Before we get into the heavy construction details, let’s clarify what we are actually building.
Crestron Home is not a gadget. It is a complete, enterprise-grade operating system for your house. It acts as the central brain that connects your lighting, climate control, security, audio, video, and motorized shades into one seamless interface.
Instead of having six different apps on your phone that refuse to talk to each other, you have one elegant touchscreen (or keypad) on the wall. You press “Entertain,” and the lights dim, the jazz playlist starts, the fireplace turns on, and the shades lower.
Because it is a professional system, it requires professional infrastructure. And that infrastructure requires planning.
Reason 1: Eliminating “Wall Acne”
This is the number one reason interior designers love us.
If you build a standard home, the electrician is going to wire the lights the standard way. This means that in a large, open-concept kitchen and living area, you might end up with a bank of six or seven plastic light switches lined up on the wall next to the pantry.
We call this “Wall Acne.” It’s an eyesore that ruins your custom backsplash or expensive wallpaper.
If you plan for Crestron before the remodel starts, we can use a technique called Panelized Lighting.
- We tell the electrician to run all the high-voltage wires to a hidden metal panel in the garage or a closet.
- In the kitchen, we install just one beautiful, engraved Crestron keypad.
- The walls stay clean, elegant, and uncluttered.
But here is the catch: You cannot do this easily after the drywall is up. Panelized lighting requires a completely different wiring layout than standard lighting. If you don’t plan it early, you are stuck with the plastic switches forever.
Reason 2: The Architecture of Window Shades
Motorized shades are one of the most popular features in luxury homes today. They protect your expensive furniture from UV damage, keep the house cool, and offer instant privacy.
If you wait until the remodel is done to buy motorized shades, you have to mount the fabric rollers on the outside of the window frame. They look bulky, and you can see the motors.
If you plan ahead, we work with your architect and builder to create Shade Pockets.
A shade pocket is a hidden recess built into the ceiling above the window. When the shades are rolled up, they completely disappear into the ceiling. You don’t see any hardware, any wires, or any fabric. It is a flawless, architectural look.
But building a pocket requires framing adjustments. You have to tell the builder about it before they pour concrete or frame the headers.
Expert Tip: Even if you aren’t ready to buy the actual shade fabric right now, you should absolutely pay to run the low-voltage power wire to the window frames while the walls are open. We call this “pre-wiring for the future.”
Reason 3: Invisible Audio and Video
You are spending a fortune making your home look beautiful. You probably don’t want giant black plastic speakers sitting on the floor, or a massive black TV dominating the living room wall.
During the planning phase, an AV integrator can design “invisible” solutions.
- Invisible Speakers: Yes, they really exist. We install flat speaker panels directly into the drywall. The drywallers mud over them, and the painters paint over them. The wall looks completely blank, but it sounds like a concert hall. (This must be done during the drywall phase!).
- Hidden TVs: We can design custom woodwork or motorized lifts that hide your TV behind a piece of moving artwork or inside a credenza when it isn’t being used.
Reason 4: Finding the “Brain Room”
A robust Crestron Home system has a lot of hardware. Amplifiers, network switches, lighting processors, and video matrixes all have to live somewhere.
We typically put all this gear into an equipment rack.
If you don’t plan for this early, you will end up stuffing this rack into the bottom of a hallway linen closet. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Electronics generate a massive amount of heat. If they are locked in a tiny, unventilated closet, they will literally cook themselves to death, significantly shortening their lifespan.
When you involve us in the blueprint phase, we look at the floor plan and say, “Let’s dedicate this corner of the mechanical room for the AV rack.” We then work with your HVAC contractor to ensure there is an air conditioning vent and an exhaust fan dedicated to that specific space to keep the equipment cool and reliable.
The Remodel Timeline (When to Bring Us In)
Here is exactly how a smooth project flows when you bring a technology integrator in at the right time.
Construction Phase | What the Builder is Doing | What the AV Integrator is Doing |
1. Architectural / Blueprint | Drawing the floor plans. | Designing the wire paths, specifying shade pockets, calculating rack heat. |
2. Framing / Rough-In | Building the wooden skeleton. | Pulling miles of low-voltage cable (Cat6, speaker wire, fiber optic). |
3. Drywall / Insulation | Closing up the walls. | Documenting wire locations, installing invisible speaker panels. |
4. Trim & Paint | Installing cabinets and baseboards. | Cutting in keypad locations, installing in-ceiling speaker grilles. |
5. Move-In | Final cleaning. | Installing the TVs, building the equipment rack, and programming the Crestron system. |
The Importance of Hardwired Networking
In today’s world, the internet is just as important as running water.
Many homeowners think, “I’ll just buy a powerful Wi-Fi router when I move in.” This is a massive mistake, especially in modern custom homes.
Why? Because luxury homes are often built with materials that kill Wi-Fi signals. Steel beams, foil-backed insulation, concrete floors, and even certain types of dense mirrors will stop a Wi-Fi signal dead in its tracks.
During a remodel, we engineer an Enterprise-Grade Network. We hardwire every static device (TVs, Apple TVs, desktop computers, security cameras) directly to the main switch using Cat6 or Fiber Optic cable. Then, we strategically place hardwired Wireless Access Points (WAPs) in the ceiling throughout the house.
This ensures that your laptops and smartphones get lightning-fast Wi-Fi, while the heavy lifting (like streaming 4K video to the living room) is handled by the physical wires.
The Orange County Perspective
Remodeling in Orange County comes with its own unique set of rules.
If you are renovating a home in Newport Beach or Laguna, you are likely maximizing your outdoor living space. You want the music to seamlessly flow from the kitchen to the patio, and down to the pool. Running underground conduit for landscape audio and outdoor Wi-Fi is incredibly destructive if you do it after the new landscaping and hardscaping are poured.
Furthermore, California has strict energy codes (Title 24). A properly designed Crestron lighting and shading system actually helps your architect meet these stringent energy requirements by automatically reducing lighting loads and utilizing natural daylight.
Final Thoughts: Build for the Future
A home remodel is a massive emotional and financial investment. You are pouring your heart into creating a space that is perfect for your family.
Don’t let technology be an afterthought.
A home that is brilliantly designed but constantly suffers from buffering Wi-Fi, harsh lighting, and frustrating TV remotes will never feel like the luxury retreat you envisioned. By putting a Crestron Home plan in place from Day 1, you ensure that the invisible infrastructure of your home is just as strong, reliable, and beautiful as the architecture itself.
If you are about to embark on a remodel in Orange County, let’s have a conversation before the drywall goes up.
Experience Audio Video, Inc. is here to act as your technology advocate, designer, and installer. We will work hand-in-hand with your construction team to build something truly extraordinary.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is it too early to call an AV company if I don’t even have an architect yet?
It is never too early to start a conversation, but the ideal time to bring us in is when the architect has completed the initial floor plans, but before they have finalized the electrical plans. This allows us to collaborate with the electrician.
- I’m only doing a “down-to-the-studs” remodel in half the house. Can I still get Crestron?
Absolutely. We can hardwire the newly remodeled sections of the house, and use Crestron’s ultra-reliable wireless technologies to tie in the older sections of the house without destroying your existing drywall.
- Does pre-wiring cost a lot of money?
Relative to the overall cost of a remodel, pre-wiring is incredibly cheap. The wire itself is inexpensive, and because the walls are open, the labor is fast. Spending $3,000 on wire during the framing phase can easily save you $15,000 in labor and drywall patching a year later.
- Will the technology be outdated by the time the remodel is finished?
This is a great question. Remodels can take 12 to 24 months. We mitigate this by pulling “Future-Proof” wiring (like Cat6A and Fiber) and installing empty conduit pipes to key areas. We don’t actually purchase the TVs or the processors until the very end of the project, ensuring you get the absolute newest models when you move in.
- How do you coordinate with my interior designer?
We love interior designers! Our goal is to make their work look better. We provide them with samples of our Crestron keypad finishes (brushed aluminum, matte black, bronze) so they can match them to the door hardware and plumbing fixtures. We act as a team.
