A whole-home technology plan for the remodel, prepared for the homeowners: lighting, audio, cameras, Wi-Fi and in-wall wiring across three floors and the basement.
A preliminary budget for the scope in this recommendation, priced as a range.
Preliminary range · pre-tax$68,000 to $82,000
The width is mostly lighting and wire. RadioRA 3 is wireless, so the lighting work tracks the load count the electrician and the design end up with — add loads, and the device count moves with them — and the structured wiring quantities are not final until every camera, access point and speaker is drawn on the floor plans.
Device count follows the electrician's final load list.
$28,000 – $34,500
Cameras & access
Camera positions confirmed on the elevations.
$10,500 – $12,500
Control
$10,500 – $12,500
Network & WiFi
Access point locations set on the plans.
$10,000 – $12,000
Audio & speakers
Zones and sources confirmed at design.
$6,000 – $7,000
Structured wiringFurther discovery
Quantities firm up once every device is located on plan.
$3,000 – $3,500
Preliminary total, pre-tax
$68,000 – $82,000
Pre-tax. All figures exclude applicable sales tax and freight. Sales tax of roughly $4,943 applies to equipment only, not to labor.
Further discovery. Systems marked above carry wider ranges. We confirm counts and locations during the assessment, then tighten these numbers.
Not included.The band does not carry decorative light fixtures or any high-voltage electrical work, internet service, plaster and paint repair, or the gate and landscape trenching itself. See scope below.
The approach
One lighting system, one audio platform, one app
The house is open, and that is the reason to do this now. While the walls and ceilings are accessible we pull wire to the places that matter — camera positions, access point locations, speaker runs, and a buried run out to the front gate alongside the landscape work. Wire pulled now costs a fraction of wire chased later.
The lighting stays Lutron and moves to the current RadioRA 3 platform, which is wireless. That means the work is largely replacing dimmers and switches at the loads and putting newer four-button keypads on the wall where you actually reach for them. Whole-house audio goes onto Savant, so six-plus zones live behind one app and one handheld remote instead of a pile of apps. Cameras and Wi-Fi are Ubiquiti, recorded locally in the basement, with the access points set into flush plaster-in mounts so they disappear into the architecture.
What you get is a house where the lights, the music, the cameras and the front gate all answer to a small number of surfaces, and a rack in the basement that is organized, labeled and quiet.
What we heard
The RadioRA lighting should feel current — the newer four-button keypads throughout
Audio that is easy to use across six-plus zones, on one platform rather than a pile of apps
The Ring at the front gate is a sore point — you want a proper hardwired video doorbell there, and better cameras than the ones you have
The equipment rack should be clean and simple
One remote in the theater instead of the one-room remote you have now
The best Wi-Fi coverage possible, everywhere in the house
How you'll live with it
Two ways to run the house
Day to day, the wall does most of the work: Lutron four-button keypads at the doors and stair landings, engraved so the buttons say what they do. Everything else — audio zones, the theater, cameras at the gate — runs from the Savant app on your phones and the Savant handheld remote in the theater, which replaces the one-room remote you have now.
Lutron four-button keypadsSavant app on your phonesSavant handheld remote
What we're proposing
The systems, room to room.
Each system below is sized to the equipment list as it stands today.
74Lighting control & keypads
10Cameras & access
5Control
9Network & WiFi
7Audio & speakers
80Structured wiring
Counts per the current equipment list, confirmed at contract.
Lighting control & keypads
$28K – $35K
Every light, and every keypad, on one current Lutron system.
The lighting moves from RadioRA 2 to RadioRA 3, with processors serving each level of the house and roughly sixty wireless dimmers and switches at the loads. Ten of Lutron's current four-button keypads replace the older ones at the doors, stairs and main rooms, each engraved with the scene it calls. Because RadioRA 3 is wireless, the work is mostly swapping devices and re-addressing the system rather than re-wiring it. We program the scenes with you after the house is powered and painted, and we place the keypads with you before anything is engraved.
Lutron RadioRA 3 processors · Wireless dimmers and switches · Four-button keypads · Scene programming
Cameras & access
$11K – $13K
See the gate, and the house, without a subscription.
Six weather-rated turret cameras cover the exterior of the house, with a hardwired video doorbell at the front gate fed by a direct-burial run out through the landscape work. Recording is local, to a dedicated drive in the basement rack, and chimes on each floor mean you hear the gate wherever you are. Everything lives in one Ubiquiti app alongside the network.
Weather-rated turret cameras · Hardwired gate doorbell and chimes · Local recording drive
Control
$11K – $13K
One app, one remote, one house.
A Savant host and audio processor in the basement runs the music, the theater and the scenes, and a bridge ties it to the Lutron lighting so both answer to the same app. The Savant app on your phones is the everyday surface for the whole house; the handheld remote covers the theater in one hand.
Savant host and app · Handheld theater remote · Bridge to Lutron
Network & WiFi
$10K – $12K
Wi-Fi that holds up in every room.
Six Wi-Fi 7 access points are distributed across the basement, first, second and third floors — placed where coverage is best rather than where wire happens to be, because the walls are open now. Each one sits in a flush plaster-in mount, level with the finished surface instead of hanging off it. A separate audio-network switch keeps the Savant audio traffic off the general house network so music never competes with everything else.
The Savant app runs every audio zone in the house. Whole-house amplification in the basement drives the six-plus zones, each one named and grouped the way you actually use the rooms, with the same app you use for lighting. We expect to reuse your existing speakers, so this budget carries the electronics and the wiring back to the rack rather than new speakers in the walls.
Savant amplification · Whole-house zones · Existing speakers reused
Structured wiring
$3.0K – $3.5K
The part you only get one chance at.
Cat6 and shielded Cat6A to every camera and access point, coax where it is still useful, speaker cable back to the rack, and a direct-burial run to the front gate. Plus the jacks, plates and straps that terminate all of it neatly. This is the line that gets firm once device locations are drawn on the floor plans.
Cat6 and shielded Cat6A · Coax and speaker cable · Jacks, plates and terminations
Where it lives
The home, room by room.
One connected system, laid out the way the house is laid out.
Lighting control & keypadsCameras & accessNetwork & WiFiStructured wiring
2nd Floor9 lines
Network & WiFiLighting control & keypadsStructured wiring
3rd Floor18 lines
Network & WiFiStructured wiringLighting control & keypadsCameras & access
Decisions to weigh
Still open.
Upgrade
Invisible or small-aperture speakers in place of the existing ones
This plan reuses the speakers already in the house. Replacing them with invisible speakers plastered into the wall or ceiling, or small-aperture speakers that all but disappear, is the upgrade that makes the audio match the finish level of the remodel.
Priced per room once the rooms are chosen; the wire is pulled either way.
Upgrade
Televisions brought up to current specifications throughout the house
The displays in the house predate the remodel. Replacing them room by room with current panels, sized to each wall and mounted flush, is straightforward while the walls are open and the rack is being rebuilt.
Priced separately once sizes and rooms are chosen.
Upgrade
Motorized window treatments where they earn their place
With the walls open, we can pull power and control wire to the windows that would benefit from motorized shades or drapery, and bring them into the same keypads and app as the lighting.
Wire now is inexpensive; the shades and motors are priced once the windows are chosen.
Scope
What we provide, and what comes from others.
Provided by r:home
Lutron RadioRA 3 processors, wireless dimmers and switches, and four-button keypads, supplied and installed
Lighting scene programming and a walkthrough to tune it with you
Savant host, audio processor, handheld remote and the bridge to Lutron
Whole-house audio zone setup on Savant, using your existing speakers
Ubiquiti cameras, hardwired gate doorbell, chimes and a local recording drive, configured in one app
Six Wi-Fi 7 access points and the audio-network switch, installed and tuned
Flush plaster-in mounts for the access points
All low-voltage wire, jacks, plates and terminations, including the direct-burial run to the front gate
Rack build-out in the basement: mounting, dressing, labeling and cable management
Commissioning, testing and system documentation
Handoff and orientation for the household
First-year r:home membership
Provided by others, or confirmed on inspection
Decorative light fixtures and all high-voltage electrical work, including the final lighting load list
Electrician's line-voltage rough-in, junction boxes and neutral wiring at each device location
Structural blocking, conduit, sleeves and any core drilling required by the wire routes
Trenching and conduit for the gate run, by the landscape contractor, on a schedule we coordinate to
Gate construction detail and any masonry work needed to set the doorbell
Plaster, drywall, paint and finish work around flush mounts and recessed boxes
Removal and disposal of the existing Ring doorbell, old cameras and retired RadioRA 2 devices, unless we agree otherwise in writing
Existing speaker condition, confirmed at demolition
Internet service account, modem and any provider work
Rack location with adequate power, ventilation and a dedicated circuit
Permits and inspections carried by the general contractor
Next
The next step.
Timeline.The order matters more than the calendar here. Low-voltage wire, back boxes and the flush access point mounts have to be in before drywall and plaster, and the gate run has to go in while the landscape trench is still open — those are the two windows that do not reopen. The Savant host and amplification, the flush plaster-in mounts and the engraved Lutron keypads are the long-lead items, and engraving in particular cannot start until the keypad locations and button names are settled. Fixing scope early is what keeps those orders ahead of the finish trades rather than behind them.
Design retainer
5% of the budget's low end
$3,400, credited to your project
A design retainer takes this preliminary budget into a signed contract and detailed design.
What it produces
A fixed proposal
The design retainer buys a complete low-voltage design drawn over the architect's floor plans: every camera, access point, keypad, speaker and rack position located and dimensioned, with a wire schedule the electrician and framer can build to. It settles the one number this document leaves open, the final lighting load count, and converts this band into a fixed, signable proposal.
