Home automation, without the marketing.

What “home automation” actually covers

The phrase gets used loosely. A smart bulb is not home automation. Eight categories of work, integrated, are.

• Infrastructure — structured cabling, enterprise Wi-Fi, network segmentation. The foundation everything else stands on.
• Lighting control — keypads, dimmers, scenes, tunable-white circadian lighting. The visible system most owners notice first.
• Motorized shading — fabric and roller shades on schedules, sun-tracking, integration with lighting.
• Distributed audio — in-ceiling, in-wall, and invisible (plaster-over) speakers across rooms with multi-zone control.
• Video distribution — TVs as endpoints, sources centralized in a closet, accessible from every room.
• Home theater / media room — dedicated rooms with acoustic treatment, projection or LED video walls, immersive audio.
• Security & access — cameras, door access, monitored alarm — one platform, one app, one bill.
• Climate & energy — thermostats, motorized vents, sub-metering, battery backup integration.

Most owners start with two or three categories and add the rest over time. The architecture of a real system — wired backbone, professional commissioning, programming you own — is what lets you do that without re-buying the foundation.

The four tiers — what each one actually buys you

The Home Technology Association uses five tiers in its budget tool. We collapse to four because the bottom two merge for most of our clients — we don’t sell the rock-bottom entry-level work. These are the four tiers we design to.

The brand ladder, by category

Every category has a ladder, and the tier you pick carries the ladder with it — Concierge means Lutron HomeWorks, not Caseta. Here’s the full map so you know what you’re looking at.

The hidden costs nobody warns you about

Five lines many quotes leave out. We would rather you plan for these from day one than discover them in year three.

All at once, or phase it?

For larger projects, staging often beats a one-shot install. The argument:

• Phase 1 — infrastructure. Network, structured wiring, lighting backbone, basic security. The foundation. 6-10 weeks for a typical home.
• Phase 2 — finish out. Audio rooms, theater, motorized shades, advanced scenes. After the family has lived in the home for 60-90 days. 4-8 weeks.

The reason Phase 2 lands closer to the actual lifestyle: you don’t know which rooms you use until you use them. Plans that put a theater downstairs and a media room upstairs sometimes end up with one of them never opened — the family clusters in the kitchen with a big TV. Phasing lets you redirect the Phase 2 budget to where the family actually spends time.

The one-shot install argument: lower programming overhead, less rework, single warranty window. Right answer when the design is unambiguous (new build with very deliberate owner plans) or when timeline matters more than optimization (closing a deal, hosting a wedding, moving by a date).

When DIY makes sense, when it doesn’t

Plenty of home automation works fine DIY. Pretending otherwise is dishonest.

Yes to DIY: smart locks, video doorbells, consumer-tier Wi-Fi mesh (Eero, Google Nest Wi-Fi), Philips Hue or LIFX lighting up to ~15 bulbs, Sonos audio, smart plugs, basic thermostats, individual room cameras. These work standalone, install in an afternoon, and don’t need to talk to each other much.

No to DIY: lighting control beyond ~15 dimmers, motorized shades, multi-room hardwired audio, monitored security, dedicated theater rooms, structured cabling for new construction. The ceiling on DIY is hit when systems need to coordinate reliably — which is the whole point of professional control systems like Control4 and Crestron.

Owners who scale DIY past the ceiling usually call us 12-18 months in. The migration costs more than starting professional, because we’re replacing infrastructure the DIY system was built around. Better path: start professional at the categories that don’t scale DIY (lighting, network, audio backbone) and DIY the rest if you want.

How to budget your project

The planner on this site asks four questions: what you’re building, where the house is in its life, how far you want to take it, and when. It doesn’t return a number; it books the walk where the number comes from. Two minutes, no email required.

For a real quote we walk the home, look at the wiring situation, and ask the lifestyle questions that determine whether you’re a Premium or Concierge fit (it’s rarely obvious from a form). That visit is free. We’d rather scope the work properly than under-quote and renegotiate.

Frequently asked

How much does a smart home actually cost?

Wider than any guide can say honestly. The tier, the number of systems, the size of the house and whether it is under construction move the number more than any brand choice. A professionally installed, integrated system and a hub-and-bulb setup from a hardware store are not the same product — the second breaks, ages, and doesn't coordinate across systems. A no-cost site walk is where the real figure comes from.

Should I pick Control4 or Crestron?

Control4 fits most luxury homes. Turnkey, broad device support, mature app, a large third-party ecosystem — the right answer for a home that wants one platform doing everything. Crestron fits the bespoke estate where the owner wants custom touch-panel interfaces designed for their specific house and bespoke automation logic ("if the driveway camera sees the white SUV between 3-5 pm, open the garage and disarm the alarm and start the kids' playlist"). Crestron requires in-house programming on every project — IntegrateIT does that work directly, not subcontracted. Both platforms can do almost anything; the difference is who designs the experience and how customizable it is.

What's the difference between Lutron Caseta and Lutron HomeWorks QSX?

Caseta is the consumer line — works over Wi-Fi, supports 75 devices max, easy DIY install. Good for retrofitting an apartment or starter home. HomeWorks QSX is the professional line — supports 1,000+ devices, hardwired and wireless together, fade-rates measured in dimmer cycles per second, integrates with motorized shades and architectural keypads (Palladiom). At our typical install size (3,500-8,000 sqft), Caseta runs out of headroom; HomeWorks is the right answer. Lutron RA3 sits between the two for mid-sized homes.

How long does a full home install take?

For a new build: 4-12 weeks of pre-wiring during the framing phase, then 6-16 weeks of finish-out work after drywall and paint. For a retrofit on a finished home: 3-8 weeks total, scheduled in 2-3 visits so we're not living in your house. Estate-tier projects run 4-9 months from kickoff to commissioning. Most owners don't realize the longest pole isn't install time — it's decision time. Hand off a 200-decision matrix on the first call and the project stalls; we sequence decisions so the install never waits on a choice.

What recurring costs should I plan for after the install?

Service plans, network refreshes, re-programming as the family changes, subscriptions, and battery and UPS replacement. The hidden-costs section above walks all five, so you can plan for them from day one rather than meet them in year three.

Can I DIY some of this and have you do the rest?

Yes for the standalone categories, no for anything that has to coordinate with the rest of the house. The DIY section above lists both sides and explains where the ceiling sits.

Do I need to pre-wire if I'm building or remodeling?

Yes, if you can. Wire is inexpensive during framing and expensive after drywall, because every run becomes a fishing job through finished walls. Even if you don't plan to install every system today, pre-wire opens up phase-two options without cutting the ceiling. The rule of thumb: pre-wire every room for ceiling speakers and every TV location for HDMI and ethernet, even if you're not buying those systems yet.

How do I know I'm getting a good integrator vs a bad one?

Three credentials worth verifying: HTA Certified (Home Technology Association — actually audits installs, requires continuing education), CEDIA Member (the trade body, less rigorous but real), and manufacturer tier (Control4 Platinum is the top dealer tier, and a Certified Showroom means the brand has audited a live demo space; Crestron Authorized requires in-house programming staff; Lutron Certified Installer is a real exam, not pay-to-list). Also: ask if they do the programming themselves or subcontract it, ask for two reference customers from the same scale project as yours, ask what their service-response SLA is. Bad integrators sell you and disappear; good ones answer when you call three years later.