★Cost guide

How much is low-voltage pre-wire on a new house in Kansas City? (2026)

The cost of low-voltage pre-wire on a new Kansas City house is decided by three things: drop count, how much of the lighting, audio and security scope rides in the wire, and how far the runs have to travel. Square footage puts a house in a tier; those three decide where inside it the house lands. IntegrateIT is a Platinum-tier Control4 dealer and low-voltage trade partner at 15108 Glenwood Ave in Overland Park, KS, working across Kansas City, Missouri and the Johnson County suburbs. We price the pre-wire fixed against a scope-of-work document measured from the architectural plans, not estimated per square foot. Call (913) 804-7575.

Below: what each tier includes, what actually moves the number inside a tier, why the framing window is the whole ballgame, what a pre-wire deliberately excludes, and the eight questions builders and homeowners ask us most.

Pre-wire scope by home size (Kansas City, 2026)

Foundational — 4,000-6,000 sq ft

Cat6A to every television, desk, camera and access-point location; alarm rough-in; the structured-wiring panel; and HDMI conduit to the theater and media-room locations. This is the package that makes the house genuinely wired rather than nominally wired, and it is the floor we would build to on any Johnson County custom home.

Whole-house — 6,000-10,000 sq ft

Everything above, plus a fiber backbone, the low-voltage feed for Lutron HomeWorks lighting, surveillance pre-wire for 8-16 camera locations, and audio pre-wire for 8-12 interior zones plus outdoor. This is the tier a 7,000 square foot Overland Park or Leawood house lands in, and the one where the pre-wire starts carrying lighting and audio rather than only data.

Estate — 10,000+ sq ft / multi-building

Whole-house scope extended across more than one structure — main house plus pool house, guest house, barn or detached office — which means buried conduit between buildings, fiber where copper cannot reach, and a second distribution point in each outbuilding rather than one very long run.

What moves a house inside its tier

Two 7,000 square foot houses on the same street can be very different pre-wires. Square footage sets the tier; five other things decide where in it you land. Every number we give is fixed and in writing, and it comes after a no-cost site walk.

Drop count, which is really room count and habit count. A house with six televisions, two offices, a theater and a golf simulator has roughly twice the terminations of a house of the same area with three televisions and no dedicated rooms. Terminations are labor, and labor is the number.
How much of the lighting, audio and security scope is in the pre-wire. A data-only pre-wire and a pre-wire that also carries the Lutron HomeWorks low-voltage feed, 8-12 audio zones and 8-16 camera positions are different projects wearing the same name. This is the single largest swing inside the whole-house tier.
Distance and structure. Long runs, tall volumes, poured-concrete lower levels, steel, and anything that has to leave the building envelope all cost more per drop. A walk-out lower level with a detached garage is not the same pull as a compact two-storey footprint.
Conduit and future-proofing. Sleeves, chases and conduit to places nobody has decided about yet are cheap now and priceless later — but they are real line items, and they are the honest reason two otherwise identical bids differ.
How organized the build is. A pre-wire that lands once, after MEP rough-in with blocking and chases already in place, costs less than one that has to mobilize twice around unresolved conflicts. That is a schedule question, and it is worth as much as any equipment decision.

Why the framing window decides the price

The expensive part of a wire is the wall around it. Structured wiring is inexpensive at framing stage; the identical work retrofitted after drywall multiplies in labor, because every run turns into fishing, patching, texture, paint, and a negotiation about how much ceiling has to come down. On a large custom home that gap widens rather than narrows — the runs are longer, the ceilings are higher, and the finishes are far less forgiving.

The rough-in window is after framing inspection and after mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-in, and before insulation and drywall. On-site work usually runs 5-12 days depending on the size of the house. Miss that window and you are not paying a small premium — you are paying for a different trade to undo finished work first. The full builder-side process, including the ready-for-low-voltage checklist we hand the superintendent, is on the new-construction low-voltage service page.

What the pre-wire does not include

This is where budgets go wrong, so it is worth being blunt. A pre-wire is cable, pathway, boxes, blocking, the structured-wiring panel and terminations. It is not equipment. No televisions, no speakers, no access points, no cameras, no processors, no programming, no calibration.

For scale on the equipment side: a finished home network — gateway, access points, managed PoE switching, the rack and its UPS — is its own scope, sized by square footage, how much of the house is wired and how many devices it has to carry. That is broken down in what drives the cost of a home network, and the closet those parts land in is covered on the rack build page. Lighting, audio, theater, shades and security each carry their own scope on top.

The useful way to hold the two apart: the pre-wire decides what the house is capable of, and the equipment decides what it does the week you move in. Only one of those is hard to change later.

Questions every Kansas City builder and homeowner asks

How much should I budget for low voltage pre-wire on a new 7,000 square foot house in Overland Park?

A house that size sits in our whole-house pre-wire tier, which covers Cat6A to every television, desk, camera and access-point location, alarm rough-in, the structured-wiring panel, HDMI conduit to the theater and media-room locations, a fiber backbone, the low-voltage feed for Lutron HomeWorks lighting, surveillance pre-wire for 8-16 camera locations, and audio pre-wire for 8-12 interior zones plus outdoor. What decides the number is drop count, how much of the lighting, audio and security scope rides in the pre-wire, and how far the runs have to travel — not square footage alone. We price it fixed against a scope-of-work document measured from the architectural plans, after a no-cost site walk. IntegrateIT is in Overland Park at 15108 Glenwood Ave; call (913) 804-7575.

What does low voltage pre-wire actually include — and what is not in it?

A pre-wire is the wire, the pathway and the terminations, installed while the walls are open. It includes the cable pulls, conduit and sleeves, back boxes and speaker back-cans, blocking for displays and access points, the structured-wiring panel and rack location, and room-by-room termination. It does not include equipment: no televisions, no speakers, no access points, no cameras, no controllers, no programming. Those are the trim-out and finish phases, quoted separately, and they are why a pre-wire number and a finished-system number are different by a large multiple.

Why is pre-wiring during framing so much cheaper than doing it later?

Because the expensive part of a wire is the wall around it. Wire is inexpensive during framing and expensive after drywall: the same work retrofitted into a finished home multiplies in labor, because every run becomes fishing, patching, painting and a conversation about how much of the ceiling has to come down. On a large custom home the gap is bigger, not smaller — the runs are longer and the finishes are less forgiving. The cheapest wire you will ever install is the one you install before the insulation.

When in the build schedule does low-voltage rough-in happen?

After framing inspection and after MEP rough-in — mechanical, electrical and plumbing — but before insulation and drywall. The on-site window is typically 5-12 days depending on the size of the home. We give the general contractor a written ready-for-low-voltage checklist before we mobilize: chases drilled, blocking placed at camera and access-point locations, MEP conflicts resolved. That is what keeps the trade from bouncing on framing punch and landing twice.

How many Cat6 drops should a new construction home have?

More than the plan says, and the reason is arithmetic rather than enthusiasm: a drop is a rounding error while the ceiling is open, and a demolition job afterward. Our default is two runs to every television location, one to every desk and permanent workstation, one to every ceiling access-point location at roughly one per 2,500 square feet, one to every camera position, one to every door with a reader or intercom, and a run to each equipment location for anything that will be permanently placed. We use Cat6A rather than Cat6 for anything in a wall, because the labor is identical and the cable is the cheap part. The room-by-room version of this is on our smart home pre-wire checklist.

Do I have to use the same company for the equipment after the pre-wire?

No. We design the pre-wire to be universal — Cat6A, conduit, back-cans, a structured-wiring panel and room-by-room termination — so any competent integrator can pick it up at trim-out. Roughly speaking, some of our builder projects roll forward into our own installation and some do not, and the labor rate is the same either way. A pre-wire designed to lock a homeowner into one integrator is a pre-wire designed badly.

What is the difference between the pre-wire budget and the finished system budget?

The pre-wire is infrastructure; the finished system is equipment and programming on top of it. A finished home network — gateway, access points, PoE switching, the rack and its UPS — is its own scope, and lighting, audio, theater, shades and security each carry their own. The useful way to hold it in your head: the pre-wire decides what the house is capable of, and the equipment decides what it does on the day you move in. The first one is very hard to change later; the second one is not. Both get quoted fixed, in writing, off the same drawing set.

Who is the structured wiring contractor for new construction in Kansas City?

IntegrateIT (Overland Park, KS — 15108 Glenwood Ave) is a low-voltage trade partner for custom builders across Kansas City, Missouri and the Johnson County suburbs, running alarm, cameras, structured wiring, AV pre-wire, Cat6A, fiber and the Lutron lighting feed under one trade contract — one PO, one certificate of insurance, one punch-list signature. Founded in 2021 by Daniel and Moran Alon. Control4 Platinum dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer and CEDIA member. Hundreds of homes integrated across the Kansas City metro since 2021. Every install carries a five-year workmanship warranty, the equipment carries its manufacturer warranty, and you have our support for as long as you own the system. Daniel walks every project. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.