Westwood Hills · Character enclave
Westwood Hills · convenience added, architecture untouched.
IntegrateIT is a smart home and AV installer serving Westwood Hills, Kansas, a short run northeast of the design center at 15108 Glenwood Ave, Overland Park. Plaster over lath and original fire blocking set the method, so we route from the basement up and the attic down: concealed wiring, discreet keypads, retrofit Lutron lighting with finishes matched to original hardware, and speakers finished flush. Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Dealer, CEDIA member, HTA Certified. Five-year workmanship warranty. (913) 804-7575.
Few Kansas cities are smaller than Westwood Hills, a Johnson County enclave of a handful of curving streets tucked against the Kansas City line near the medical district. The houses are largely nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties, Tudor and Colonial Revival, on tight lots under a mature tree canopy, with plaster over wood lath and finished attics that were never designed for cable. It is a preservation-minded neighborhood where the architecture is the reason people bought. From our Overland Park design center it is a short run northeast, close enough that a service call is an afternoon rather than a trip.
Installing in Westwood Hills
What is different about Westwood Hills houses
Installing in Westwood Hills is different because the wall assembly fights you. Plaster over lath cracks in sheets if it is fished carelessly, and the original framing carries fire blocking that stops a drop halfway down. We route from the basement up and from the attic down, use closet stacks and existing chases, and accept that some rooms will be served wirelessly rather than opened. Every proposed penetration gets pointed out on the walk. Owners here care more about the plaster surviving than about the last percent of capability.
The lots are small and the houses sit close, which changes the network and camera design. Wi-Fi from a neighboring house is a real source of congestion on these streets, so channel planning and wired access points matter more than raw equipment tier. Cameras have to be aimed to cover your own drive and doors without pointing into a neighbor's windows twenty feet away. Structured cable to a couple of well-placed access points, on a Ubiquiti network with separate device lanes, solves more here than another wireless extender ever will.
Basements in this vintage are usually low, sometimes stone-walled, and often already carry mechanical equipment, so they are better racks than theaters. When a household wants a real viewing room, the honest candidates are a converted attic or a main-floor room treated acoustically rather than a full excavation. Either way the visible layer stays small: architectural speakers finished flush, keypads in period-appropriate finishes to match existing hardware, and a rack tucked where nobody has to look at it.
The kind of work we do in Westwood Hills
- 01
Concealed wiring and discreet keypads through a nineteen-twenties Tudor main level
- 02
Retrofit Lutron lighting with finishes matched to original hardware
- 03
Whole-home audio using architectural speakers finished flush to the ceiling
What we install in Westwood Hills
The full integration stack — designed to disappear.
Before you call anyone in Westwood Hills
We wrote down the parts most people learn the expensive way.
How to choose a home automation company
The questions worth asking before you sign with anyone — including us. What a dealer tier actually buys you, and what happens in year four.
Read it
Lutron HomeWorks vs Control4 lighting
Written by a dealer authorized for both. Which one fits depends on the house rather than the budget — here is the framework.
Read it
Whole-home audio, explained
How a house gets zoned, why the amplifier location decides the result, and what separates a wired system from a shelf full of speakers.
Read it
Questions from Westwood Hills homeowners
Will running wire damage the original plaster?
- That is the whole design problem here, and we treat it as one. Cable comes from the basement and the attic rather than through the middle of a wall, closet stacks and existing chases do the vertical work, and rooms we cannot reach cleanly get wireless lighting instead. Any opening we do need is shown to you on the walk. We would rather change the plan than patch a plaster wall.
The lots here are tight. How do you keep cameras neighborly?
- By aiming them. Coverage is planned around your own entries, drive and yard, with fields of view set so the picture stops at your property rather than filling with a neighbor's windows. Recording stays on site, integrated with the control system, so footage is not living on someone else's server. We walk the aim with you before anything is mounted permanently.
Is a dedicated theater realistic in a house this age?
- Sometimes, but not usually in the basement, which tends to be low and full of mechanicals. A finished attic or a treated main-floor room is often the better room, and a well-calibrated display with proper acoustic work beats a cramped excavation. We measure the candidate rooms on the walk and tell you honestly which one will sound and look right.
How fast can you get here for service?
- Quickly. Westwood Hills is a short drive from our Overland Park design center, so service visits are scheduled rather than batched into a route. Our own crew does the work. Systems we install carry a five-year workmanship warranty, the manufacturer warranty on the products, and our support for as long as you own the system.
Westwood Hills consultation
Tell us about your Westwood Hills project.
Consultations are by appointment. We'll spend an hour walking through your space, talking about how you live, and sketching what's possible — at no cost, no pitch.