Every renovation has a moment where someone realises the pendant is directly above where your head goes when you stand up from the dining table. Or that there’s no outlet on the island. Or that the TV point is 400mm from where the TV ended up.
None of these are expensive to get right at planning stage. All of them are expensive to fix afterwards.
Here’s what to sort out before the walls close.
1. Decide where you’ll stand, not where the room’s centre is
Most electrical plans are drawn symmetrically, because symmetry looks right on a drawing. Then people move into the house and stand in specific places doing specific things, and the symmetry stops being useful.
Walk the plan. Physically stand in the space if the frame is up, or pace it out if it isn’t. Where will you actually chop vegetables? Where does the bed go, and which side does each person sleep on? Where will you sit to read?
Then place things around that. Downlights in front of where you stand at the bench, not behind you. Switches where your hand lands when you walk in, not where the drawing put them. Outlets beside the bed at the right height for a lamp and a phone, on both sides.
Pendant heights. Over a dining table, 750–900mm above the tabletop. Over an island, 750–800mm above the benchtop. Get this wrong and you’ll either bang your head on it or squint past it for a decade.
Ceiling fans need a nominated position early too, because they need structural fixing — which means it has to be there before the plaster goes on. See our lighting design service if you’d like help with the layout.
2. Put in more circuits, more outlets and more capacity than you need
This is the single best piece of advice in this article.
Circuits. Adding a circuit while the walls are open is cheap. Adding one afterwards means chasing walls, patching and painting. Separate circuits for the kitchen, the laundry, air conditioning, the garage, the study and anything that draws serious current.
The switchboard. Get one with spare ways. A board that’s full on day one is a board you’ll be replacing when you add an EV charger. If the existing board is old and you’re renovating around it, do the switchboard upgrade now rather than later — you’ll never have better access to it.
Outlets. People consistently specify too few. A bedroom wants four to six, not two. A kitchen bench wants outlets every metre and a half, plus one in the pantry and one in the island. A study wants a bank of them. A garage wants doubles on two walls at least.
Capacity for what’s coming. An EV, a heat pump hot water system, ducted air conditioning, an induction cooktop, a home battery. Even if none of them are happening this year, run the cable or leave the conduit. If the house is going all-electric eventually, this is the moment to think about whether three-phase power is worth establishing.
Conduit to nowhere. Run empty conduit from the switchboard to the garage, to the roof space, and to the meter box. It costs almost nothing now and it’s the difference between a two-hour job and a two-day job in five years.
3. Do the boring infrastructure while it’s easy
The things nobody thinks about that everyone wishes they had.
Data cabling. Wi-Fi is not a substitute for cable, particularly in a double-brick Melbourne home. Run Cat6 to the TV positions, the study, and to ceiling points where you’d want access points. Put the patch panel somewhere ventilated and accessible rather than in a cupboard behind the coats. See data and communications.
TV points. Power and data and an aerial point behind where the TV goes, at the right height, ideally in a recessed box so the wall sits flat. If you’re wall-mounting, agree the height before the plasterer arrives.
Outdoor. Weatherproof outlets on the deck and near the shed. Lighting to the path and the entry. A point for a future pool, spa or irrigation controller.
Smoke alarms. Interconnected, mains-powered, correctly positioned. Building code requirements are the minimum, not the target.
Rewiring. If you’re renovating a period home and the existing wiring is original, seriously consider a full rewire as part of the work. Doing it while ceilings are down and walls are open costs a fraction of doing it later, and half-rewired houses are a headache forever.
The mistakes we see most
Locking the plan too early. Electrical layout should be one of the last things finalised, after the kitchen and joinery drawings are settled. Cabinetry moves; outlets need to move with it.
Not walking the site at rough-in. Once the cables are run and before the plaster goes on, walk through with your electrician. This is your last cheap opportunity to move anything. Take an hour and do it — it’s the single highest-value hour of the whole project.
Choosing fittings after the fact. Different downlights need different cutouts. Some pendants need a specific box. Some fans need particular clearances. Pick fittings before rough-in.
Forgetting switching. Two-way switching at the top and bottom of stairs, at both ends of a long hallway, and at the bedroom door and the bedside. Trivial at rough-in. Miserable later.
Undersized supply. If you’re adding significant load, check the consumer mains can carry it. Discovering this at the end is an unwelcome surprise.
Bring your electrician in early
Not at rough-in — at design. A good electrician looking at your plans early will spot the pendant over the standing spot, the missing island outlet and the circuit that’ll be overloaded, at a point where fixing all three costs nothing.
We work regularly with architects, designers and builders across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, and we’re comfortable reading a set of drawings and marking it up.
Registered Master Electrician. Over 200 five-star Google reviews. Lifetime workmanship warranty on everything we install.
If you’ve got a build or a renovation coming up, get in touch — ideally before the drawings are final.
