A London home usually needs one Wi-Fi access point on every floor, and a period terrace with a loft conversion, a lower ground floor or a garden office often needs four to six Wi-Fi access points in all. The building sets the number more than the floor area does: solid brick walls, long narrow plans and rooms on half landings stop a signal long before it runs out of distance.
Slow internet in a London house is often not the broadband line at all. A speed test next to the router can look perfect while the back bedroom barely loads a page, because the signal has to cross three or four walls to get there. This guide is for homes that are already lived in, from a flat in a mansion block to a town house on five floors, in London and the counties around it.
How many Wi-Fi access points by type of London home
Treat this as a first estimate to take to a survey, not a design. It assumes each access point is fixed high on a ceiling or wall and fed by its own data cable.
| Home | Where to start | What tends to add another |
|---|---|---|
| Flat in a mansion block or a converted house | 1 or 2 | Thick walls between the reception rooms and the bedrooms |
| Two storey Victorian or Edwardian terrace | 2, one on each floor | A side return kitchen, or a bedroom over the back addition |
| Town house on three to five floors | One per floor, so 3 to 5 | A loft conversion, or a lower ground floor with the kitchen in it |
| Detached or semi detached house in outer London | 3 to 5 | A garage conversion, a home office or a wide open plan kitchen |
| Basement with a cinema, gym or playroom | At least 1 more below ground | Each separate room down there |
| Garden office, studio or pool house | 1 more for each building | A roof terrace or patio you also want covered |
Two houses on the same street can still need different numbers. A terrace that was stripped back and rebuilt with stud walls may need fewer Wi-Fi access points than the table suggests, while its neighbour, with the original brick walls and a new basement, will need more.
Why London houses are hard on Wi-Fi
Ofcom's guide to improving your wifi experience puts the problem simply: wifi signals weaken as they pass through objects, and some materials block the signal more than others. London's housing stock is full of those materials.
- Solid brick. Many Victorian and Edwardian houses have brick party walls and a brick spine wall through the middle of the house, which soak up far more signal than a plasterboard partition.
- Long, narrow plans. The broadband line usually arrives at the front of the house, so a router in the hall has to reach a kitchen extension at the back through several rooms.
- Half landings and back additions. Rooms set at different levels behind the main staircase sit at awkward angles to a single router.
- Basements and lower ground floors. The earth, concrete and waterproofing around a dug out basement cut it off from the floors above.
- Glass and steel. Ofcom also notes that water, metal and glass block the signal, which is why a glazed rear extension or a garden room built around steel beams is often the first place to lose it.
- Close neighbours. In a terrace or a mansion block your router shares the airwaves with many others nearby, so a weak signal struggles sooner.
Where Wi-Fi access points go in a period home
- High, and in the room it serves. An access point covers the space around and below it best, so it belongs on a ceiling or high on a wall, not on a skirting board, inside a cabinet or behind a television.
- Clear of the plasterwork. Where a room has cornicing or a ceiling rose, a small unit high on a wall or above a door keeps the ceiling untouched. In a listed building, check with your conservation officer before any work that changes its fabric.
- A cable for each one. Each access point is fed by its own data cable from a network switch, which also powers it, so there is no plug or adaptor at the access point itself.
- One system. Set up together, the access points let a phone move between them as you walk from the kitchen to the top floor, under a single name and password for the whole house.
Getting cables to the right places
The easiest time to run data cables is while the walls and floors are open, during a renovation or a loft conversion, so it pays to plan the network at the survey and design stage of our process. In a finished house the cables can usually follow routes that already exist: under the floorboards of a hall, up through the cupboard under the stairs, beside a chimney breast or across the loft.
Where a cable really cannot reach, an access point can link to its neighbour without one, though it gives up some speed to do so. Our Wi-Fi installation page for London explains how we survey and plan a network, and the home Wi-Fi and network page covers the equipment and what a survey includes.
Access points and the rest of the smart home
The same network carries much more than laptops and phones. Multi room music, cameras, a video doorbell, heating controls and the app for your lighting control all depend on it, and they are usually the first things to drop out when the Wi-Fi is stretched. Ofcom reminds households that bandwidth is shared between devices, so a home with dozens of connected things needs a network planned for that load from the start. If you are planning home automation in London, the Wi-Fi is the place to begin.
Questions we are often asked
Do I need a Wi-Fi access point in every room?
No. In a flat with plasterboard walls one access point can serve two or three rooms. Solid brick changes that, so in an older house expect one on each floor and sometimes one at each end of a floor.
Will a new router from my broadband provider fix weak Wi-Fi?
Only in the rooms near it. Ofcom suggests placing a router centrally and off the floor, but in a London terrace the line usually comes in at the front, so the router cannot be central. Access points carry the signal from wherever the router has to be.
Can access points go in a listed or period house?
Yes. Small ceiling or wall units can sit high on a wall or above a door, and the cables can usually follow existing routes. Agree anything that alters the fabric of a listed building with the conservation officer first.
Do I need Wi-Fi in the garden office?
If you work there, yes. An office at the end of a long garden is usually beyond any useful signal from the house, so it needs its own access point, fed by a cable laid in a duct or by a wireless link from the house.
What does a Wi-Fi survey involve?
A full look at your current set up, signal testing in each room, a check of the existing cabling and the coverage you need, followed by a written recommendation. Our home Wi-Fi and network page sets out the rates.
Every network we install comes with a full handover, and remote management and maintenance are available through 1Install Care. The same cabling can carry home automation, cameras and music later. We install across London, Surrey and Berkshire.
Book a consultation or call our head office on 01344 937999 (London office 0208 064 0196).
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