Planning Network Cabling for a New Office or Warehouse: A Pre-Build Checklist

Cabling is one of the few parts of an office or warehouse fit-out that's genuinely hard to change once it's done. Drywall, concrete, and finished ceilings turn a simple cable run into a demolition job. The right time to plan cabling is at the same meeting where you're picking out paint colours and discussing where the breakroom goes, not after the electrician has already closed up the walls.

This matters even more for warehouses, where racking, conveyor lines or mezzanine offices in places like Mississauga, Milton or Vaughan can make it nearly impossible to add a drop later without disrupting operations. Plan the cabling route around the layout you expect once the space is in full use, not just the empty shell you're looking at today.

A "drop" is a single cable run from a wall jack or device back to the rack. It's tempting to count one drop per desk, but that usually falls short. For each workstation, think about:

• A wired connection for the computer, even if staff mostly use Wi-Fi — wired is more reliable for anything that can't afford a dropped connection
• A desk phone, if you're not going fully wireless on VoIP handsets
• Shared devices nearby: printers, scanners, label printers, time clocks

For warehouses and shop floors, add drops for wireless access points, security cameras, door controllers, and any fixed scanning or kiosk stations. It's almost always cheaper to run a couple of extra drops to a location during the initial build than to add one later, so when in doubt, add more than you think you need.

Access points need to be placed based on how radio signals actually travel through your building's materials and layout, not just wherever a ceiling tile is convenient. Metal racking, warehouse mezzanines, concrete block walls and large open spans all affect coverage differently than a standard office layout.

• Map out areas where reliable Wi-Fi actually matters: production floors, loading docks, meeting rooms, outdoor yards
• Plan for ceiling or high-wall mounting with a data drop and power at each access point location
• In warehouses, account for racking height and layout changes, since a plan that works for empty racking may not work once it's fully loaded

Our network solutions page covers how we approach design for coverage across an entire site, not just the areas closest to the rack.

Whatever room, closet or rack you're setting aside for networking equipment, plan for more gear than you need on opening day. A rack or wall-mount cabinet should have room for growth, proper airflow, and a dedicated circuit that isn't shared with half the building's lighting.

• Pick a location that's not a storage closet by default — it needs ventilation and ideally climate control
• Leave physical space for a second switch, a UPS battery backup, and cabling slack
• Make sure there's enough power, including an outlet for a UPS that can ride out short outages

Skimping on this room is one of the most common regrets businesses have a year or two after move-in, once they're trying to squeeze new equipment into a closet that was sized for the bare minimum.

A cabling job isn't finished when the cables are run — it's finished when every cable is labelled at both ends, tested, and documented. Without labelling, every future troubleshooting call starts with someone crawling around tracing wires, which costs time and money for years after the initial install.

• Each cable labelled consistently at the jack and at the rack
• Test results for every run, confirming it meets the speed and standard you paid for
• A simple map or spreadsheet showing which jack goes where, kept somewhere your IT provider can access

This is standard practice with proper network cabling work, and it's worth confirming with whoever does the install, since not every cabling contractor documents to the same standard.

Business phone systems, security cameras, door access controls and point-of-sale terminals all need to be factored into the same cabling plan, not bolted on afterward. If you're moving to business VoIP, decide early whether you want desk phones with a dedicated cable run or a mix of softphones on computers and headsets, since that changes your drop count. Cameras typically run on the same network cabling using power-over-ethernet, which simplifies installation but needs to be planned for at the switch and rack level too.

Before walls close or racking goes in, walk through this list with whoever is managing the build:

• Drop count confirmed for every workstation, shared device, access point, camera and phone
• Wi-Fi access point locations marked on the floor plan, with power and data at each
• Rack or closet location, size, power and ventilation confirmed
• Labelling and testing standard agreed upon in writing
• Phone system and camera needs factored into the cable count
• Room left for growth — extra drops, extra rack space, extra capacity

If anything on this list feels uncertain, it's worth a short planning conversation with an IT provider before the contractor starts running wire, since changes get far more expensive once the work is underway.

Tejas Solutions works with businesses across Brampton, Mississauga, Toronto and the surrounding GTA — including warehouse and office fit-outs in Milton and Vaughan — to plan cabling before the build moves too far along. We can walk your space, review the floor plan, and put together a drop count and access point layout that matches how the space will actually be used. Reach out through our contact page before your contractor closes up the walls.