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Home Automation Wiring
Smart devices expose how a house was wired twenty years ago. Low voltage is still wiring. Done well it is invisible; done poorly it is a wall full of cable nobody can trace.
Home Automation Wiring in O’Fallon and across St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln and Warren counties.
Owner-operated: the person who answers the phone is the person who measures it.
5.0 from 94 Google reviews · BBB A+ since 2022
What this work actually involves
The box gets checked for a neutral and for depth before a device is ordered, which avoids the usual return trip.
Clint measures before he quotes. The reading comes first, then what it means, then the one repair that solves it. If the honest answer is smaller than what you called about, that is the answer you get, even when the bigger job pays better.
Work that needs a permit gets one, and work that needs an inspection is left ready for it. One person does the diagnosis and the repair, so nothing is lost between a salesman and a technician.
When people call about this
- A thermostat with no C wire
- Smart switches that drop offline
- A doorbell with no transformer
- Cameras on extension cords
Why people choose Clint for it
A one-person shop cannot be in two places at once, so you get a real date instead of a window. What you also get is the same person every time.
Seventeen years in the trade, four of them on his own, 5.0 from 94 Google reviews and an A+ BBB accreditation since 2022.
Where this is done
A roughly fifty mile working radius from O’Fallon, covering thirty municipalities across five jurisdictions in the St. Louis metro.
See the full service area, or the rest of our smart home & low voltage work.
Neutrals, and why smart switches fail
A smart switch needs power all the time, which means it needs a neutral in the box. Plenty of older switch loops do not have one, and that is the single most common reason a brand new smart switch misbehaves.
There are no-neutral devices that work by leaking a trickle through the load, and they are fussy with LED fixtures. Checking the box first avoids the return trip.
Local control over cloud control
A doorbell that needs a server in another state is a doorbell that fails when that server does. Devices that keep working on the local network are worth preferring.
Hardwired power helps for the same reason. A wired doorbell transformer outlasts a battery and a Wi-Fi outage.
Wiring a house so it can be automated later
The cheapest time to run cable is before drywall, and the decisions that matter are neutrals at every switch box, deeper boxes at control points, and conduit or a chase to the places you will want later.
Runs get labeled at both ends so the next person, or the next device, is not tracing. Nothing is specified that cannot be replaced with a dumb switch.
Why the diagnosis comes before the quote
A symptom has several possible causes with very different prices, and the only thing that separates them is a measurement. Quoting the expensive one covers the risk; quoting the cheap one and finding the expensive one mid-job is worse.
So the reading happens first, you are told what it says, and then the work is scoped to it. Where the honest answer is the small repair, that is the answer you get, even when the larger job pays better.
What gets left behind when the work is done
A labeled panel, accessible junctions, the old parts if you want to see them, and a straight account of anything found along the way that was not part of the call.
Where something else was found, you get told what it is and whether it needs doing now, later or not at all. That third answer is a real answer and it gets used.
“Clint came out installed me a large 200 amp panel put some new dedicated lines in my basement and garage he did great clean work all inspections passed he was thorough and knowledgeable. I will have him back out again.”
Jason Holtzman · Google review
How the visit goes
- The call
Which device, which wall, and what it needs to do when the internet is down.
- The measurement
Whether the box has a neutral and the depth for the device, what the existing load is, and the signal at that wall.
- The finding
Which devices will actually work there. Sometimes the answer is a different device, sometimes a transformer, sometimes a new run.
- The work
Wired for local control, runs labeled at both ends, tested on your network rather than at the wall.
What the job includes
- Checking the box for a neutral and for depth before anything is ordered
- Devices wired so they work when the internet does not
- Runs labeled at both ends and documented
- Transformers where an older house lacks one
- Low-voltage terminated in a panel, not a knot
- Testing on the actual network, not just at the wall
What it does not
- Ongoing app and account support
- Internet service and router configuration
- Subscription cameras we have not installed
Anything that is not an electrical problem gets identified as such and handed on. See finished work, or say what the house is doing.
Related smart home & low voltage work
Home Automation Wiring across the metro
Where the house is changes what the work involves. The housing stock changes as you cross this metro, and so does what the job involves.
St. Louis County
This is where the genuinely old wiring lives: cloth insulation, no equipment ground, fuse panels and the mid-seventies aluminum. Each has an accepted remedy rather than requiring a whole-house rewire.
St. Louis City
Much of this stock is two and four family, which means shared services and panels that are rarely labeled accurately.
Lincoln County
Outbuildings count as separate structures in code terms: a disconnect at the building, a grounding electrode there, and a feeder sized for the distance.
County by county coverage is on the service areas page.
Questions worth asking first.
Why do my smart switches keep dropping offline?
Usually a missing neutral in the box or a weak signal at that wall, not a bad switch. Both are checked before a device is recommended.
Can you wire a doorbell camera?
Yes, including the transformer most older houses lack. A hardwired doorbell keeps working when the batteries and the Wi-Fi do not.
Will my smart switches work if the internet goes down?
Devices that keep local control will. Cloud-only devices become a wall plate, which is worth knowing before they go in.
How long have you been doing this?
Clint has seventeen years in the trade and has been running his own shop out of O’Fallon since 2022.
What do your reviews say?
5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and A+ accreditation with the BBB held since 2022. The reviews are on the reviews page with links to where each was posted.
Talk to the person who will do the work.
No dispatcher, no salesman. Clint takes the call and Clint does the job. Home Automation Wiring in O’Fallon and across the metro.
Hours are Mon-Thu 8-5, Fri 8-4, Sat 10-3 · or type it out.