How to Run Ethernet Through an Older House, and What It Costs
To run Ethernet through an older house, bring each cable up from the basement or crawl space, or down from the attic, inside the walls to a small opening where the jack, the Ethernet port, goes. Every cable runs on its own back to one central spot, where the router and a network switch sit. Where there's no hidden route, a cable can run up the outside of the house or in a slim channel along the wall. Our standard Cat6 run is $499 for up to 300 feet, and it includes everything for that cable: the wall jack and faceplate, connecting it at the patch panel, sealing the holes it passes through, and testing and labeling it end to end. Mounting a device at the end, such as a Wi-Fi access point, is $99, and setting it up is another $99.
You may not need a jack in every room. In the real job below, four new runs to four Wi-Fi access points made the Wi-Fi in an older house, in the homeowner's words, “finally reliable in every room.”
Here's how to plan and route the cable in an older house, and what we charge.
The options compared
| Option | Price | Best when | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Cat6 run to a jack | Our standard run: $499 for up to 300 ft, jack and faceplate included | A TV, desk, game console or office needs a wired connection | The fastest, steadiest connection |
| New Cat6 run to a Wi-Fi access point | $499 per run, plus the access point, $99 to mount it and $99 to set it up | Parts of the house have weak Wi-Fi | Strong Wi-Fi around each access point; a few can cover a house |
| Making old jacks work | Our $399 service call (travel and the first two hours); a new $499 run if the old cable is damaged | The house has jacks that don't work | Gigabit and 2.5-gigabit, if the old cable is Cat5e or better |
| MoCA adapters on the TV coax | The adapters and a filter; sometimes new splitters | Coax outlets already reach both rooms | Steady, if the coax and splitters are in good shape |
| Powerline adapters | The adapters | Nothing else can reach the room | Hard to predict: it depends on the wiring |
1. Pick the spot where every cable meets
Ethernet is wired like the spokes of a wheel: each jack or access point gets its own cable, called a run or a drop, back to one central spot, where the router and a network switch sit. That spot is usually near where the internet line comes in, such as a closet, a basement wall or a utility room. There, each cable ends at a patch panel, a row of numbered ports, and a short cord connects each port to the switch.
It needs an outlet. In an older house it may be an ungrounded two-prong outlet, and a new or grounded one is an electrician's job. We do low-voltage work only and bring in a licensed electrician for line-voltage work.
2. Decide what needs a cable
Give a jack to what stays put and uses the most data: a TV, a desk, a game console. For the rest, a Wi-Fi access point on a ceiling or wall, wired back on its own cable, covers the rooms around it. It gets its power over that cable (Power over Ethernet, or PoE) from a PoE switch or injector at the central spot, so it needs no outlet.
Wired access points make even more sense in an older house:
- Plaster on metal lath or wire mesh blocks Wi-Fi far more than drywall, and you can't tell from the surface what's behind it. Plaster on wood lath is much less of a problem.
- The faster Wi-Fi bands, 5 and 6 GHz, don't reach as far through walls, so faster Wi-Fi takes more access points, each on its own cable.
3. Find a route: from below, from above or outside
Before anyone drills, check for the older-house hazards below: knob-and-tube wiring, vermiculite in the attic and lead paint.
- Up from the basement or crawl space, for first-floor rooms: drill up through the bottom plate, the board at the bottom of the wall, and the cable comes out at a jack low on the wall, like an outlet. In an October 2026 quote, we planned two runs up from a crawl space into the walls for two in-wall access points, which would keep that home's vaulted ceilings untouched.
- Down from the attic, for top-floor rooms and ceiling access points: drill down through the top plate, or straight through the ceiling where an access point goes. Deep blown-in insulation or a finished attic with short kneewalls slows this down.
- Between floors, the hard part of a two-story house: through a closet stacked above another closet, a chase (a hidden shaft) beside the plumbing, or a stud bay (the space between two studs) that's open from floor to floor. Or go up to the attic and come down into the second-floor walls.
- Outside the house, when there's no way through the inside: the cable runs up an outside wall in conduit or a paintable cover. Use outdoor cable with a UV-resistant jacket, and seal the hole where it comes in, with a drip loop below so water runs off.
- Along the wall, as a last resort: a slim channel (surface raceway) along a baseboard or up a corner, painted to match. Nothing gets cut, but it shows.
Keep cable out of heating and cooling ducts. A space that carries heating or cooling air, such as a joist bay used for return air, needs plenum-rated cable.
4. Get through old walls: plaster, lath and fire blocks
- Plaster on wood lath is held on by keys, bits of plaster squeezed between the lath strips. Cut the jack openings small and clean, about the size of a light-switch box; rough cutting can crack the plaster around them.
- Balloon framing. In a balloon-framed house, the wall studs run in one piece from the foundation to the roof, so the space between two studs can be open from the basement to the attic. That helps a cable get between floors, and it's why every hole at a floor or ceiling needs sealing: an open stud bay can carry a fire upward like a chimney. In the basement, wall studs that come down to the sill beside the floor joists give it away. Some of these walls have fire blocks and some don't, so don't count on either.
- Fire blocks. Some walls, old and new, have a horizontal block between the studs partway up. A long flexible drill bit, fed through the jack opening, can often get through it without opening the wall.
A run up a plaster wall is usually our standard $499. We cut the jack opening with an oscillating multi-tool, and the faceplate covers it. Sometimes, especially in an outside wall, we have to open a section of plaster to get the cable through. We don't patch plaster, so a plasterer or painter would close an opening like that. If a route turns out harder than expected, we tell you on site, and the price can go up a little.
5. Seal, finish, test and label
- Seal every hole through a floor, ceiling or top plate with a fire-resistant material, so fire and smoke can't follow the cable. Oregon's residential code calls for it at floor and ceiling level.
- Keep data and power apart. A data jack can't share a box with power wiring unless a divider separates them, so a jack beside an outlet goes in its own bracket.
- Test every run end to end, and label both ends, so the next person knows which jack is which.
On a June 2026 job, our quote for one new run, from a garage to a bedroom, listed each step: find the path the existing wires take, pull the cable, cut the opening, put the jack on, set the faceplate at the height of the room's outlets, test the cable, label the faceplate and the cable, and clean up the attic.
A real job: four runs in an older SW Portland house
In April 2026 we wired Max S.'s older house in SW Portland. Instead of a jack in every room, we ran four new Cat6 cables from the living room: to a bathroom closet, a bedroom closet, an upstairs office nook and the basement. Each run was wired, sealed, tested and labeled, and each feeds one of four UniFi Wi-Fi 7 access points. In the office nook and the basement, we also cut in a wall jack beside the access point. A UniFi gateway runs the network and the access points. The install took two days.
The job came to $4,116.42 at our early-2026 prices: four runs at $599 each, which then folded in mounting or setting up the device at the end, and two wall jacks at $35 each. The rest covered the access points, the gateway, and small parts and tool use. A run is $499 now, jack and faceplate included, and mounting and setup are $99 each. For the Wi-Fi side of this job, and how wired access points compare with mesh, see Mesh vs Access Points for a Large House.
“Izaac at Velara knows his stuff. He did an advanced WiFi network installation in my older house, putting in new access points, all the while answering my litany of nonsense questions with patience and enthusiasm. He put things into terms I could understand and explained what the pros and cons of the installation options were. He also went above and beyond, helping me configure multiple networks in my house, a primary, an IOT network and a guest network. It was expensive but I am so grateful for his expertise, and wifi coverage in my home is finally reliable in every room.”
In an older house, check for these first
More than a quarter of the homes in the city of Portland were built before 1940 (US Census, 2020 to 2024). In any older house, look for these before anyone drills:
- Knob-and-tube wiring: single wires on porcelain knobs and tubes, common until about the 1940s. Network cable has to stay at least 2 inches from it, and it shouldn't be disturbed; whether it's safe is an electrician's call. Modern sheathed power cable needs no gap, and there's no 12-inch rule.
- Vermiculite in the attic: loose, pebble-like insulation, gray-brown or silver-gold. The EPA says to assume it contains asbestos and leave it alone; hire an asbestos professional before any work that would disturb it. Until then, the attic isn't a route.
- Lead paint: in a house built before 1978, assume the paint may contain lead. In Oregon, paid work that disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface in a room, or 20 square feet outside, counts as renovation and needs a lead-based paint renovation license.
What it costs to run Ethernet through a house
- One new Cat6 run: $499 for up to 300 feet, including the wall jack and faceplate, connecting it at the patch panel, sealing the holes it passes through, and testing and labeling it end to end. A longer run costs more and may need an extender partway.
- A run up a plaster wall: usually the same $499. If the route turns out harder than expected, we tell you on site, and it can cost a little more. We don't patch plaster.
- A device at the end, such as an access point: $99 to mount it and $99 to set it up, plus the device.
- A dead jack, as a job on its own: our $399 service call, which covers travel and the first two hours. If the old cable is damaged, a new run is $499.
- A single-run quote: one cable from the network to a garage, $499 in total, sent in October 2026 and approved in November.
- Whole-home Wi-Fi with new runs: for one house in October 2026, we quoted three options, from $3,126 for a mesh system to $5,626 for wired access points with four new runs, plus a $499 garage run quoted separately.
How we'd handle yours
- Free walkthrough. We walk through the house with you, take photos, talk through what needs a cable and where cable could run, and recommend what we'd do. It's a consultation, with no hands-on work.
- A fixed-price quote, usually with a few options side by side.
- The install. Most of our networking jobs take one to two days.
- After it's in. Labor carries a 90-day warranty, and Velara Care, our support plan, starts at $99 a month.
We're a licensed, bonded and insured low-voltage installer (Oregon CCB #256333, CLE #771), and we do Ethernet wiring installation across the Portland area. See home network installation in Portland and home network and Wi-Fi installation in Lake Oswego. For a cable out to a garage, shop or another building, see how to extend Wi-Fi to a detached garage, shop or guest house.
Questions people ask
Is it worth running Ethernet through a house?
Yes, if you work from home, stream to a TV, game online, or have rooms where the Wi-Fi drops. A cable gives a steady connection that isn't shared or slowed by walls. Wi-Fi 7 can top a gigabit close to an access point, but it slows with distance and walls.
Is it hard to run Ethernet through the walls of an older house?
It depends on the route. A room over an open basement or crawl space, or under an attic you can move around in, is the easy case. A finished basement, a finished attic with kneewalls, insulation blown into the outside walls, or a run to the second floor takes longer.
Can you run Ethernet in a finished house without opening up the walls?
Mostly. The cable travels inside the walls from below or above, and the openings are usually small ones where the jacks and access points go. An outside wall sometimes needs a bigger one. Where there's no route inside, a slim channel along the wall needs no cutting.
Can you run Ethernet through plaster and lath walls?
Yes. The cable runs inside the wall just as it does behind drywall; the difference is at the openings, which are cut small and clean so the plaster doesn't crack. Plaster on metal lath is harder to cut, and it blocks more Wi-Fi, which makes a cable more worthwhile. With us, a run up a plaster wall is usually the standard $499. We don't patch plaster, and if a route turns out harder than expected, we tell you on site.
Do I need an Ethernet jack in every room?
Not necessarily. A jack belongs where something stays put and uses a lot of data, like a TV, a desk or a game console. Elsewhere, Wi-Fi from a few access points, each on its own cable, can cover the house, as four did on the job above.
My house has Ethernet ports that don't work. Can they be made live?
Yes, if the cable behind them is sound. A port works only when its cable is connected to a switch or router at the other end; ports aren't connected to each other. We trace each line back, put new connectors on both ends and test it. On its own, that's our $399 service call, for travel and the first two hours. If the cable is damaged inside the wall, a new run replaces it at $499.
Can I use the old phone or coax wiring instead?
Sometimes. Old phone cable can carry gigabit Ethernet if its jacket is printed Cat5e or better and it runs straight back to the central spot. Coax can carry a network with MoCA adapters, given a coax outlet in both rooms, a MoCA filter where the cable enters the house, and splitters rated for MoCA. Powerline adapters use the electrical wiring, and their speed depends on it. A new Cat6 run is still the most reliable.
Should I use Cat6 or Cat6a?
Cat6 covers what most houses need. It carries gigabit and 2.5-gigabit, the port speed on many Wi-Fi 7 access points, to the full 100-meter (328-foot) limit, and 10-gigabit up to about 37 meters (121 feet). Cat6a carries 10-gigabit the full 100 meters, but it's thicker and stiffer, so it's harder to pull through old walls. Cat7 and Cat8 add nothing a house can use. Either way, buy solid copper, not copper-clad aluminum (CCA). We install Cat6, Cat6a and fiber.
Do I need an electrician to run Ethernet cable?
Not for the network cable. Oregon licenses network cabling as limited-energy electrical work, separate from line-voltage wiring, and we're a licensed low-voltage installer (Oregon CCB #256333, CLE #771). You need an electrician for line voltage, such as a new outlet where the router and switch go, or for anything about knob-and-tube wiring; we bring one in when a job needs it.
Do you need a permit to run Ethernet cable in Oregon?
Usually, yes. Oregon counts network cabling as limited-energy electrical work, and the state's Building Codes Division lists computer systems among the low-voltage work that needs a permit, though new phone and cable-TV outlets don't. A licensed low-voltage or electrical contractor can cover a typical job in an existing house, up to 10 new jacks or access points, with a minor label, the state's inexpensive permit for small jobs. A buried run, a run through a fire-rated wall, such as the one between the two units of a duplex, or a bigger job needs a regular permit. We take care of the label or permit on our jobs. If you're wiring it yourself, ask your city or county building department first.
How long does it take to wire a house for Ethernet?
Most of our networking jobs, about four access points plus a few cameras, take one to two days. The four-run job above took two days, access points and gateway included.
