Ubiquiti Access Points for new house - Amount and Placement

[PenguinMaster]

My family is having a new home built and I am wondering on the amount of WiFi access points I would need to purchase in order to get ample coverage. I already ordered 2 UniFi 6 Lite Access Points. I think I need 5 (according to the UniFi design center) but I am not entirely sure.

 

Some information about the house:

 

3 Stories ~ Basement, First Floor and Second Floor

About 3300 SF but if you include the basement which will also be living space its about 4700 SF

 

I am using the Ubiquiti UniFi design center so I can share those sketches to share where I plan to place them. 

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, PenguinMaster said:

I am using the Ubiquiti UniFi design center so I can share those sketches to share where I plan to place them. 

If you used the Design Center then all should be good.

 

Other things to think about: ethernet uplink, PoE switch vs PoE injectors, central router/firewall, UniFi Controller host.

[PenguinMaster]

18 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

If you used the Design Center then all should be good.

 

Other things to think about: ethernet uplink, PoE switch vs PoE injectors, central router/firewall, UniFi Controller host.

Is it ok to have access points on top of each other on different floors or will that cause interference?

[BecauseRussia]

Take a look at LawrenceSystems and CrossTalk Solutions on YouTube. Both of those gentlemen run MSP's and Tom from Lawrence System has many tutorials for Unifi and several Unifi testing videos and WiFi explainer videos.

Tom basically installs Unifi and pfSense for a living, so he has a lot of experience when it comes to how to setup the Unifi AP's for the optimal stability.

[Falcon1986]

9 hours ago, PenguinMaster said:

Is it ok to have access points on top of each other on different floors or will that cause interference?

You can. As long as you configure them to use non-overlapping channels for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz broadcasts. Keep in mind that wide channel widths (e.g. 80MHz-160MHz) might allow you to achieve higher speeds, but channel overlap is going to be more likely to happen. To get around this, you can reduce the output power on each antenna to limit the signal radius, which also has the secondary benefit of reducing noise.

 

How many are you planning to mount per level? If you mount 2 APs on the 2nd floor and 2 APs in the basement, you might find that you don't need to mount anything on the 1st floor. But that generally only applies to buildings with wood floors and internal walls. If the WiFi signal has to penetrate concrete and steel, then you'll need at least 1 AP on the 1st floor. Unfortunately, you won't know for sure until they're actually in place and functional.

 

9 hours ago, BecauseRussia said:

Take a look at LawrenceSystems and CrossTalk Solutions on YouTube. Both of those gentlemen run MSP's and Tom from Lawrence System has many tutorials for Unifi and several Unifi testing videos and WiFi explainer videos.

Tom basically installs Unifi and pfSense for a living, so he has a lot of experience when it comes to how to setup the Unifi AP's for the optimal stability.

I subscribe to both of these channels. Excellent resources!

[PenguinMaster]

@Falcon1986 @BecauseRussia I would like to share some of my placements for access points:

 

First Floor:

 

Second Floor:

 

For the basement I will leave it blank for now since we will finish it after we move in so we can add an access point later if needed. These are the plans for the 5 GHz coverage in the house. On the first floor the access point is placed in the mudroom to cover part of the kitchen and the bedroom and I don't like the placement of the second one it would be in the middle of the room. On the second floor I placed one in the hallway to cover 2 of the bedrooms and one right in the Master.

[Falcon1986]

@PenguinMaster

 

Looks good.

 

My only adjustment would be moving the AP out of the mudroom into the hallway just outside of the mudroom and bedroom. There will be less wall to immediately attenuate the wireless broadcast and you might get more coverage in the kitchen.

 

1 hour ago, PenguinMaster said:

I don't like the placement of the second one it would be in the middle of the room.

You’re planning to ceiling-mount, correct? APs perform best in open spaces, so where you have it in the schematic now should be fine.

[PenguinMaster]

13 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

@PenguinMaster

 

Looks good.

 

My only adjustment would be moving the AP out of the mudroom into the hallway just outside of the mudroom and bedroom

Just thought of doing that after I posted the pictures of the coverage. I am definitely doing that!

 

13 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

You’re planning to ceiling-mount, correct?

Yes

 

13 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

APs perform best in open spaces, so where you have it in the schematic now should be fine.

I just don't want people in my family to complain that it looks weird having it in the middle of the room.

[PenguinMaster]

@Falcon1986

 

Do you think that the WiFi Access Point in the Family Room on the First Floor would be enough to get to the Master Bedroom which would eliminate the need for one in that room?

[Falcon1986]

On 7/22/2021 at 10:02 PM, PenguinMaster said:

@Falcon1986

 

Do you think that the WiFi Access Point in the Family Room on the First Floor would be enough to get to the Master Bedroom which would eliminate the need for one in that room?

Maybe, but perhaps not at the highest speeds on 5GHz. Remember, that model is trying to predict for 5GHz and doesn’t take into consideration the APs on the floor above.

 

But keep in mind that if the WLAN speed is higher than your internet speed, even a slight drop in wireless link speed should be tolerable.

 

Again, you won’t know until you actually try it. So you can start with 1 AP on the 1st floor and see. For all you know, you might get a little bit of vertical WiFi penetration from the APs on the 2nd floor which might provide coverage in the master bedroom area on the 1st floor.

[PenguinMaster]

@Falcon1986Ok I'll wait and see, thanks