I know this is an open ended question. But I don't do shades but have a new contractor that wants us to prewire for shades. There are so many shade mfgs and mounting options so I how best to "prewire". It seems pretty difficult, but that's why I'm posting this.
I feel like I may not be the only here to have had this situation.
It sounds like I need to partner up with a shade company. Does anyone in the L.A./ Long Beach area know of such company, that isn't in the A/V business as well? I don't want someone in direct competition with me.

Does the contractor want to do the actual shade install as an add-on? Ask the contractor for a list of shade manufacturers he is familiar with. This will give you a hint about what he has done in the past. If the contractor works with an interior decorator, ask the designer the same question.

If he balks at wiring for a particular brand, make an analogy between this prewire and dimmers -- is he prewiring for low voltage or high voltage lamps?

I was just ask to do this as well. I ran 18/4. A very short distance. hope that works lol.

Check with the shade manufacturers to get their recommendations for the cable and compare- if they agree on one type, use it. First, find out what they're planning to use and ask if there's any chance that it might change, explaining that different brands sometimes need different cable and it can't be changed later.

18/4 is a good hedge. I'm not familiar with a broad range of shades, but some want shields on certain wires. How "finished" will the area be before the shades are installed? Is the wire to be left dangling or buried nearby? How much damage will be done if the wire is extracted and shades installed?

In one installation (I was not the shade guy) the shades were attached directly to concrete beams mounting the windows (beams to the sides of the windows too) and there were not many options for re-routing wires.

There's no way to be certain that you've wired properly without knowing what shade will be specified.  They generally land in three categories:

1. Line voltage where you'll need high voltage wiring either to a junction box or receptacle.
2. Low voltage with wireless control where you'll need 2 conductor power wires.  18awg can work for short distances, but I always run 16awg which is good for about 200ft with a single shade.  These type of shades can also be powered by a local power supply which means you can also use a receptacle near the shade if it can be hidden in the valance/pocket or behind drapery or Roman shade
3. Low voltage with wired control.  This one would be most specific to the manufacturer.  Lutron has a special 4 conductor wire that has one pair for power and then a shielded pair with drain for control.

Often it's not even enough to know what shade manufacturer... for example, Lutron has shades that fit all three scenarios listed above.  Beyond knowing the what type of wire you need, you might also need to know where/how to place it at the shade end.

The good news is you can probably find a shading solution to work with any type of wiring you put in place, but the wiring you install might limit your choices.

Don't forget there are also battery powered shades available from several manufacturers too!

Conduit from head end to first shade in the room. Conduit from 1st shade to 2nd, from 2nd to 3rd so on and so forth. Conduit from last shade to the head end. This is the only way to cover you for every manufacturer. And keep in mind that the conduit needs to be large enough to get home runs to each shade in the room if you end up with a system that requires it.

Or have them choose a shade manufacturer and save a lot of money and time.

Then think about shade pocket design so that they build them in as they install the windows.

Why is prewire in quotes?

Yeah...can't prewire for shades without screwing it up....

And just to complicate things the latest QIS from QMotion uses Cat for the hardwire.

This is no LOL -- did you run it to the left or to the right? Nobody has mentioned that. Do all brands and models require wire on the same side?


Because people sometimes think that words we use all the time are not real words. My mother, who spent her first six years of life in England, could never bring herself to write "cute" without quotes. She used it all the time, but it wasn't a proppah word when she first learned it.

It's best to avoid using quotes on words like that. If you use such quotes a lot, people used to your writing won't realize you mean something special when you try to make a point by using quotes.

This is a great reason why you should do shades yourself. It is easy, it is profitable, it will introduce you to a whole new type of client, and it is extremely profitable (can't remember if I already said that last part.)

We typically wire Lutron QS jobs with "Lutron/Cresnet" wire, and all other jobs with 16/4. 16/4 allows us longer distances, compatibility with dual roller systems and redundancy as we have had instances in which one wire from a 16/2 was damaged after sheetrock.

I cannot tell you the number of times we have been brought in by a designer late in the process to find that the job had been wired terribly. Often it results in using battery shades when we want a 3.5" pocket, not getting to use dual rollers, etc.

The last job this happened on the original AV company and electrician decided that one hot run to each wall would be sufficient. Not each shade, each wall. Some of the walls had 500+ sqft of glass across 4-5 window openings.

Having an option that you can sell and install means you can wire for what you know. You can choose the location, the wire, the head end, etc. You can guarantee a great result, expertly installed by managing it beginning to end.

For Ernie - I have yet to run across a motorized option that can't be driven from either end, you just have to know the wire location at the time of order, typically about 6-8 weeks prior to install. Well after the pre-wire would have been completed. We have standardized on left drive unless construction dictates otherwise.

two cat 6s to each end of the shade locations.

But where do you pull the wire to at the window? And does this change based on if the blind is mounting in the window casing or outside?

I always run 16/2 since I do lutron wireless

We home run a 16-2 to each window location for the shade guys.