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Wi-Fi and network installation in Kensington

1920s to 1940s hill houses above the bay. Contra Costa County, California.

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Homes in Kensington

Kensington was surveyed and named in 1911, and it filled in while a streetcar ran along Arlington Avenue. The population grew from 226 in 1920 to more than 6,600 in 1950, so much of the housing went up in those three decades. It remains almost entirely single-family, with two small shopping districts.

Kensington sits in the hills, and hillside houses often have the garage at the street and living floors above or below it. Homes of that period typically have plaster walls, over wood lath or over wire mesh, and both cut Wi-Fi sharply. Attics tend to be small and broken up by gables, and crawl spaces vary from tall on the downhill side to almost nothing uphill. Mid-block footpaths link the streets.

Surveyor Robert Brousefield named the area in 1911 for South Kensington in London. A streetcar line on Arlington Avenue served the hillside tracts until 1948, and the population grew fastest between 1920 and 1950.

What that means for your Wi-Fi

Plaster walls stop signal between rooms

Plaster over wire mesh acts like a screen against Wi-Fi. We put wired access points on both sides of the heaviest walls instead of trying to push signal through them.

Floors stacked up and down the hillside

With three levels and the router at one end, the far floor gets little. We use the tall downhill crawl space and closets to get Cat6 to each level.

Period trim and plaster worth protecting

Nobody wants surface cable across 1920s trim. We fish cable inside walls, use small in-wall access points where ceilings are original plaster, and keep openings to a minimum.

Around Kensington

  • Blake Garden: The Blake family deeded the estate grounds, with a house completed in 1924, to the University of California in 1957.
  • Colusa Circle: The circle is the community's central commercial hub and one of its two small shopping districts.
  • Tilden Regional Park: Tilden and Wildcat Canyon regional parks border Kensington along the hills to the east.

Questions about Wi-Fi in Kensington

Why doesn't Wi-Fi get through the walls of my Kensington house?

Homes of that period typically have plaster walls, over wood lath or over wire mesh, and the mesh acts like a screen against Wi-Fi. We put wired access points on both sides of the heaviest walls, so nothing has to pass through them.

Can you run cable without damaging original plaster and trim?

Yes, that is how we plan it. We fish cable inside walls so nothing runs across the trim, use small in-wall access points where ceilings are original plaster, and keep openings to a minimum. Closets and crawl spaces do most of the hiding.

How do you get Ethernet to every level of a Kensington hillside home?

Through the crawl space and closets, in most cases. Hillside houses often have the garage at the street and living floors above or below it, and the crawl space tends to be tall on the downhill side. We use that to bring Cat6 to each level.

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