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Wi-Fi and network installation in Pinole
Old Town cottages and freeway-era family houses. Contra Costa County, California.
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Homes in Pinole
Old Town Pinole, near San Pablo Bay, keeps houses built for people who worked in town or at the powder works in Hercules: Queen Anne and hip-roof cottages from the late 1800s and bungalows from 1915 to 1930. Houses of that age are usually wood-framed on raised foundations, often with plaster walls and crawl spaces.
Nearly half of the city's housing dates from the 1940s through the 1960s. Interstate 80 arrived in 1958 and developers followed with tracts of three and four-bedroom single-family homes. Homes of that era usually have attics and attached garages, and on a sloped lot there may be a lower level or a yard that drops away. Later decades added condos and apartments.
The railroad and a post office arrived in 1878, and Pinole incorporated in 1903, tied closely to the powder works next door. Interstate 80 opened in 1958 and turned it into a commuter suburb.
What that means for your Wi-Fi
Old Town cottages with plaster and tight rooms
Small rooms divided by plaster walls break up Wi-Fi quickly. We bring cable up from the crawl space to one or two well-placed access points instead of adding repeaters.
1950s and 1960s homes with service at one end
The cable or phone entry is often on a garage wall, far from the bedrooms. We run Cat6 through the attic so the access points sit in the center of the house.
Sloped lots and downstairs family rooms
A lower level cut into the hill gets little signal from upstairs. We add a wired access point down there and another for the back yard if you use it.
Around Pinole
- Fernandez Mansion: Built by Portuguese immigrant Bernardo Fernandez, the house still stands at the end of Tennent Avenue.
- Pinole Valley Park: The park takes in the site of the hacienda that Ygnacio Martinez built on his rancho in 1823.
- Old Town Pinole: Pinole's downtown keeps much of its turn-of-the-century building stock despite rapid growth since the 1950s.
Questions about Wi-Fi in Pinole
Will a repeater fix the Wi-Fi in my Old Town Pinole cottage?
Probably not well. Small rooms divided by plaster walls break up the signal, and a repeater only passes along what it receives. If the house has a crawl space, we bring cable up from it to one or two well-placed wired access points.
Why is the signal weak in my downstairs family room?
A lower level cut into a slope gets little signal from a router upstairs, because the floor and the hillside are both in the way. We add a wired access point on that level, and another for the back yard if you spend time out there.
Can you move the Wi-Fi to the middle of a 1950s or 1960s Pinole home?
Yes. In homes of that era the cable or phone entry is often on a garage wall, far from the bedrooms. They usually have attics, so we run Cat6 overhead and mount access points near the center of the house.