Rough-in is the phase of a renovation when the electrician runs wire through open walls, sets boxes, and establishes every circuit in the home. It happens before drywall goes up. It's also the last moment when changes are cheap.
Once the walls close, moving a switch location costs several hundred dollars and a drywall patch. Adding a circuit requires fishing wire through finished walls. Changing a box from single-gang to double-gang means cutting new drywall and repainting. None of these are catastrophic problems. They're all avoidable problems — if the right conversations happened before rough-in began.
Most homeowners don't know what to ask. The electrician shows up, runs wire, sets boxes, and leaves. The work is correct by code. It may not be correct for the finished interior you're building.
Here are the questions worth asking before any wire gets pulled.
Where exactly will the switches be?
Standard switch placement is 48 inches from the floor to the center of the box. That's code minimum, not a design decision. In a room with 10-foot ceilings, or a hallway with custom millwork, or a kitchen where the backsplash tile is being set to a specific height, standard placement may land the switch in the wrong relationship to the surrounding surfaces.
Ask where each switch will sit and whether that placement makes sense given what's going into the room. Bring the floor plan. Mark where furniture will be, where tile will run, where the crown molding sits. A switch box moved 4 inches during rough-in costs nothing. Moved after drywall it costs time and money.
Which circuits will have dimmers, and are the bulbs compatible?
Dimmers need to be wired correctly from rough-in — a standard switch and a dimmer aren't always interchangeable in an existing box, depending on wiring configuration. More importantly, the dimmer technology needs to match the bulb type. LED fixtures require trailing-edge or LED-compatible dimmers. Specifying this during rough-in means the right dimmer goes in the right location from the start rather than getting swapped out later.
Ask your electrician which circuits will support dimming and confirm that the dimmers being specified are compatible with the LED fixtures going into those locations. If you haven't chosen fixtures yet, that conversation needs to happen before rough-in closes. On which rooms benefit most from dimmers and what determines compatibility.
Are any of these switches 3-way, and are they wired for it?
A 3-way switch controls one fixture from two locations. Staircase top and bottom. Both ends of a long hallway. Two entries to a large open-plan room. If you want that functionality, the wiring has to support it — a 3-way circuit requires a traveler wire between the two switch locations that a single-pole circuit doesn't have.
Walk through the home and identify every location where controlling a light from two points would be useful. Flag those circuits during rough-in. Adding 3-way capability after drywall is a significant job. Adding it during rough-in is a few extra feet of wire. On how 3-way switches work and where they belong.
Where are the outlets going, and will any of them be visible?
Code requires outlets at specific intervals — roughly every 12 feet along a wall, within 6 feet of any doorway. Those minimums produce a functional home. They don't produce a designed one.
An outlet placed at standard height on a wall where it will be permanently visible behind a console table, beside a fireplace, or at the end of a kitchen island is a detail that will be noticed every day. Ask your electrician to flag every outlet location against your furniture plan before boxes are set. In some locations a floor outlet, a recessed outlet, or a repositioned box will serve the space better.
Also confirm which outlets require GFCI protection — bathrooms, kitchens within 6 feet of a sink, garages, outdoor locations, and unfinished basements all have GFCI requirements under current NEC code. Knowing this before rough-in allows you to decide whether to use GFCI outlets at each location or a GFCI breaker at the panel, which protects the circuit without requiring the bulkier GFCI device at every outlet. On GFCI requirements and how to maintain finish consistency across protected locations.
What gang count will each switch location be?
A gang is a single switch or outlet position. A wall with three switches side by side is a 3-gang location. The gang count determines the box size, which is set during rough-in. If you decide after drywall that you want a 3-gang plate where a 1-gang box was set, the wall needs to be opened.
Walk every switch location with your electrician and confirm the gang count before boxes are set. Multi-gang configurations — a dimmer plus a toggle, a switch plus an outlet, three dimmers for a large living room — need to be planned at this stage. The switch plates that go over those boxes are a finish decision, but the box size is a rough-in decision. Get the box right first. On how multi-gang plates work and why they need to be specified before walls close.
What finish will the devices be?
This question surprises most electricians, because most homeowners don't ask it. But the device — the actual switch or outlet mechanism — has a face color and finish that's visible through or around the cover plate. Standard devices are white or ivory. Decorator devices have a larger, cleaner face. Some architectural hardware systems require specific device types to work correctly with their cover plates.
If you're planning to install architectural switch plates in aged brass, matte black, or any non-standard finish, confirm with your hardware supplier what device type is required before the electrician orders materials. Changing devices after installation is straightforward — changing boxes is not.
Will there be any specialty circuits?
Dedicated circuits for kitchen appliances, EV chargers, home office equipment, home theater, or outdoor kitchens need to be planned and run during rough-in. These aren't decisions the electrician will raise unless you ask. They're decisions that feel obvious in hindsight and require opening walls if they're added later.
Think through how the home will actually be used and ask specifically: are there locations where high-draw equipment will be plugged in regularly? Is an EV charger planned for the garage in the next five years? Will there be a dedicated circuit for the home office? Getting these runs in during rough-in costs a fraction of what adding them later will.
What's the plan for outdoor outlets and lighting control?
Outdoor electrical is frequently underdeveloped in residential renovations. Code requires GFCI-protected exterior outlets, but code minimum doesn't account for how people actually use outdoor spaces — string lights, landscape lighting, an outdoor kitchen, a hot tub pad, holiday lighting circuits.
Ask your electrician specifically about exterior outlet placement and whether any outdoor circuits need dedicated control from inside the home. Landscape lighting on a switch inside the mudroom. String lights on a timer circuit. A switched outlet on the covered porch. These are small asks during rough-in and significant jobs afterward.
The Conversation That Ties It Together
Every one of these questions is easier to answer before rough-in than after it. The electrician is in the home, the walls are open, and changes cost labor rather than labor plus drywall repair plus painting.
The homeowners and designers who end up with finished interiors that feel completely resolved aren't the ones with the largest budgets. They're the ones who had these conversations at the right moment in the project — before the decisions were made for them by default. On the renovation decisions that get made by default when nobody asks the right questions early enough.
The switch plates and outlet covers that go over those boxes are a finish decision — made later, at the right moment in the schedule. But what's behind the wall is permanent. Get that right first.
Shop toggle switches Shop dimmer switches Shop all hardware Contact for trade and project inquiries