Skip to content 
Short answer: If you are building a new home or addition in Clark County WA, the smartest electrical decisions get made before the sheetrock goes up. Three-way and four-way switches at the right entry and exit points, two-gang outlets at the bedside, a receptacle in every closet, fan-rated boxes anywhere you might want a fan later, and a master-switched Christmas light plug up in the eaves are the small calls that pay off for decades.
Below, Derrik Massie, co-founder of MAS Pro Service and a licensed electrician serving Vancouver, Ridgefield, Camas, Battle Ground, and the rest of Clark County, walks through the pre-drywall electrical decisions he wishes every new-build homeowner knew about before trim. If you are mid-build right now and need a second set of eyes on your rough-in, our team at MAS Pro Service in Vancouver WA can help.
Three-Way and Four-Way Switches: Where They Pay Off
A three-way switch just means two switches that control the same light. Think big rooms with an entry and an exit. A big living room or a big kitchen area where you are coming in one way and leaving out the other. Hallways are a classic spot, one switch at one end of the hallway and one at the other. A garage with two man doors, one coming into the house and one going out, is another good spot so you can kill the lights from either side.
Sometimes you even need a four-way, which is three switches controlling the same lights. Picture a big open living and kitchen area with three ways into it: coming in the front door, coming down the hallway, and coming back from the dining room. That is where a four-way earns its keep, usually on the main overhead lighting.
Quick rule of thumb: If a room has more than one way in, mark it for a three-way. If it has three ways in or it opens up to two other rooms with their own entries, mark it for a four-way.
Wall Sconces and Two-Gang Bedroom Outlets
A lot of homeowners now want wall sconces above the bed instead of a lamp on each nightstand. If you are picturing your bed against a wall, instead of a lamp on the left and a lamp on the right, the sconces sit above each side where the two people sleep. They free up the nightstand and they look clean. The catch is they need to be wired in with boxes and everything before bed trim and before sheetrock, so you have to call the spot before drywall.
The other thing that is worth doing at the bedside is a two-gang box instead of a single receptacle. That gives you four plug-ins instead of two. People have a lot to plug in now: a lamp, a phone charger, a watch charger, sometimes another alarm clock. Without the two-gang, you end up adding big multi-port extensions that can be annoying or hazardous. Just add the two-gang on each side of the bedroom and each person has enough to plug in everything they need.
Closet Receptacles: Not Required, Always Worth It
Closets are not required to have receptacles, but we like to put at least one in there every time. The reason is simple: that is where a lot of people now hang their battery-powered stick vacuums, or they park their Roombas. Without a plug in the closet, the charger has to come out of the closet, plug in on the bedroom wall, and run back. With one receptacle inside, the vacuum and the Roomba live and charge where they belong.
Exterior Plugs: The Christmas Light Plug and Everyday Decorative Switching
In the trade we call it a Christmas light plug. It is a receptacle up in the eaves with a master switch tucked away somewhere like the utility room, so nobody is messing with it during the day and the kids cannot turn it off. You flip it on once when winter comes and everyone puts their lights up, and you flip it off in spring. That is it.
The other one worth roughing in is a switched plug right by the door for the lights you turn on and off every day: decorative lighting, rope lighting, the strip lights people are running under eaves and along railings now. Two different plugs, two different switches, two different purposes. If you wire both of them in before drywall, you never think about exterior decoration outlets again.
Smart Switches: Mostly a Trim-Out Decision
A lot of homeowners now want smart switches that work with Alexa or Google, so they can just say “turn the lights on” and walk through the door. The good news is most of that is a trim-out decision, not a rough-in decision. You buy the smart switches you want and install them on trim-out day, and the standard wiring behind the drywall handles it fine.
If you are planning a fully smart home, this is also a good time to think about a hardwired hub location and whether you want neutral wires pulled to every switch box (some older smart switches need them, most modern ones do too). Talk to your electrician at rough-in so the boxes are ready for whatever device you choose later.
Fan-Rated Boxes: Install Them Now or Pay Later
This is one of the biggest pre-drywall calls. In Washington, if you might install a ceiling fan there later, you need a fan-rated box, not a standard light box. A standard light box is not rated to hold the weight or handle the wobble of a fan, so if you ever go to swap a light for a fan, you have to take the light box out and put a fan-rated box in. That is kind of a pain after the sheetrock is up and everything is finished.
Our rule is simple: anywhere there is a real chance you might want a fan later, drop a fan-rated box now. Every bedroom in the center of the ceiling. The living room. Sometimes even the dining room, above where the table is going to sit (we have installed plenty of dining room fans on remodels). The fan-rated box costs almost nothing extra at rough-in. Cutting one in after drywall costs real money.
Washington rule: Any ceiling outlet that is used to support a paddle fan must be a listed fan-rated box per NEC 314.27(C), which Washington L&I enforces. If a fan might ever go there, the box has to support it.
Get the Rough-In Right the First Time
None of these calls are expensive on rough-in day. All of them are expensive or impossible to fix once the sheetrock is on the walls. The homeowners who walk their builder and their electrician through the home before insulation, and who think about where the bed actually goes, where the Roomba actually lives, and where they might want a fan in five years, are the ones who are still happy with their wiring twenty years in.
If you are building anywhere in Vancouver, Ridgefield, Battle Ground, Camas, Brush Prairie, Washougal, or anywhere else in Clark County, our team is happy to walk a rough-in with you and flag anything worth changing before drywall. Learn more about our electrical services, our approach to electrical panel upgrades, or how we handle ceiling fan installation.
