Unlocking the potential of your home wireless: the impact of construction materials on your WiFi
Learning how the materials used to build your home can impact your WiFi Signal Strength
Although an exposed brick wall can serve as a beautiful background for your Instagram photos, it may infringe on the range and strength of your WiFi signal in your home.
In most cases, WiFi signals can easily bounce around your home, but certain materials and situations can interfere with the smooth streaming experience. If you are experiencing slow internet speeds in various areas of your home, it is worth considering whether the construction materials used in your home may be a contributing factor.
Drywall has been the standard wall construction material for homes built over the past eight decades, while in the 1950’s hollow doors became popular. While common construction materials such as wood and drywall pose little to no issues to WiFi signals, denser materials like brick can weaken a strong signal reducing its strength from “Excellent” to “Okay.” Additionally, passing through multiple layers of drywall could also cause signal obstruction.
Concrete and metal materials can severely obstruct WiFi signals due to their tendency to absorb the signal. Barndominiums which are becoming popular in rural communities, are known to need signal beacons to help boost their signal strength due to the home being surrounded by metal. Therefore, many WiFi-dependent home security systems cannot guarantee their functionality if the signal is disrupted by reinforced concrete walls or travels between floors in multi-story buildings.
Finally, if you are in an apartment that utilizes an elevator, you can be relatively sure that it will be impossible to have a clear WiFi connection on the other side.
If you suspect that the construction materials in your home are interfering with your internet signal strength, it’s advisable to relocate your router away from such materials and ensure that your more frequently used devices (such as TVS) are unobstructed by them as well. Additionally, check out our blog on how the positioning of your router within your home can affect the strength of your WiFi signal. Another option is to invest in WiFi extenders or beacons, which can help strengthen your signal and improve the performance of your devices.
