On most construction projects, wiring pathways for access-controlled openings aren’t clearly defined at design or bid time. It’s a detail that’s easy to overlook until the frames arrive and there’s no plan for routing power or low-voltage cabling. What looks like a small omission at the start sets off a chain reaction that affects multiple trades, delays schedules, and creates costs nobody anticipated.
Where the First Domino Falls
The problem begins in the planning phase. Access-controlled openings are specified—card readers, electric strikes, door position switches—but the question of how wire will actually route through the door frame to each item is left unanswered. Everyone assumes someone else will handle it. The architect assumes the electrician has it covered. The electrician assumes the door installer will provide a pathway. The door installer assumes it’s the low-voltage integrator’s problem.
When frames arrive on-site without a defined wiring pathway, the first domino has already fallen. The issue just hasn’t surfaced yet.
How One Miss Leads to Jobsite Chaos
The real trouble starts when electricians and access control integrators discover there’s no clear route for cabling, often after walls are closed or frames are already installed. At that point, fishing wire, drilling into frames, and cutting through finished materials become the only options available.
This is where coordination between trades completely breaks down. The electrician may rough in conduit to one location, but the integrator needs wire at a different point in the frame. Field modifications start piling up. Someone drills through a fire-rated frame without realizing they’ve just compromised its listing. Surface-mounted conduit gets added because there’s nowhere else to route the wire.
Every trade is scrambling to avoid the problem because it was never properly defined and the various parts were never assigned to the appropriate contractor’s scope of work. No one is working on a common playbook. Fire ratings and code compliance are put at risk, and owner satisfaction is deteriorating because decisions are being made reactively in the field rather than proactively during design.
The Downstream Costs Nobody Plans For
The chaos on-site translates directly into costs that weren’t in the budget. Schedule delays happen while teams wait for rework to be approved or while improvised solutions get re-inspected. Change orders get submitted for additional labor, materials, and coordination that shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place. Fingers start being pointed in all directions.
The installations themselves become inconsistent. One opening might have surface-mounted conduit. Another might have wire fished awkwardly through the frame. A third might require cutting into drywall to access a junction point. None of these solutions are ideal, and all of them create long-term serviceability issues.
Facility teams inherit access-controlled openings that are difficult to maintain or upgrade. When a card reader fails or new hardware needs to be installed years later, technicians face the same problem all over again—trying to figure out how wiring was originally routed and whether there’s any way to make changes without tearing things apart.
For general contractors, these downstream costs and delays add up quickly. What started as a missed detail in the design phase has now impacted schedule, budget, and the quality of the final installation.
Stopping the Dominoes Before They Fall
The solution is simple: define the wiring pathway early, before the first domino falls. When the route for power and low-voltage cabling is established during design (not improvised in the field) the entire chain reaction is prevented.
A standardized approach removes the ambiguity that causes coordination failures and disputes between trades. Electricians know where to terminate conduit. Frame installers know what pathway to integrate. Technology and security technicians know where wiring will route and can plan accordingly. Everyone is working from the same plan, and that plan actually works.
Frame Frog provides exactly that: a repeatable, code-compliant, standardized pathway built directly into the door frame. It’s a structured solution that supports access control wiring from day one and adapts to future needs without requiring field modifications that compromise the frame or the installation.
One early decision, specifying a defined wiring pathway, stabilizes everything that follows. The electrician’s work connects cleanly to the frame. The integrator’s installation goes smoothly. Inspections pass without rework. And facility teams receive openings they can actually maintain and upgrade over time.
The domino effect of a missed pathway is entirely preventable. It just requires addressing the detail before it becomes a problem.
Ready to prevent the chaos? Contact us to learn how Frame Frog creates a defined wiring pathway that keeps your project on track, or request a demo to see the solution in action.