Every contractor has seen it before: the walls are finished, the doors are hung, and now it’s time to pull wire. Suddenly, what should’ve been a routine task becomes a scramble: fishing wires through door frames, metal studs and masonry, drilling access holes, and hoping everything stays within code. It’s frustrating, time-consuming, and completely avoidable.
The truth is, the construction industry has spent decades doing things the hard way simply because “that’s the way we do it” or no one offered a better option. Access control wiring was treated as an afterthought instead of part of the door system itself. But it doesn’t have to be. The pathway can be clean, standardized, and ready from day one… if you plan for it.
The Industry’s Bad Habit: Fixing Problems After They Happen
For years, the go-to approach has been to install the frame, finish the wall, and worry about the wiring later. On paper, it sounds flexible. In practice, it leads to confusion, rework, and extra costs.
Architects often specify “conduit as required” without defining where it should go. Electricians assume the frame supplier handled it. Integrators assume conduit will be waiting. And when it’s not, the only option left is field improvisation…drilling through fire-rated frames, feeding unprotected wires through sharp edges, and hoping inspectors don’t notice.
It’s not that anyone is doing bad work; the industry just never created a shared standard for wiring pathways. Every trade does what it can to make things work. But every improvised solution takes more time, adds more risk, and ultimately costs more to maintain.
Why keep working harder to fix problems in the field when you can plan for success upfront?
The Old Way vs. The Smart Way
Let’s be honest — the “old way” of wiring access-controlled doors has become an accepted headache. No one is thinking of “little wires” when they are trying to get foundations installed and structures in the air. Access control is left to the late stages of the project, where wires are fished after walls are closed, conduit runs are improvised, and fire ratings are sometimes compromised just to get the job done. It works until it doesn’t.
The smart way looks very different. Frame Frog integrates the wiring pathway directly into the frame design. Each system includes standardized ports — short for internal routing within the frame and long for external conduit connections. The result is a clean, UL fire-rated path that’s consistent from opening to opening.
With Frame Frog, electricians and integrators no longer guess where to drill or route conduit. They know exactly where to connect, and inspectors know exactly what they’re looking at. It’s not just a cleaner install but a faster, safer, and more professional one.
The Cost of Doing It the Hard Way
Improvisation feels easy in the moment, but it’s expensive in the long run. When wiring pathways aren’t planned, installations take longer, coordination between trades breaks down, and failed inspections push back occupancy dates.
Even worse, these shortcuts create permanent issues. Once wiring is buried inside walls or grouted frames, serviceability becomes almost impossible. A damaged wire or new access control upgrade can mean cutting into finished walls or replacing entire frames.
Installing Frame Frog early eliminates all of that. The cost of adding it during fabrication or rough-in is minimal , especially compared to the cost of field retrofits or post-construction rework. It’s the rare case in construction where the faster, simpler option also happens to be the most cost-effective one.
Why Choose the Easier Path from the Start
Frame Frog changes how teams think about access-controlled openings. It turns an undefined, problem-prone process into a standardized, repeatable one that saves time and prevents confusion.
By integrating a fire-rated wiring pathway during the planning or fabrication phase, every trade — from the frame supplier to the electrician — knows what’s expected. That means fewer RFIs, fewer coordination meetings, and fewer late-stage fixes that eat into profit and schedules.
The result is a system that works better, installs faster, and holds up over time. Frame Frog helps projects move from improvisation to intention, because when you have a clean, code-compliant path from the start, everything else follows it.
So the next time you’re faced with fishing wire through a finished frame, ask yourself one question: Why work harder when you can work smarter?