Wi-Fi in an L-shaped house: covering around the corner

Two rooms may be ten meters apart and still have no straight path between them. In an L-shaped home, the corner is the problem, not the distance.

Published · 2 min read

In this guide
  1. Why the corner costs so much
  2. Where the router goes
  3. When you need a second unit
  4. The courtyard trick
  5. Map both wings

An L-shaped or U-shaped home breaks the usual rules. Wi-Fi travels in straight lines, weakening as it crosses each wall. When the house bends, the straight line from the router to the far wing goes through the corner, which usually means through the most solid part of the building, or outside it entirely.

Why the corner costs so much

  • Rooms around the corner have no direct path. The signal has to cross several walls at a shallow angle, which multiplies the loss. See Wi-Fi and walls.
  • Corners are often structural. Load-bearing walls, columns and service shafts tend to collect where the building turns.
  • Distance is misleading. Two rooms can be close on the plan and far apart for radio.

Where the router goes

At the inside of the bend, the elbow of the L. From there, both wings are straight lines, and the router can see down each of them. It's usually a hallway or a central living space, and it's almost always better than the end of either wing.

If the line enters at the end of one wing, run a cable to the elbow rather than accepting the default. See internet line in the wrong corner.

When you need a second unit

If each wing is long, put a node partway down the wing that's weakest, in line of sight of the router along the corridor. A node placed around the corner from the router, hearing it only through the structure, will struggle. See where to put a mesh node.

The courtyard trick

In an L or U shape, the inner corner faces a courtyard, a patio or a garden. Signal that can't get through the building can sometimes get around it, through windows and glass doors facing that space. A router or node near a window overlooking the courtyard can reach the opposite wing better than one buried in the middle of the walls.

It works best when both wings have windows onto the same space, and when the glass isn't heavily coated. See Wi-Fi in the garden for why modern glazing matters.

Map both wings

An L-shaped plan is where a map earns its keep: the drop-off doesn't follow distance, so intuition is unreliable. WiFi Heatmap lets you map the whole floor, including the corner, and see whether the far wing is reachable at all from the elbow, or whether it needs its own unit. See also how many mesh nodes you need.