The Thick Walls of Old Tbilisi Houses and Wi-Fi: Why the Signal Won't Get Through Brick and Stone, What Doesn't Help and Which Solutions Really Work in Historic Buildings

Flats in late-19th and early-20th-century houses in Sololaki, Vera, Mtatsminda, Chugureti and the Old Town mean high ceilings, wooden balconies and walls of brick, stone or rubble masonry 50, 70 and sometimes over 100 centimetres thick. For living, that's wonderful: cool in summer, warm in winter and you hardly hear the neighbours. For Wi-Fi, it's one of the toughest situations there is. A router in the hallway works perfectly in the next room and practically vanishes after a single load-bearing wall. Many owners have tried "the most powerful router" and several repeaters and still watch video with interruptions in the bedroom. Let's look at what works here and what doesn't.

Why the signal doesn't get through

Wi-Fi radio waves weaken as they pass through any material, but thick brick and stone masonry, especially when damp, absorbs them very heavily. A plasterboard partition barely registers for the signal, whereas a single metre-thick load-bearing wall can weaken it hundreds of times over. The 5 GHz band, which delivers high speeds, fades even more than 2.4 GHz. Add metal elements — old pipes, beams, mesh under the plaster — and the signal barely reaches the next room and doesn't reach a room two walls away at all.

What usually doesn't help

• The "most powerful" router. Transmitter power is capped by regulations, and above all the link is two-way: a phone in the far room, with its own weak transmitter, still can't "shout back" to the router through the wall.
• Plug-in repeaters. For a repeater to work, it needs good reception itself. Placed behind a thick wall, it relays a weak signal and halves the speed. You end up with full Wi-Fi bars and hardly any internet.
• Wireless mesh without cable. Mesh nodes talk to each other by radio, and with a metre-thick wall between them, the link between nodes will be just as weak.
• Antennas aimed "through the wall". Turning the router's antennas is no answer to masonry that absorbs the signal.

What works

• Cable to each zone, with an access point there. The most reliable solution: each room or group of rooms separated by a load-bearing wall gets its own access point connected by cable. The network stays unified, and the phone switches between points seamlessly.
• Mesh with wired links between nodes. If you already have a mesh system, its nodes can be connected by cable and it will start working at full strength.
• Using openings. The signal travels better through doorways and along corridors. Sometimes choosing the right spot for an access point — opposite the doors of an enfilade — is enough.
• Powerline as a fallback. Where cable can't be run, carrying the network over the electrical wiring can help, but in old houses the wiring is often worn and split across different phases, so the result needs testing.
• A separate point for the balcony and courtyard. The wooden balconies of old houses are a favourite place to work on a laptop and are worth covering separately.

How to run cable without spoiling the house

Owners' main worry is chasing into old plaster, mouldings or painted walls. Usually that isn't necessary. Cable can be run through existing holes from old wiring or pipes, along skirting boards and in trunking matched to the wall colour, under the floor, along mezzanine storage, through the attic or basement, and a load-bearing wall can be drilled once with a neat small-diameter hole in an inconspicuous spot. Today's access points are compact and can be mounted on a ceiling or wall so they're barely noticeable. The result is proper internet throughout the flat with no renovation.

How many points you need

The rule of thumb is simple: one point per zone separated by a load-bearing wall. In a typical old three- or four-room flat, that's two or three access points. The exact number is set by on-site measurements, not floor area: one point may cover two neighbouring rooms divided by a partition, while a room behind a metre-thick wall needs its own.

What our technician does

1. Measures signal and speed in every room, on the balcony and in the courtyard, and identifies dead zones.
2. Plans access points and cable routes, taking finishes and existing holes into account.
3. Runs cable neatly, drills as few holes as possible and mounts the access points.
4. Sets up a single network with roaming, and the channels and power of each point.
5. Tests speed in every room and while moving around the flat.

A real example

The owners of a flat in Vera, in a 1900s house with walls around 80 centimetres thick, had bought an expensive router and three repeaters, yet the internet was still patchy in the bedroom and study and absent on the balcony. Our technician took measurements: each load-bearing wall "ate" almost all the signal. We ran cable along the mezzanine storage and through a single neat hole in the wall, installed three ceiling access points — in the living room, study and bedroom — and removed the repeaters. Speeds in every room and on the balcony now exceed 300 Mbit/s, and the historic walls and ceilings remain untouched.

Call a technician

If you live in an old house and Wi-Fi won't get through the walls, we'll come to any district of Tbilisi around the clock and get internet working in every room. Learn more on our Wi-Fi setup, network cable installation and local network installation pages.