Finally moving our home network over to UniFi and I’m trying to plan this once instead of buying a bunch of stuff and realizing I did it wrong 3 months later.
House is about 1,400 sq ft, single story, plus an attached garage. Mostly drywall inside, but the wall between the house/garage is insulated and definitely more substantial.
Current/future load is roughly:
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25–30 IoT devices
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phones/laptops/tablets
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2 WiFi cameras for the baby’s room/play area for now
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smart TV + a couple streaming devices
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eventually 5–6 outdoor cameras and more door/window sensors
I’m leaning toward a Cloud Gateway Max and currently have two U7 Pros in the cart. My thought was one centrally in the house and another toward the garage so I also get decent coverage outside for cameras/sensors later.
But now I’m wondering if 2 APs for a house this size is ridiculous and one properly placed AP would do it.
First time building anything beyond an ISP router, so feel free to tell me what I’m missing.
Number of IoT devices doesn’t really tell you how many APs you need. Thirty light bulbs sending basically nothing aren’t the same thing as thirty laptops moving traffic all day. I’d care way more about the floor plan, wall construction and where those future outdoor cameras are going. One central AP might cover the whole thing. The garage wall might also completely ruin that plan.
@Noob_Master_Y That’s kinda why I put the second one near the garage. But if I’m being honest, I don’t actually know that I need it.
Oh, the classic UniFi fanatic’s starter kit: a typical 130-square-meter apartment, thirty light bulbs, two adults and a baby. And they deploy the network as if they were opening an international airport. Guys, don’t buy routers and access points based on emotions and fears. 
First, install one good one in the center of your apartment and just see how it performs. If the signal drops in the garage or near the cameras, then buy a second one. Two points are fine. But getting a second one before you’ve figured out where the first one is missing is a surefire way to make your home server rack cost more than a new refrigerator.
If the cable runs are still open, I’d actually plan it before deciding on 1 vs 2. Throw the floor plan into NetSpot in Planning mode, add the walls/materials and try the U7 Pro in a few locations. Central ceiling, shifted toward the garage, then two APs with the power brought down. It’ll give you a much better starting point than “1,400 sq ft = X APs,” and it’s pretty quick to compare layouts. I’d pay particular attention to the garage, nursery camera spots and wherever those outdoor cameras will eventually go.
@SecurityMan_N Yeah, exactly. Since you can still run cable right now, I’d definitely pull Ethernet to the potential second AP spot even if you don’t end up installing a second AP immediately. Cable is basically free when the walls are open. Once everything is finished, it turns into a full weekend of frustration. Then just install the first AP and do a real site survey. Any prediction tool will only get you in the general area — actual measurements will show whether that garage wall is really killing your 5 GHz signal or not. NetSpot is actually great for doing that kind of survey and mapping it out properly.
@SecurityMan_N Yeah, that sounds like the right approach.