If your office WiFi has been getting slower, dropping connections, or just generally letting you down, the obvious fix can seem simple: take down the old access points, put up new ones in exactly the same spots, and carry on as before. It's quick, it's familiar, and on paper it looks like a straightforward like-for-like upgrade.
In practice, this approach — often called a "rip and replace" — is one of the most common reasons we get called back to sites within months of a new WiFi installation. New hardware in old positions can mean you've simply paid to recreate the same problems, sometimes with new ones added on top. Here's why, and why a proper wireless site survey using a tool like Ekahau makes such a difference.
The Old Positions Were Probably Never Right in the First Place
Think about how most existing access points ended up where they are. In a lot of small business premises, the original WiFi was installed years ago — often by whoever happened to be doing the cabling at the time, or simply mounted wherever there was a spare network point or a convenient ceiling tile. Coverage was rarely designed; it was guessed.
If those original positions were never based on a proper survey, putting brand new access points in the exact same locations just preserves the same blind spots, the same weak signal in the corner office, and the same "it works if you stand near the window" problems — just with shinier hardware.
Buildings Change — Even If the Access Points Don't
Offices are rarely static. Walls get added or removed, partitions go up, new shelving and storage units arrive, server racks get moved, and even the people sitting in different areas can change over time. Every one of these things affects how WiFi signals travel through a building.
- Plasterboard partitions, brick walls, and especially anything containing metal (filing cabinets, server racks, lift shafts, fire doors) can all significantly weaken or block a WiFi signal.
- A space that was open-plan when the original APs were fitted might now be divided into several smaller offices or meeting rooms.
- Areas that used to be storage might now be busy desk space with dozens of laptops, phones, and other devices all needing a strong, reliable connection.
An access point that gave perfect coverage to an empty warehouse five years ago may now be trying to push a signal through three new stud walls and a bank of metal lockers — and no amount of new hardware in the same spot will fix that.
Newer Access Points Are More Powerful — But More Power Isn't Always Better
Modern access points (especially WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E models) are significantly more capable than the kit they're replacing. It's tempting to assume that simply dropping in more powerful hardware will "blast through" any coverage issues. In some cases it can actually make things worse.
Boosting power on an access point that's badly positioned can increase overlap and interference with neighbouring access points, leading to more devices competing for the same WiFi channels — known as co-channel interference. The result can be a network that shows a strong signal everywhere, but is slower and less stable than before, because every device is fighting for airtime on the same crowded channels.
The Number of Devices on Your Network Has Probably Changed Too
When the original WiFi was installed, it might have needed to support a handful of desktop PCs and the occasional laptop. Today, the same office could easily have laptops, mobile phones, tablets, VoIP handsets, smart TVs, printers, CCTV cameras, and a growing number of "smart" devices all connecting to the same network.
A layout designed for coverage alone — getting a signal into every corner — doesn't necessarily account for capacity: how many devices each access point needs to support, and how much bandwidth each of those devices needs at the same time. Simply replacing old access points one-for-one in the same positions doesn't address whether you actually have the right number of access points, in the right places, for how the building is used today.
What an Ekahau Wireless Survey Actually Does
Ekahau is one of the industry-standard tools used by network professionals to design and validate WiFi networks properly, rather than by guesswork. A survey typically involves:
- Mapping your building's actual floor plan — including walls, doors, and materials that affect signal — rather than assuming every space behaves the same way.
- Walking the site with survey equipment to measure real-world signal strength, interference, and existing WiFi traffic from your own and neighbouring networks.
- Producing detailed heatmaps that show exactly where coverage is strong, weak, or overlapping — visually highlighting any dead zones before a single new access point is fitted.
- Planning access point placement based on both coverage and capacity — working out how many access points you actually need, and where, based on the number and type of devices that will use the network in each area.
- Recommending a channel and power plan to minimise interference between access points, so devices aren't competing unnecessarily for the same airtime.
Rather than reusing the old cable runs and ceiling positions because "that's where they were before", a survey tells you where access points should be — which might mean some move, some are added, and in some cases fewer are needed overall in better positions.
The Bottom Line
A rip and replace upgrade isn't necessarily wrong — sometimes the existing access point positions genuinely are still the right ones, and new hardware in the same spots is exactly what's needed. The problem is doing it without checking first. Without a proper survey, you're making an expensive decision based on assumptions rather than evidence, and there's a real risk of spending money on new equipment while leaving the underlying coverage and capacity issues unresolved.
A wireless survey typically costs a small fraction of the overall project, but it removes the guesswork — giving you confidence that the access points you're buying are the right number, in the right places, configured the right way for how your business actually uses the building.
At IT ME Services, we carry out Ekahau wireless surveys as part of our Business WiFi service, so any upgrade is based on a proper design rather than "where the old ones were". Get in touch and we'll talk you through what a survey involves and what it would mean for your site.