Mapping a Multi-Floor Home in Range Up
Build a multi floor wifi map that you can trust: setting the floor count, keeping floors aligned, modeling the stairwell honestly, and reading the 3D stack.
A multi-floor Wi-Fi map needs more than a second flat drawing. The route from a downstairs router to an upstairs bedroom can cross joists, a slab, a bathroom and a stairwell; that vertical path is often the reason the nearest-looking room fails.
Range Up supports up to five floors in one plan. Each floor uses the same grid, so their coordinates already align. Your task is to draw consistently, model stair openings honestly and set a realistic global floor-loss value.
Set the stack before drawing#
Create a Blank plan with the width, height and real floor count. The grid allows 12–60 cells wide, 10–50 cells high and up to five floors. Size it for the largest floor: a smaller upper floor still uses that footprint, with empty squares outside its exterior wall.
Draw the ground floor first, then trace the same exterior outline on the same grid cells upstairs before adding each floor’s interior walls. Start from the same corner and use the stairwell as an anchor. Do not redraw the upper floor as a shifted miniature of the lower one; a pretty but misaligned plan makes every vertical relationship false.
One cell is about one meter, and proportional pacing is enough. The floor-plan drawing guide explains the practical method. If a floor count changes later, remember that deleting a floor removes anything on it and shifts upper floors down.
Model floors and stairs without pretending they are walls#
Crossing a timber floor with joists typically costs 6–12 dB; a reinforced concrete slab costs about 15–25 dB. Range Up uses one global floor-loss number for the plan, defaulting to 14 dB and adjustable from 8–30 dB. Its presets fill wall/door/floor loss together:
| Preset | Wall | Door | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood frame | 3 dB | 1 dB | 13 dB |
| Brick | 10 dB | 2 dB | 17 dB |
| Concrete | 12 dB | 3 dB | 22 dB |
There is no stairs tile. Leave the stair opening and landing as open floor on both levels, use a Door tile for a real door at the top, and then choose a floor-loss setting that represents the build. The map applies that value uniformly, so it will not paint a literal bright column through an open stairwell. It does correctly preserve the clearer horizontal route to and from the landing.
For the placement result rather than the modeling details, see the two-story extender guide.
Read the 3D stack and target the failing floor#
The 2D/3D view makes a vertical pattern easier to see. Use it to compare where weak areas stack, not as a live measurement. The heatmap guide explains the colors.
| Pattern | Likely explanation | Next move |
|---|---|---|
| Upper floor one band weaker everywhere | Normal floor loss | Consider a node near the stairs |
| Fine near stairs, dark at both ends | Upstairs distance and partitions | Put coverage on that floor |
| Dark directly above router | Heavy slab or wrong floor setting | Check preset; consider wired backhaul |
| Third floor weak while second is marginal | Too many floors for one radio | Add a separate hop or cable |
| Same corner weak on each floor | Vertical masonry/plumbing structure | Route around it horizontally |
Place the target in the room that fails. The search evaluates candidates on every floor, so it can fairly recommend a landing or a floor below the room when that position has a stronger link home. A useful repeater still needs roughly -60 to -67 dBm from the router; below -70 dBm, move it closer. The extender placement rules explain that backhaul window.
Follow one reliable multi-floor pass#
- Set the grid to the largest floor and the real number of floors.
- Draw Floor 1 completely, including open stair space.
- Trace the matching exterior on every other floor from the same corner, then add its own interior walls and doors.
- Choose Wood frame, Brick or Concrete and adjust the global floor loss if the build is unusually open or dense.
- Put the router on its real floor and mark the target on the failing floor.
- Run the placement search, inspect the Before/After target result and use 3D to confirm that it makes sense spatially.
If no candidate can both hear the router and reach the target, the plan is saying that a single wireless extender is not enough. Move the router, use a cable or plan a mesh system with a realistic hop path. Never place a repeater in the dead room merely because that is where the symptom is.
Multi-floor plans and 3D are free and run on the device. Floor plans and coverage simulations stay on your device; usage analytics, ad attribution and purchases are handled by separate services. Download the app to build the stack, then see the full Wi-Fi extender placement guide for the equipment decision.
Keep the vertical model conservative.
The app’s floor-loss setting is global, so do not use it to claim every point in a house behaves exactly like the stairwell. Instead, choose a value that represents the normal floor structure and use the plan to compare relative layouts. A wide open stair can provide an easier route than a slab, but it still shares the rest of the building’s walls and distance.
When a second floor has a smaller footprint, draw its real exterior and leave the unused area outside the house. Do not fill that empty space with walls simply to make the drawing look complete; fictional barriers can make a landing or upstairs node look worse than it is. In a home with three stories, check every hop separately rather than expecting one radio to cross two dense floors.
Frequently asked questions#
How many floors can Range Up map?
Up to five. All floors share one grid footprint and coordinate system.
Do I draw every floor separately?
Yes, because each floor has its own walls and doors. The shared grid aligns them automatically; trace the exterior from the same corner to keep the model honest.
How do I add stairs?
Leave the stair opening and landing as open floor on both levels. Use a Door tile for a real door at the stair top and set the global floor-loss value for the construction.
Should the extender be on the same floor as the dead room?
Not necessarily. Choose the position that gives the target the best result while maintaining a healthy backhaul, even when that is a landing or a floor below.