Wi‑Fi through brick walls
Brick does not create a fixed “range”. It subtracts from the signal budget, and multiple walls can compound the loss.
Brick loss is meaningful, but variable
Cisco’s RF guidance uses roughly 10 dB as a typical brick-wall attenuation example, while other deployment references show broad ranges because wall thickness, moisture and construction vary. A 10 dB loss is substantial: in power terms it represents a tenfold reduction. That does not automatically break a Wi‑Fi link, but it can turn a comfortable margin into a marginal one.
Higher bands usually have less margin
5 GHz and 6 GHz can deliver excellent performance at short range, but higher-frequency links generally have less propagation margin through dense barriers. That is why a room may show excellent 5 GHz performance near the router but fall back to 2.4 GHz after several masonry walls.
Do not put a wireless mesh node after the signal has already failed
A wireless mesh node needs its own upstream connection. If it sits deep inside the weak zone, it may advertise a strong local Wi‑Fi signal while relaying traffic over a poor backhaul link. Put it before the worst barrier, near a doorway/open route, or use Ethernet to cross the barrier.
Use the planner comparatively
Draw only the masonry walls that materially separate the router from the rooms you care about. Then compare 2.4 and 5 GHz, move the router and test a node on each side of the wall. The relative change is more trustworthy than interpreting any single predicted dBm value as a measurement.
Related tools and guides
Visual Wi‑Fi coverage planner · Mesh calculator · All Wi‑Fi guides