wireless access point placement

the best place i have found for researching this is the 802.11 *antenna* websites. seems to be an art to me and i would want some tools for measuring. you are looking out for reflections and deadspots and of course other transmitters like cell phone...you can't go thru doors and walls and floors as a rule of thumb (a thousand techs are screaming yes you can but as a rule don't count on it) you'll have better luck getting thru windows. think 'line of sight' but that is not the whole story just good starting place. if no line of sight, forget it. trees, snow, heavy rain, bushes that are bare in winter and grow leafy in summer are problematic. conductive stuff blocks it. wiring in walls, moisture. here we build lots with adobe and stucco. the stucco is plastered onto steel mesh. you can forget about getting thru that.
i always tell folks i have to roam around with some test devices. if you know any old timer hams, they would be great resource.

We have a few hundred at our university. Each placement is decided on an individual basis. We typically do site surveys with a laptop and an access point, checking the strength an coverage, while placing the AP in different locations. Out of the few hundred, only a handfull needed special attention.