Tag Archives: Home Security Installation

Tips for Home Security Installation

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An elaborate home security system can be quite an undertaking.  While there are many excellent wireless home security systems on the market today that can greatly simplify installation, they are sometimes quite pricey or overkill for what the average homeowner needs.  And that’s what it really comes down to – a system that you as the homeowner feel comfortable with, and one that lets you sleep soundly at night.

Interestingly, most of the people we work with are more concerned with creating a safe environment for their family rather than protect their personal possessions.  When looking for a home security system to install, you should keep that in mind and ask yourself what is it that you are trying to achieve? Or what is it that you are trying to protect? Think about it to see what really matters to you.  Home security installation for protecting your possessions is quite different that a system that is designed to alert you and your family of unwanted intruders in your home. And a system that is designed to alert you to an intruder is orders of magnitude less complicated than one with video surveillance and automated police or emergency notification.

So the first tip was to narrowly define what your goal is for your home security system. The second tip is to look at separate components to achieve your goal, not so-called “plug and play” systems. You may be able to get away with a series of motion detectors that cover either you main rooms or your main avenues of travel in your house. You’ll be much better off installing a series of motion detectors that terminate into an alarm or notification module than running sensors to every individual door and window. Plus, in a single story home, having access to the attic will make installing motion detectors and running the wires to a central termination center fairly simple.

The last tip is don’t make it too complicated. Bells and whistles are fun to play with, and may make you feel better about your system, but ultimately they won’t make you, your family, or your possessions any safer.

Wired Home Security Installation

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If you must install a wired home security system, let’s go over some tips on how to make all your wire runs with the least amount of damage.

The most important thing you’ll want to make sure you have is a wire tape, or fish tape as some people call it.  This is a roll of flexible metal “tape” that can be pushed up through small openings in the wall and manipulated quite a long ways.  The idea is to use it to pull wire through the walls and floors by taping it to the end once it’s “fished” from one end to another.  This tool will be instrumental in getting the wires pulled where you want.

If you have a one story or a ranch home, you’re most likely going to pull the wires from your keypad, or base station up into the attic and traverse from there.  You can easily reach any point in your house from there.  You’ll run them over to the window or door where you want them, then drill a hole in the top of the wall.  In the living space, you’ll drill a small hole in the wall where you want to fish the wire out.  Back in the attic, you’ll run your fish tap down so you can grab it, tape a wire onto it, and pull it back up into the attic.

Please note, windows and doors are tricky!  The framing is never straight forward.  Unless the window falls exactly on a stud, it is framed in such a way that the sides may be 3 or 4 studs together.  The top, of course, must be strong enough to transfer the weight of the house above the window down and around it to the foundation.  That means there’s going to be a lot of trick drilling and maneuvering to get the wires where you want them.

I guarantee that you’ll have some exposed wires between the wall and the window sensor! If you can find some way to avoid this, please let me know.  I’ve been doing this for a long time, and that’s the way wired security systems go.  Unless you’re running the wires in a new house with no insulation, or drywall, you’re going to see some wires.

Home Security Installation: Do It Yourself Or Call a Pro?

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The problem with many do it yourself projects is, well, you have to do them yourself.  That means time, tools, material, mistakes, frustration, and lots of learning.  This can be a good thing, of course, but it is certainly time consuming, and you hate to learn on your own house.  I took on a tile project in my house once, and learned a lot.  A whole lot.  For example, I learned that you should screw in the backer board about with screws spaced out no more than six inches.  If you don’t, you’ll get lose tiles, cracking grout, and eventually cracks.  Great, good lesson learned.  And now I have to rip out a bunch of tiles to fix the sub floor.

Same thing for a home security installation job.  You’ll figure it out, eventually, and you’ll make some mistakes along the way.  Hopefully they won’t be anything that you can’t easily fix, but who knows…  Your chances of having a “major” screw up are much, much greater if you decide to tackle a wired system.  Wired security systems have the distinction of needing a LOT of copper.  They need runs for every window, door, smoke alarm, motion sensor, and so on.  That’s a lot of chances to break, cut, smash or ruin something that doesn’t need ruining.

That’s why I sincerely recommend a wireless home security system installation.  There isn’t a whole lot that you can ruin.  Sure you might ding a wall or scratch some paint, but that’s small potatoes compared to cutting a 110V line or falling through the ceiling (don’t laugh, I’ve done it!).

So think hard about what exactly you’re going to benefit from by getting a wired system.  If you’re set on it and can’t be persuaded, make a few phone calls and find a professional installer for a quote.  As a matter of fact, find a couple of professional security systems installers and see what they say.  You might find a big price difference that you can leverage to get the best price for a new home security system installation.