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.