Home alarm wiring forums 1

[fs483]

Hello,

Do you guys know of any sites/forums that explain how to fish wires for alarm installations inside walls in finished rooms. I know the general way of fishing wires but for let's say window contacts with the wire comes out the side of the casing then goes straight down to the baseboard, how do you do it without punching a hole in the wall to feed wire from the side jam ? How about above the door contacts (or inside the door jam contacts) ? I know you can always use crown molding to hide the wires and holes but trying to feed fish tape down the top of the wall doesn't give a lof of space and makes nice scratches on a white ceiling ?

Also, let's say I want to make a perimeter zone (just for windows), is it normally done by home running each contact to the main panel or just each attach the 2 contacts (per window) in series and home run just 1 cable to the panel ? If you put in series the 2 contacts (of a window), where do you make the connection ? I like home running everything because it adds flexibility and avoids loosing a whole zone if the wire goes bad. In my last home installation, I had a few open holes in my ceilings and had upgraded my system 3 times over 30 years so some wires where home run while others were daisy chained. I'm moving into another apartment with no existing alarm. Home running all the contacts/motion detectors/keypads/power/telephone/sirens will be a lot of work. I don't like wireless solution.

thanks
akwong

 

[mikeydidit]

http://www.houseinprogress.net/archives/000118.html

You may be able to find more in here.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[fs483]

I guess there's no trick other than drilling in a angle for the window contacts. For the doors, hide the wire in the jam and hope the finishing nails for the casing will not pierce the cable.

 

[mikeydidit]

I still do not understand why people on new construction do not include pathways for alarm systems, CATV, Network connectivity. It is crazy not to and 3 times the work to do it after the fact.

I had to almost beg a friend of mine to let me install Cat 5E in his new home when he was building it. I installed everything for free to get him to. His "famous Last words" I will never need that. That was a year ago. Now he has DSL connected to 3 outlets and a wireless router. Go figure.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[fs483]

House was built in 1980 with concrete between each floor. House has 3 floors. For window contacts, I guess I will drill straight down from the window sil (spelling???) or ledge and take the wire out behind the baseboard. Either way, baseboard needs to be replaced. Tenant thought that nailing 3 inch nails to hold a coax cable was appropriate. Door contacts will be installed on the bottom. Main panel will be in a closet. Will start demo in July with hopefully not too many holes to patch. Normally I would take my time (it's my own apartment) and avoid making unnecessary holes but in this case, I'm in a tight deadline to have the walls painted, floor sanded and move in before the future wife gets too angry of the mess !

 

[dagwoodsystems]

mikeydidit: I'm ready to start my new company with you. Especially with the upcoming Fiber-To-The-House stuff, I could see a group of guys making a boatload of money specializing in the next generation of wired homes.

I know we've gone round and round about Sparky doing the looped two-pair wiring at the outlets, and that junk has got to stop.

Couldn't you see hooking up with a local homebuilder who wants to make the new BOMB of a wired smarthouse?

Tim Alberstein

http://www.dagwoodsystems.com

 

[mikeydidit]

I don't feel the general public knows anything about high speed data connections or RG-6 for CATV. They just want to plug something in somewhere at have it work. Now add that to the cost of their house and WOW. It cost how much to add Cat 5????

They just don't realize that this price is low compared to having any of us come out and do it when the sheetrock is up and painted. That easily accessible vaulted ceiling before the sheetrock is installed is now a nightmare to get cables through.

In my area I could install phone jacks in new homes until I was sick of looking at them. But I mainly do them for friends and family of course. My fee is usually a good meal. For such a small area that I am in here, we have more communications companies than work sometimes. We have a lot of the old AT&T divestiture guys still around that opened up shops and they do good work at a premium price. A couple of them even do fiber. It seems to stay in business with your company you have to reach out and do more than you would really like to sometimes. But the enviable goal of paying the bills at the end of the month and the account not in the red can still happen if you are willing to do so.


Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[fs483]

When the home owner mentions the cost of network cabling to sparky, sparky offers to run it for them at half the price. Anyways, he's already onsite and he's already running romex , why not just tie a Cat5 (and a RG59) togheter and run it all at once for a minimal fee !

 

[mikeydidit]

And then sparky staples it then daisy chains it and you have great telephone connections. It might even work for data if you are using dialup and need about 14,200 connection.. LOL. Everyone want to make money from it but not everyone (as we already know) can do it.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594