Hollanda

Yep, suspended floors on an Edwardian house (see pic). All exposed and in good condition. Only one room has been sanded by previous owner - and some of these sanded and non-sanded floorboards are already up (for the rewire job we had). Thanks @al-yeti good advice. Will keep this in mind. I’ll probably lift a few that are already up and have a nosey

@al-yeti because it’s the weekend and itching to start sanding floors now 😅 I also tend to discuss ideas/thoughts with a wider community - good to have multiple viewpoints e.g. one electrician that wanted to do a job said he would have to destroy our cornices to get a wire through, but another electrician said he could get it done without damaging cornices. It’s obvious who got the job! So it was good to discuss it with multiple people to understand the work/options etc. Anyway I’m finding this a great place to learn about security related decisions. Everyone has been so helpful, so I guess sometimes I get carried away!

@MrHappy I didn’t really understand - is this a trademark rant? 😅 Going back to hardwiring - when you folks run security cables under suspended floors, do you need to lift all the floorboards or just a few? We have a few of our pine floorboards up already, but trying to understand how many more will need to be lifted. Also assuming you drill through the joists and run the cables through there? I need to sand my floorboards down so trying to figure out how to organise sanding with the wiring. I’m happy to delay the sanding but ideally I’d get on with sanding before the cables are even run

Thanks folks. I’m looking for a balance - reasonable quality but not paying over the odds and not over engineering something simple. I’ll have a look at what you’ve suggested 👌

@al-yeti I didn’t know PIR cameras exist 😂 thanks for this. What models do you reckon I should look at? For context it looks like pretty soon I’ll have a HKC system installed 🤞(thanks for turning me away from Pyronix)!

Hi all, Now that an intruder alarm is in the pipeline (thanks to all your help), I’m looking into other aspects of security, and wondering if you could share any tips/experiences on the following. What’s a good budget indoor camera and NVR bundle? I want the NVR to have enough storage for around ~28 days of 1080p footage from 2-3 indoor cameras. The indoor cameras can be wireless. In the future I may want to integrate 1-2 external PoE cameras to the NVR. Alternatively it seems a lot less hassle to buy 3 Ring indoor cameras and rely on the home subscription bundle to store videos in the cloud (with microphone muted 😭) I did look at Eufy but feels very limited and I’ve read something about having to expand HD storage myself. Other things I’d consider are a Reolink Hybrid or Lorex bundle but I haven’t looked at the prices for these yet. I plan to point these cameras at the entry points that have wireless shock/contact sensors (my way of sussing out a false alarm when I’m not home).

Thanks @PeterJames this has already been very helpful, and now I know about HKC! (very happy to have stumbled upon this community - you’ve all been very helpful and already a fan of @MrHappy 😁)

Thanks to all the collaboration/help here, I have a few more things to look into (HKC, SIM modules) so it’ll stall my plans for a little while. I’d be delighted to get some recommended HKC installers for the South London area (my Wife will insist on NSI/SSAIB registered installer as it will give peace of mind for future requirements or changes ).

Of If I opt out of a sim during initial installation, is it fairly straightforward to retrofit a sim later? I imagine it’s some “plug-in” sim module I can add later?

Hi @james.wilson thanks for the info. What’s a solid alternative to a 4G router as a backup WAN? I’ve heard that these security systems (Pyronix etc) can have GPRS modules, but not sure what these are nor where to start! I’d be happy to have recommmendations 🤞

Thank you. HKC seems a good one to explore. Are there many people on this forum with HKC systems? Wondering what the community is like. (actually would be a good thing to see what systems people in this community have).

@MrHappy that sounds like a disaster 😂 what would you folks recommend then? I really do want minimal maintenance which is why I’m keen on hardwired system. My requirement is that it should be a Grade 1 system with the capacity to add response monitoring in case I need it in the future. Trying to also future proof in case insurers ask for minimum Grade 1 system in future.

@al-yeti I had a rewire recently and haven’t got round to decorating yet. So some of the suspended floorboards haven’t been nailed down yet which should mean easier access. Open to some additional chasing as long as it’s minimal

cheers mate much appreciated. Out of interest why would you recommend Texecom over Pyronix? @al-yeti suggested the same. Is it just that Texecom has more mature tech/app? For the hardwired option I thought this would be straightforward as I recently had a rewire and thought the engineer could run the 8-core cables along the same path, but looks like they should be at least 150mm apart to avoid interference?

@PeterJames ivery helpful, thanks for this. Is it straightforward for me to change the batteries myself? @al-yeti: x1 wireless control panel with backup battery x1 wireless keypad with prox x5 fobs x2 wireless surface door contact x1 wireless external sounder bell with cover x1 wireless internal bell x6 wireless PIR sensor x1 smartcom above system will be tested and commissioned. I am open to having it hardwired. I’m hoping having suspended floors will mean the job is less messy