cameras mounted at 20 ft

[sdipcam]

I got a two floor split level house that is not wired for ethernet. I think I can get ethernet to some of the attic. And then hoping to use soffits for fishing cable to the rest of the house that has no attic (vaulted ceilings). This is already a big project for me. But the end result is going to be cameras mounted at around 20 ft or more. As bigredfish pointed out in another thread, this will not let me see any faces. Do you guys have a similar setup?

I think it's fine and it will let me know when someone is coming. I was then thinking to get some wifi cameras at the entryways to help with identification. Is that a reasonable plan or am I wasting my time?

If I figure out how to get ethernet to first floor, would the cameras on second floor still be useful at that point? Or am I totally wasting my time on cameras on second floor?

 

[dudemaar]

is your basement finished (dry-walled ceilings) ? Pics of the house all around would help.

 

[Oceanslider]

I got a two floor split level house that is not wired for ethernet. I think I can get ethernet to some of the attic. And then hoping to use soffits for fishing cable to the rest of the house that has no attic (vaulted ceilings). This is already a big project for me. But the end result is going to be cameras mounted at around 20 ft or more. As bigredfish pointed out in another thread, this will not let me see any faces. Do you guys have a similar setup?

I think it's fine and it will let me know when someone is coming. I was then thinking to get some wifi cameras at the entryways to help with identification. Is that a reasonable plan or am I wasting my time?

If I figure out how to get ethernet to first floor, would the cameras on second floor still be useful at that point? Or am I totally wasting my time on cameras on second floor?

If you own the house and plan on staying there awhile, down the road when you can't see faces you might have wished you spent the money to have a pro install the ethernet.

 

[sdipcam]

is your basement finished (dry-walled ceilings) ? Pics of the house all around would help.

Yes its finished basement on half the house that has vaulted ceilings, except for small section of furnace room. Which is where I am goign to pull ethernet to the attic. Its in the middle of the house so no access to exterior walls. The other half of the house is concrete slab but has an attic. Let me work on getting pictures.

If you own the house and plan on staying there awhile, down the road when you can't see faces you might have wished you spent the money to have a pro install the ethernet.

Owned and yes we will be here 20 years+. I spoke to an electrician and he just said make holes in the walls every few feet in the basement and rooms in the first floor. Turned me off about the idea. Don't want to repaint at this point. And it will bother me to live with the imperfections. But maybe I should leave this project alone until I can do that. The question is, will cameras at 20 ft be a good thing in the long run or just an expensive and useless temporary measure?
I should probably contact someone other than an electrician though. Not sure what to look for, and at this point I wont be letting anyone into the house. Again another reason to postpone this project. Just wondering if there is any part of it I can do myself.

 

[area651]

cameras at 20ft are completely useless other than seeing that "someone was there at a certain time". I would definitely advise running wire and accepting that there's going to be cost involved. It's likely tempting to think to just go wi-fi but I've done it myself and its very much NOT worth the hassle. It doesn't work well and when it works at all, you get constant disconnects, unresponsive cams that have to be power cycled, etc. In the end, you've wasted a lot of money (and likely time with constant returns) and you got a LOT of frustration.

Wireless is possible however but I'd say only for a couple indoor cams that are close to the very nice and capable router (not the one from your ISP). Even then, I still have disconnects and sometimes have to go directly to the camera and unplug/plug the power.

 

[Oceanslider]

Yes its finished basement on half the house that has vaulted ceilings, except for small section of furnace room. Which is where I am goign to pull ethernet to the attic. Its in the middle of the house so no access to exterior walls. The other half of the house is concrete slab but has an attic. Let me work on getting pictures.

Owned and yes we will be here 20 years+. I spoke to an electrician and he just said make holes in the walls every few feet in the basement and rooms in the first floor. Turned me off about the idea. Don't want to repaint at this point. And it will bother me to live with the imperfections. But maybe I should leave this project alone until I can do that. The question is, will cameras at 20 ft be a good thing in the long run or just an expensive and useless temporary measure?
I should probably contact someone other than an electrician though. Not sure what to look for, and at this point I wont be letting anyone into the house. Again another reason to postpone this project. Just wondering if there is any part of it I can do myself.

I just had my house repiped and patched up three months ago, pre Covid, after a major flood. So there was more than usual drywall repair and the repipe company set me up with a drywall guy that only charged me 950 to patch and texture everything, 2200sqft house, which for the job they did was pretty low. But a good electrician should be able to only cut small and fewer holes and your job could be much less The network wiring guys usually don't patch and texture themselves. And you can't really get a bid on the patch and texture until you know the amount of holes. If the house is fairly recently painted and you know the exact colors you can patch paint only, that's what I did. But I would call a few repipe companies to see if you can get some names of guys that do patching.

 

[sdipcam]

I just had my house repiped and patched up three months ago, pre Covid, after a major flood. So there was more than usual drywall repair and the repipe company set me up with a drywall guy that only charged me 950 to patch and texture everything, 2200sqft house, which for the job they did was pretty low. But a good electrician should be able to only cut small and fewer holes and your job could be much less The network wiring guys usually don't patch and texture themselves. And you can't really get a bid on the patch and texture until you know the amount of holes. If the house is fairly recently painted and you know the exact colors you can patch paint only, that's what I did. But I would call a few repipe companies to see if you can get some names of guys that do patching.

What is a repipe company? Do they do network conduit or something? Or is the network guys the ones that do it?

 

[sdipcam]

cameras at 20ft are completely useless other than seeing that "someone was there at a certain time". I would definitely advise running wire and accepting that there's going to be cost involved. It's likely tempting to think to just go wi-fi but I've done it myself and its very much NOT worth the hassle. It doesn't work well and when it works at all, you get constant disconnects, unresponsive cams that have to be power cycled, etc. In the end, you've wasted a lot of money (and likely time with constant returns) and you got a LOT of frustration.

Wireless is possible however but I'd say only for a couple indoor cams that are close to the very nice and capable router (not the one from your ISP). Even then, I still have disconnects and sometimes have to go directly to the camera and unplug/plug the power.

Ok so sounds like it would be a total waste of money for me. Maybe i'll just do a few door cams for now and toss them once I get the wiring done. That should be better than nothing I hope, atleast for now.

 

[dudemaar]

If you have a garage and its similar to my install pics, then you can easy run 4 camera wires into garage and neatly strap the White wires onto upper ceiling corner of garage and not even notice them.


Back yard cameras maybe not so easy unless you have siding along side of house, then you can tuck wires inside the siding back into the garage. ( unclip bottom siding panel, place wire inside and click it back together carefully as you go)

 

[sdipcam]

If you have a garage and its similar to my install pics, then you can easy run 4 camera wires into garage and neatly strap the White wires onto upper ceiling corner of garage and not even notice them.
View attachment 60616View attachment 60617

Back yard cameras maybe not so easy unless you have siding along side of house, then you can tuck wires inside the siding back into the garage. ( unclip bottom siding panel, place wire inside and click it back together carefully as you go)
View attachment 60618

thanks for sharing, that is a great idea. I might be able to get to the garage from the attic. It's attached and the garage attic is unfinished and next to a bedroom. That may mean if i drill a hole from attic down into garage I might hit its attic but not sure. Then I can drill a hole up from garage celing and put cables all around like you did. Wish I had access to garage attic to make this easier. Anyhow, this gets me about 15 ft from my front door so not ideal. Bu it does get me access to my driveway, which I wasn't sure how to do.

How did you make holes on the brick veener? I also have brick veener and im afraid to drill into it. They are old and I feel like the will pop out if i mess with them.

 

[looney2ns]

Hire an electrician that is low voltage certified. If your not able to do it your self. They do this kind of work everyday, it won't take long.
There is almost always a way to get Ethernet cable where you need it without destroying the house.
With some planning, and studying techniques, it's not nearly as daunting as it seems.
On brick, you drill on the mortar joints.
Pics can help us help you.

 

[AP514]

@sdipcam ... Re-pipe is when a contractor comes in your house and REPLACES your OLD Rusted out Galvanized Water Lines with plastic Pecks Piping or similar.

 

[sdipcam]

Hire an electrician that is low voltage certified. If your not able to do it your self. They do this kind of work everyday, it won't take long.
There is almost always a way to get Ethernet cable where you need it without destroying the house.
With some planning, and studying techniques, it's not nearly as daunting as it seems.
On brick, you drill on the mortar joints.
Pics can help us help you.

Okay thanks for the info on electrician type.

 

[looney2ns]

@sdipcam ... Re-pipe is when a contractor comes in your house and REPLACES your OLD Rusted out Galvanized Water Lines with plastic Pecks Piping or similar.

We call those plumbers.

 

[samplenhold]

Hire an electrician that is low voltage certified

Just in case you missed it, looney's statement...the key words are 'low voltage'. They specialize in running these applications.

Another thing to consider is to have someone (or yourself) install a pull down staircase in your garage to access the attic above. They run about $200, like this one from HD:

Louisville Ladder 7 ft. 8 in. to 10 ft. 3 in., 22.5 in. x 54 in. Aluminum Attic Ladder with 375 lbs. Maximum Load Capacity AA2210I - The Home Depot

The Louisville AA2210I Aluminum Attic Ladder offers an R5 insulated door with weather stripping providing more energy efficiency than a traditional attic ladder. Designed for attic openings of 22.5 in.

www.homedepot.com

cameras mounted at around 20 ft

The trouble with cameras that high is even if you have a varifocal zoomed in close enough to get good definition, all you see is the top of the head, not the face. You will be very disappointed if you have an incident and the only cameras you have are at 20' and you only see the top of their head. Having said that, they are good for general overview. I have two cameras on my garage viewing in a cross pattern of the driveway and another up on the second floor giving a great overview of the driveway and street. The two lower cameras have given face ID of door checkers, one of whom was arrested due to the shot I supplied the police. The overview camera gave information on the direction of travel and other crimes committed along the street. Since I live on a corner, I have three such high mounted overview cameras. I like them since I can see what is going on around me while I sit at my desk replying to threads on IPCamTALK.

The other function of these overview cameras will serve is once I get my LPR cams installed and zoomed in on the street, they can supply vehicle info such as make, model, color, etc.