Commercial building roof mounts question.

Baspinall

Baspinall

Young grasshopper
Aug 11, 2016
95
8
So I have been installing cameras a quite a few car dealers lately. The newer dealerships do not want any cameras hung on the exterior of the buildings because of finishes etc. That leaves me with the roofs for exterior shots (other than light poles which we do use as well). In the past I have used non penetrating roof mounts like these but don't really care for the finished look. I am looking for ideas on mounts for the tops of the knee walls that are capped in aluminum. Trying to avoid any holes in the rubber roof membrane's running up the sides of the knee walls as well. These cameras are almost always domes with a WMS bracket. I have thought about different pole type mounts but most have a small foot print where they will be fastened. Wind would do a job on these eventually. Any idea or even better picture of what you have done would be great.
 

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What about bolting to the vertical side of the knee wall? Something like a smaller-arc version of the "fly-over" below or the "fly-out" but turn the wall bracket 180 degrees. These are from strongpoles.com .

I'll bet @bababouy has some better ideas / suggestions.

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No room. The aluminum caps just wrap about two inches over the knee wall with a drip edge. Most of the finishes below that are aluminum or Drivit wall systems.
 
Baspinall said:
No room. The aluminum caps just wrap about two inches over the knee wall with a drip edge. Most of the finishes below that are aluminum or Drivit wall systems.
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Sounds like you could just use a length of galvanized rigid conduit, topped with a galvanized cap, screwed into a el-cheapo galvanized pipe flange with holes, lag bolted to top of the knee wall. Great availability, inexpensive, highly configurable, esthetics not great but who will be walking around on the roof?

galv-pipe-flange_sm.jpg galv-pipe_sm.jpg galv-pipe-cap_sm.jpg
 
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I was a welder way back when and still have several welders in my garage. I like to build my own roof mounts for PTZs because I like to have the PTZ sit above the roof line so we can spin the camera around and and see the air conditioners and roof hatches. I use 1 1/2 threaded pipe. I buy an 8ft length and a 4 ft length and two 90 degree elbows. I usually weld two pieces of 2x2 steel angle to the end of the 8 ft length so that I have a good place to anchor the bracket to the knee wall. Most times I drill all the way through the knee wall and through bolt the bracket with 1/2" threaded rod and some nice big washers. I have anchored these brackets with larger tapcons, but that might not be recommended at a car dealership. I use the 4ft length to get out over the edge of the roof. Put an elbow on the end and the ptz will thread right into it. You can even stuff the pigtail into the pipe so that it is out of the weather.
 
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Tony - I have used that set up before. Work ok but again the foot print is very small. If your fastening to something solid like plywood or similar its good. Another issue is that the pole mount adapters are made for wider poles so you have to screw them to the galvo pipe.
 
bababouy - You got me thinking a bit. Everything is built so cheap these days that I rarely even have wood under the aluminum caps. So drilling through the span and using all thread may be a good option. Any pics of your set ups?
 
Not a member cant read the link but thanks. I have installed parapet mounts. They are good but HUGE. Looking for something not as "in your face" if that makes sense.
 
Baspinall said:
Not a member cant read the link but thanks. I have installed parapet mounts. They are good but HUGE. Looking for something not as "in your face" if that makes sense.
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If you're an installer it's worth the membership.. you can get a free trial and decide for yourself. There's lots of other useful information as well as the ability to pick the brains of others who do your kind of work.
 
fenderman said:
If you're an installer it's worth the membership..
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And if one is, in fact, a "business" and files income taxes as a business, that cost could be claimed (like steel-toed boots, professional magazine subscriptions, professional organization memberships, uniforms, tools, etc.) on your taxes.
 
Here is a video of a couple different mounts. The first one our installer mounted with one piece of threaded rod and a couple of tapcons, which is probably what they had on the truck. The second one I installed with four pieces of threaded rod. I drilled from the inside out, so there was some blow out, which we painted. It's up pretty high so you can't see the blowouts. The third one shows a PTZ mount and an aluminum mount that I welded up to hold a stationary turret that faces a roof hatch. We used tapcons on the outside of the wall because the roof membrane runs all the way to the top of the knee wall and we didn't want to penetrate it with screws. We used the thicker tapcons and they were 4 inches long. This install was about 4 years ago and we will probably inspect the mounts and fasteners in the next year or so.

 
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Thanks for the visuals. I will be out at this job site next week. I have a sneaky feeling they will shoot down anything like two or three. That would put the all thread or bolts through he Drivit wall system. If I cam get some all thread through the top cap that may work. If not I have to drill down horizontally through the cap with some kind of mount. Will keep everyone posted.
 
bababouy said:
Here is a video of a couple different mounts.....
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That was nice of you to go to that length to help a forum member.

I don't care what the car dealerships say, @bababouy , I think you're a decent guy.;)
 
I think if you were to use a flange on the top of the knee wall, you would have to keep the horizontal and vertical pipes rather short to keep the camera from bouncing or shaking. all three of these mounts have a 4 ft rise and 4 ft arm on them and if the PTZ is zoomed in all the way, and its windy out, you can see it bouncing and shaking a bit.
 
bababouy said:
I think if you were to use a flange on the top of the knee wall, you would have to keep the horizontal and vertical pipes rather short to keep the camera from bouncing or shaking. all three of these mounts have a 4 ft rise and 4 ft arm on them and if the PTZ is zoomed in all the way, and its windy out, you can see it bouncing and shaking a bit.
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Agreed.
 
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