Need Mounting Help Suggestions

[Overcon]

I am getting ready to mount my cameras to the outside of my house and I was hoping for some ideas on how to accomplish this. Here is the scenario on what I am mounting to and what I would like to accomplish.

A little bit of history on the house. I live in the desert, gets really hot here. In order to help with insulation of the concrete walled house, the outside of the house is coated in two and a half inches of Styrofoam sheets, which is also coated in stucco to complete the insulation and coating of the house. To top the house off, we also have a steel roof. The steel roof was built over the old standard roof as sort of a second skin. Add to that the walls of the house are 16 inches of reinforced concrete.

Now that you know the conditions of the walls and roof areas that I have to mount the cameras, here is what I would like to achieve with the actual mounting. I am looking for stability of the cameras and vandal proofing. As you can imagine, the small round base on bullet cameras is not conductive to mounting on Styrofoam and stucco, especially for small and heavy cameras. Not to mention drilling through it to anchor to the walls AND drilling through the walls for the cables. The other thing I am hoping to achieve is a mounting device that I can mount to so I can change cameras if I like.

So any ideas that you can think of to help mount them to these walls would be great. I had thought that maybe taking a large round piece of metal, like a giant washer or base plate, and drilling holes in it to match the camera, then drill anchors into the concrete wall and mount them. The base plate would apply even pressure on the Styrofoam and the anchors would make it so someone couldn't just come by and yank them off the wall. This doesn't really help me with the portion of making something I can use to hide cables so I can easily switch out cameras if I wanted, but I don't have to make every mounting local able to do that, though it would be nice in case a camera goes bad, I could just unhook it and replace it. Because as it is now, the hole for the Ethernet cable is going to have to be made large enough to fit the POE connector to the camera instead of just large enough to fit the Ethernet cable through and have the one from the cable on the other side of the wall. I will say I have never mounted a camera outside and the added insulation is making it harder than it normally would, so I do appreciate any ideas.

Here are some pictures of the house and the areas i am looking at mounting cameras. Also, notice that the corners of the house look like they are fancy pillars and stuff, but that is just additional Styrofoam sculpted to look like pillars then coated in Stucco. Done to spiffy up the outside of the house. There is no wood underneath to anchor the cameras too, just concrete.

Thanks for the ideas folks!

https://drive.google.com/folderview...hmUDRJZ3FwRm80cVdOczExa3BWcU1NUHM&usp=sharing

 

[pal251]

I used some long lag screws to go through a bunch of Styrofoam and stucco into the outer plywood layer to mount 2 bullet cameras and outlet boxes. No problems yet. Can you use a long screw to go into the concrete like a tapcon

 

[Overcon]

Well that's one of the problems. If I try to mount on the corners of the house, I'd have to get through 6-8 inches of Styrofoam and then into the concrete, not sure I can get screws or stuff longer than that that would be self tapping or able to place an anchor. I'll look up Tapcon and see what they have.

 

[bike_rider]

You say steel and I think magnets. I'd go to great lengths to avoid putting holes in the stucco and styrofoam.

 

[LittleBrother]

I've not posted pics but my cameras I screwed onto thin "plates" of plywood and I have the ends of the plywood actually sandwiched in under aluminum strips that hold my eaves ventilation in place. Long story short, these are super secure and required no drilling of any kind. I have another camera in a different scenario hanging on a piece of steel bent into bits of my house also for a no-drill mount. Essentially anything that juts or has holes in it you can use to position a camera in place Imo

 

[Overcon]

I've not posted pics but my cameras I screwed onto thin "plates" of plywood and I have the ends of the plywood actually sandwiched in under aluminum strips that hold my eaves ventilation in place. Long story short, these are super secure and required no drilling of any kind. I have another camera in a different scenario hanging on a piece of steel bent into bits of my house also for a no-drill mount. Essentially anything that juts or has holes in it you can use to position a camera in place Imo

Would you mind posting some pictures? i would really love to see how you have it, I would appreciate it!

 

[code2]

why not mount them under the eave of the roof its aluminum and its protects them from the elements. I wouldn't even bother with the walls there is a reason why its that protected IMO. Plus if you screw up it will cost more to fix. put a hole in the eave atlas if you have a issue its cheep and easy to fix.

 

[Overcon]

I thought about that, but I recall someone saying that eaves vibrate when there is wind and stuff, making them no so good a mounting place, plus they are easy to just tear down the camera. But it was one of my ideas. That was why I was hoping to see how LittleBrother did his, I might be able to make something like it with metal. I think I get what he was saying, but nice to see how it's done. I was thinking of getting a 6x6x4 gang or junction box, like they make for electrical stuff and mount it to the roof, then the camera to it. That way I can keep the ethernet cable in there and am able to switch them out if needed. I just worry about them getting torn off, if I could figure some form on anchoring mechanism that would make it easier.

 

[code2]

I thought about that, but I recall someone saying that eaves vibrate when there is wind and stuff, making them no so good a mounting place, plus they are easy to just tear down the camera. But it was one of my ideas. That was why I was hoping to see how LittleBrother did his, I might be able to make something like it with metal. I think I get what he was saying, but nice to see how it's done. I was thinking of getting a 6x6x4 gang or junction box, like they make for electrical stuff and mount it to the roof, then the camera to it. That way I can keep the ethernet cable in there and am able to switch them out if needed. I just worry about them getting torn off, if I could figure some form on anchoring mechanism that would make it easier.

They vibrate when they wind blows? Really not sure how they would do that when its attached to the roof and support beams. Most of those eaves unless they have vent holes should have wood underneath them plywood to be exact and they use the aluminum side to make it pretty and cover it up.

just take a look at the eaves and see if there is plywood underneath? if not there is a easy fix for attaching them open up the eave they just snap together and may have a folded edge holding them up find a spot and put a piece of would inside and then attach the camera normally the wood will act as a anchor.

If i was mounting and I'm not a pro i would do it two ways

Mount to eave 3 holes down with a hole in the middle for cabling.

if the eave had no wood behind it i would place a piece of wood inside aka above the eave and then again mount the camera to the eave as normal but using the piece of wood as the anchor spot. the three screws would go thru the eave into the wood and again a 1 inch hole in the middle for wiring.

If i wanted to get all super fancy I would actually flush mount them into the eaves by using a tin snip to cut a hole and then all you would see is the lens and not the housing.

AS far as someone breaking them who cares that is the nature of the beast when you lack the option for high mounting. All that matters is that they can't find the NVR in the house. I rather have the eave busted up which its cheap and easier to fix rather then damage to the wall which will cost more to fix.

Plus i think it would be great video watching some idiot actually fighting a camera lol

 

[Overcon]

Yeah, that would be rather amusing, since these are all vandal resistant cameras so it would take a lot of effort to bash them in and if anchored properly pull down. I will see if I can look under the aluminum and see how they mounted the metal roof over the old roof, that's the real issue, I don't know how that is setup. Maybe I can contact the roofer that did it and see what he says, maybe he also has some insight. I think this might be the way to go, IF I can figure out how to get the cable there. The problem with mounting on the eve's is where to drill to get the cable from the attic in, I don't know how that will run if I can get a drill long enough to get through everything and to a place I can reach.

Thanks for the ideas. If I can do it mike that I will probably change the wood for a thin piece of metal, probably easier to fit and stronger and not much harder to drill through considering all the other metal, concrete and the like I already have to drill through.

 

[code2]

Yeah, that would be rather amusing, since these are all vandal resistant cameras so it would take a lot of effort to bash them in and if anchored properly pull down. I will see if I can look under the aluminum and see how they mounted the metal roof over the old roof, that's the real issue, I don't know how that is setup. Maybe I can contact the roofer that did it and see what he says, maybe he also has some insight. I think this might be the way to go, IF I can figure out how to get the cable there. The problem with mounting on the eve's is where to drill to get the cable from the attic in, I don't know how that will run if I can get a drill long enough to get through everything and to a place I can reach.

Thanks for the ideas. If I can do it mike that I will probably change the wood for a thin piece of metal, probably easier to fit and stronger and not much harder to drill through considering all the other metal, concrete and the like I already have to drill through.

Drill where you know you can clear stuff and run the wire in conduit