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Home Alarms
If you have a home that is 10 years old or less then your home may have been pre-wired for an alarm. A pre-wired home is one of the main benefits to having a newer home. If your home was built prior to 2000 then it is very unlikely that your home had been pre-wired but we have seen homes back to the early 90’s that had been wired for a home alarm. If your home was built after the year 2000 then it is very likely that your home was wired for an alarm system but it is possible that it is not.
What is a pre-wired home you ask? A pre-wired home alarm is when wires were run to all doors and windows before the sheet rock went up during the building process. This means that all contacts are recessed and that you don’t see them (typically you cannot see them). This is unable to be done after the home is built. The nice thing about a wired home is that all points of entry already have a wire waiting and it is all clean, neat and ready to go. Just as a disclaimer, you will normally find all doors and windows done but in some cases upstairs windows will not be done or wires were cut during construction. You will also have wires waiting on a keypad(s), siren, transformer and phone line.
Don’t worry, if your home wasn’t pre-wired for a home alarm you can still get protected. Non pre-wired homes would have all doors protected with motions added or other points of protection. Most homes are not wired for an alarm since most homes were built prior to 2000.
How do I know if my home is wired for an alarm system? There’s an easy way to tell whether or not your home has been pre-wired for a home alarm. It’s not enough to just have a keypad on the wall. If you have a keypad on the wall then you have at least some sort of an alarm system and you are ahead of the game but you may not have a full pre-wire. Here’s what you do, open any door in your home and look up at the top of the frame where the door shuts into the frame. You should see a white or brown recessed circle that is flush with the frame and is about the diameter of a pen. And, open any window in the home and look down at the frame where the window sits onto the frame. Again, you should see a white or brown recessed circle that is flush with the frame and is about the diameter of a pen. If you see these recessed circles then congratulations, your home has been pre-wired.
In most cases we activate all doors and all windows as well as place the other basic components required for an operational alarm system. In the alarm industry the term for setting up a pre-wired home alarm is “trim-out”. That means that we must put magnets in all of the doors and windows to complete the circuit as well as hang all other basic components (keypad(s), panel, transformer, siren, back-up battery, RJ-Jack, yard sign, decals etc…) There is typically some sort of a fee for each pre-wire that is trimmed out for the equipment and labor needed.
There have been many changes in the technology of alarm systems in the past few years and many people would now argue that a completely wireless alarm system is better than a pre-wired one. Infact, with some alarm systems today the hardwired signal is actually converted to a wireless signal for programming purposes. Please give our experienced operators a call and we can answer any questions that you have.
What ever your needs are, we look forward to being of service. Our long tenured staff is fast, friendly, knowledgeable and ready to help. Even if you just have some questions to make sense of the options out there please give us a call.
Our service, while simple, is pretty unique in the alarm Industry today. The are many different choices of alarm systems out there that fit many different needs and uses. There is no point in only offering sales, service and installation of only one Alarm Company. It simply doesn't make any sense.
That is where we are different. We offer several choices so that you get the best home alarm system for you. Within literally just a few minutes we assess the needs of what you are looking for and with our training we can precisely tell what type of Alarm Company, alarm system and alarm monitoring is best for you.
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