How to Tell if Your Home Has Been Pre-wired for Security

It is easy to determine if your home has been pre-wired for security, if you know what you are looking for.

If your home is in the Houston area and was built before 1992, then chances are that it was not pre-wired for security. However, if it was pre-wired, often it was wired with only 1 wire running from window to window (looped). If this is the case, then if that wire was cut anywhere in the string, then every contact after that point will be bad and need to be re-wired.

But if your home was built after 1992, then most security companies in the Houston area would home run each individual access point back to the panel. This was done so that if a wire was bad, there was only 1 access point that needed to be fixed instead of several.

Below is a short video explaining just how to tell if your home is pre-wired for security.

In the video you notice that the contact is usually located in the window sill. This will only be on the bottom level of the home. If your home is a 2 story, the home has accessible openings on the 2nd floor contacted, but not windows where there is no landing beneath the window.

An exception that I forgot to mention on the video would be the case where they have installed vinyl windows in the home. In the alarm business, we typically do not drill vinyl windows due to the window manufacturers recommendations and warranty policies. In this case, you may see a wire hanging out of the bottom window sill, or on the side of the window.

Another way you can tell if you home has been pre-wired for security is to look inside your closet for a blank wall plate. Most times if you find this wall plate, it will be in the master bedroom. Sometimes the wall plate will be upstairs if the home is a 2 story. But not all companies put up a wall plate, so the sure way to tell if the home is pre-wired is to raise the ground floor windows.

If you see blank wall plates in the living area in the ceiling or on the walls close to where the TV sits, that is the pre-wiring for your surround sound system. If you see blank wall plates on the ceiling in your master, spare bedrooms, or back porch, that will be for distributed audio speakers.

If you have any questions or need a walk thru over the phone on ensuring that your home is pre-wired for security, just give us a call.

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