Re: How much effort should I put to hard-wire?

[soundy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Eric Stauffer wrote:
> I am in the midst of designing an alarm system for my residence. I have
> four exterior entrances (front, back, two sets of french doors) and one
> to the garage I would like to alarm. This is an circe 1920 house so
> installing the switches may not be a walk in park. How much effort
> should I put into hard-wiring the switches before I look to RF? I do
> have a basement will (nearly) full access to the areas below the doors.

You could possibly drill down through the door step into the basement
and put recessed switches in.  Be sure to use a sufficient angle inward
to come out the side of the floor joist or beam that will be directly
beneath the door, since the bottoms of the joists will likely be
resting on concrete, and you'll need to be sure to countersink the
sensor a bit so you can seal up the hole with caulking afterward.
Mounting the magnet will probably require taking the doors off to drill
into their bottoms.

If you go this way, you'll probably want to use wide-gap switches as
well, as you'll have to put them in the step fairly deep to get the
angle you need and leave room for a solid dab of caulking.