Re: What's New?

["Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Feb 27, 9:45?am, "Crash Gordon" <webmas...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Most of my jobs are nice. I'm pretty selective on what I take on...if it
> aint gonna be fun/challenging and be profitable I leave it for the other
> guys.
>
> Starting on a 6000 sqft livable with a 1200 sqft mother in law house and a
> 2000 sqft RV garage (all one job on same piece of property), this weekend.
> That one will go about 6K just on the alarm - the "other" guys proposed 3
> systems at a total of 2500$...of course for starters their way would cost my
> client 75$ per month for monitoring, my way only 25.00...not to mention what
> they left out of a proper system - you really can do a house with 35 opening
> windows, 9 doors, + other stuff on a system with only 8 zones (well maybe
> they can/will, not me).
>
> We do custom sound, structured wiring, central vac...all that other junk.
> But, I love doing the alarm stuff most of all.
>
Sounds like we're about at the same phase of our careers. I do the
nice stuff now. I'm into my third generation of customers and the work
is always there and I can choose not to do it if I don't think it's
going to be fun or challanging.
I do 98% residential now, including LAN and structured wiring,
telephone, CATV, home automation, ie, X10 lighting and thermostats,
home theater / surround sound setup and/or installation, whole house
audio.

Don't do vacuum, access control, intercom's ( except video) for
various ligitimate reasons.  Vacuum (aftermarket) is a two man job.
Intercoms just plain suck and I don't want the headache. And access
control requires the use of locksmiths or others for lock
installation. I don't like depending on undependable people. I say
what I'll do. And I do what I say. Unfortuntely, you can't depend on
others to follow the same rules.

Just finishing up a 50 thousand sq ft office and warehouse building
for one of my long time clients. I wouldn't go out now and look for
commercial this large. But this guy's business has grown through the
years and he wants me to stay with him. Nice system. Burg only.
( they've got sprikler and someone else who does that) Three
partitions. Glass break detectors in most offices, ceiling mount PIR's
in halls. Huge glass lobby entrance, rounded out to a half circle of
glass wall up 18 feet high. Terazza floors. I thought it was too hard
an area to put glass break detection and there was no way to mount a
motion detector so that it wasn't looking at glass. The regular
ceiling mount units had too big a circle of protected area when
mounted that high, so .... I did a few calculations and mounted a
regular dual tech unit on the ceiling looking down at the floor. The
entry door has contacts and a curtain of protection from the motion
detector, just wide enough, starting where the glass ends. I wasn't
sure it was going to work, but it does great. You can't make it from
the entry door to any of the office doors off the lobby without
activing it.

Three partitions total, with the main lobby common to two of the
partitions. Seven keypads, 12 Glass breaks, 12 motion detectors. 10
doors. 2 overhead doors.

The job was in progress for about a year as they just gradually moved
in from their old location and improved the building as needed. Took a
bit of planning and allowing for contingencies, since they didn't have
a clear idea of how the layout of office and shop was eventually going
to end up. A fun job and a challange for one person to accomplish with
out any help. But the great part,  is when you turn it on, and it does
exactly what you planned it to do, that's a great reward. And I have
to say, that if I were working with help, that it probably wouldn't
have happend that way.