Need Advice on Home Security/ADT Installation

I recently purchased a house that already has pre-wired home security system. It has the following already built in:

1. All double-hung windows on the first floor has contact points.
2. All first floor entries/exits have contact points.
3. Basement walkout door has a contact point.
4. Basement bedroom double-hung windows (dug out) have contact points.
5. By front door, there is a motion detector.

ADT rep proposed installing the following:

6. Fire/heat sensor (monitored) on every floor (3).
7. Wireless contact points for two double-hung doors on the second floor that are right above a roof line.
8. Wireless receiver.
9. Cellguard (uses cell instead of landline to call ADT)
10. Another motion detector near the backdoor to the garage.
11. Wireless contact points for basement windows (they are casement, but medium size and open, barely enough for a very thin teenager, maybe).

These will cost me about $1200.

My wife wants to add more:

12. Wireless contact points for ALL windows upstairs (17 extra).
13. A third motion detector on the 2nd floor.
14. Broken glass detector on casement windows in the kitchen, powder room, laundry room, master bath (total of 7).
15. Replace existing keypads with up-to-date ADT ones (3).

This will probably cost me extra $1800-2500, for the grand total of $3000 to $3700 (I do get USAA discount on ADT products, 10% I think).

My question is, is this overkill? What can I safely omit? Or should I just say to myself "this is a one time cost and gives me and my family a peace of mind." I'd appreciate some advice.

 

I used to live in RA (home builder) neighborhood. A guy down the street had every window alarmed. Imagine his (and entire neighborhoods) surprise when the burgular just cut through the siding and entered the house (no plywood- just siding, styroform, and drywall). I'm mentioning this because we tend to look at things how we would do things. If we were to enter our house as a burglar, we would come through the window! I think alarming all upstairs windows (#12 on your list) is overkill. If someone REALLY wanted to get into your house (and why pick your house over the one down the street?), would alarming all windows stop them? I think #8, #9,#13 and #14 are overkill as well.

You have to ask yourself what is the purpose of the alarm. Is it to alert you while you are sleeping that someone is entering the house (motion detectors would be off while you are home). If you are away, is it to scare off a burglar (if so, why not target a house with no alarm system signs). If it is to alert the police, they will not respond in time to catch anyone.

You should do whatever you can to give you the peace of mind that you seek, but don't get complacent in that an alarm system is the end all of security.

 

My Mom has guardian at both houses. They upgraded the main control box (Honeywell) keypads etc FREE, allows web based access monitoring etc $30/month I think. It is GSM based. I'd shop around, ADT is not known for good hardware. They farm out the installs and just collect the monthly fees. I did see a Brinks system in this area that was quality.

You'll never keep someone out, so realize it is only monitoring and response. That's my philosophy anyway, I just want to know if someone is in our house.

For our house:

Top grade motion sensors (IR and K-band radar) and a second heavy duty outdoor siren that you can hear for about a block. I'd skip the 2nd floor windows. We only wired the basement windows since they are so easy to push in (and the door). The Honeywell Vista 20P is a top grade control box that can be programmed however you want it (and also has a lot of support on forums).

Do the fire alarms.

Our downstairs motion sensors are active at night when it is armed.

Also add for the garage doors (overhead and side door). This has been one of the more useful ones, no more laying in bed at night wondering if we closed the garage doors. Also prevents someone from trying codes (they've automated this process I imagine) on your garage door until it opens. Garage door opens alarm goes off.

The other features I can't live without is our bidirectional remote with voice status. Works reliably at a range of 200+ ft and opens the garage door and disarms at the same time. Hardly slow down entering the garage. Kind of a bulky remote but I really like it, Kim on the other hand prefers the little keychain remote. Point is some people want different things. Kim uses the keypad downstairs to turn on/off the lights sometimes, I never do that. On the other hand I have a button on the remote called "snack mode" that disarms and brings the kitchen lights up to 30% that she never uses.

For the amount of money you are talking about I would spend it on some alarm and some lighting automation.

We interfaced ours to the lighting automation, alarm goes off lights flash. Also when arming at night turns off all the lights. We can also program the alarm system to cycle the lights while we are on vacation.

Try to do wired as much as possible - makes upgrading down the road easy (they are all contact closure sensors mostly), no interference issues and no batteries to replace.

We skipped control pads upstairs and use wireless Honeywell remotes, I did wire a light to let me know that it had armed sucessfully. Try to buy top notch hardware (e.g. Honeywell) and do wired and you should not have any false alarms - we've not had one (that was hardware related). Aesecurity is a good place to buy things online, also once you know what to get you can buy additional $75-$125 motion detectors and remotes etc for $5-$10 new on ebay, etc.

If I were doing one thing over: I have a motion light switch for the laundry/mud room. I'd put a good motion sensor there and automate that light. The Honeywell 7435 is a great sensor that works much more reliably than those wall switches with the built in motion (which are only IR).

 

Pay for the hardware/install and get monitoring elsewhere and you'll save $$ (no contract nonsense, etc). Monitoring should cost $12-$20/month for dispatched service.

 

And one point about USAA and ADT. If you arrange the system through USAA, you will be working with ADT directly and not some local subcontractor crap. At least that is what I was told about 5 years ago.

I think the Glass break sensors are great for large rooms with multiple windows... like in our unfinished basement. I like having the keychain remote upstairs to activate the alarm from bed when we are going to sleep. We have one motion sensor on the stairs in addition to the wireless door/window contacts.

 

Wow! Your house will be MORE secure than Ft Knox and I've lived there too!

In my eyes, its kinda overkill....I would think that there are more breakins in Fairfax County than here. But again I haven't seen the stats in awhile.

 

I work with a local security company and I've always thought that covering every window on 2nd floors, top and bottom sashes, was overkill. There are however situations where it is understandable - for example, we've done systems for CIA agents and high profile executives for government contractors. If you think your lifestyle or career makes you a higher target, then a system with more coverage is worth consideration. If your concern is vandalism and burglary, then your house sounds like it already has decent coverage.

Smoke detection and life safety is an no-brainer, I think anyone with any basic monitored system should add life safety. Regarding burglary - additional motions, glass breaks, and contacting the 2nd floor doors is probably sufficient.

I'd be able to offer you the same additions as ADT for the same price. However the bonus with me is that my cell back up has online interactive features giving you the ability to track your system and arm/disarm from a computer or smart phone. It can also be set up to text/email when an event happens or doesn't happen... For example - your teen disarms the system everyday at 3pm when returning from school. If the system is not disarmed by 3:15, you get a text/email.

Also the interactive module can be tied to cameras, door locks, lights, and thermostats giving you a basic home control system. You can unlock your front door, disarm the system, then watch your in-laws enter the house all from your iPhone.

Signing up for three years will give you 10% off parts/install with monitoring at $32/month (interactive features included). Signing up for five years will give you a 15% discount on parts/install and monitoring is $29/month.

 

I wanted to revive this thread..... anybody have a good suggestion on who to use to install an alarm system

 

We recently used hometheaterguy to pull some more ethernet and were very happy with the work he did.

Nice individual, experienced. Spent a good amount of time mapping it out coming up with a plan (which he did not charge for).

One thing to consider is that if you have it done by an individual, they can set it up so that you are not locked out of the system - some of the bigger companies will do that so you have to go through them to add a sensor or keypad.

I've been very happy with the Honeywell Vista 20P that Kim and I installed ourselves a few years back.

 

We use two vendors: Protect America & Vinvit for a few years. PA does wireless sensors, internet etc. Vinvit allows for real-time monitoring & home automation via the internet as well. Very happy with both of their services.

http://www.vivint.com/
www.protectamerica.com

FWIW - I wasn't a fan of the USAA/ADT relationship and felt the ADT guy was all about selling me upgrades etc. I don't like to feel like I'm being hustled when choosing a home security firm.