CCTV and alarm installer for homes and farms around Bridlington.

What I install

In houses and on farms I fit CCTV, mains-wired smoke and heat alarms, Cat6 data points, Wi-Fi access points and Starlink dishes, and in business premises, commercial fire alarm systems. I fit intruder alarms as well. There's no standard job for those on the price list, so I see the building first and we quote for what it needs.

Every one of those jobs has an electrical side. Cameras and access points take their power down the same Cat6 cable that carries the data, from a recorder or a switch that plugs into the mains. Mains smoke alarms take their supply from the fuse board. A Starlink kit runs from a power supply that needs a socket near the router. I wire and test the mains side to BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, and where data cable and mains cable share a route they're kept apart, as regulation 528.1 of the wiring regulations asks.

Wired CCTV cameras and recorders

The usual starting point is a four-camera CCTV system with a recorder that keeps the footage on site and an app for watching it on your phone. I can supply the kit, or fit cameras you've already bought. Either way the camera positions are agreed on site at the survey, because a camera that looks over a neighbour's garden or the street brings data protection law into it.

Farms and small holiday parks need longer cable runs than a house, across a yard or along a site road, and where vehicles cross the route the cable needs duct or armour.

Smoke and heat alarms, and commercial fire alarm systems

In a house I put in interlinked smoke and heat alarms powered from the mains, each with a battery inside to keep it going if the power drops. When one senses a fire, every alarm in the house sounds. Landlords in England need a working smoke alarm on each floor people live on, and Approved Document B expects mains alarms in new homes and in loft conversions that add a room upstairs.

Guesthouses and other business premises fall within the Fire Safety Order of 2005 instead. Whoever controls the premises has to provide fire detection and alarms where the fire risk assessment shows they're needed, and a small guesthouse can often manage with interlinked mains alarms. Where a building needs more than that, I design and fit fire alarm systems for business premises to BS 5839-1, commission them, then carry out an inspection and test every year after that. That's a single visit each year, and any routine servicing on top of it is quoted separately.

Data cabling and Starlink connections

Wi-Fi struggles through thick brick and stone walls, and plenty of older houses have them. Cat6 data points and ceiling access points get round that by putting a cable where the signal can't reach. A wired point suits a desk or the TV in the corner, and an access point carries the Wi-Fi on into the far rooms.

Where a farm or a village is a long way from fast broadband, a Starlink dish fixed to a gable or a pole gets a satellite connection instead. From there I can carry it on by cable or Wi-Fi to a workshop or an office across the yard.

Cameras and a dish can go up alongside other farm electrics, so the cable routes and any trenching get planned together.

Running the cables during a rewire or an extension

The cheapest time to run these cables is while the walls and ceilings are open. In a finished room the cable gets chased in and made good, or runs in surface trunking where chasing would do too much damage.

If a house rewire is already booked, the alarm circuit and the data and camera cables go in at first fix with everything else.

The easiest place for a ceiling access point or a camera over the back door is a new extension, planned at the drawing stage before the plasterer arrives.

How security and data jobs are priced

Every price on the list covers a standard job, written out under it. Anything bigger, such as extra cameras or a fire alarm system for a whole guesthouse, we quote once I've seen the place, and surveys are free.

With CCTV and Starlink you can supply the kit yourself. We price the fitting on its own then, and the kit's warranty stays with whoever sold it to you.

Mains alarms and new sockets for a recorder or a router need somewhere to connect. If the board is old or has no spare way, I'll say so at the survey, and replacing the consumer unit then becomes a separately priced job.