Complete DIY novice, but with some potentially transferable skills, come and have a laugh at me!

[DIY_Novice78]

Eyup all, I hope you're well.

I couldn't see an intro section, but obviously this is my first post, so I'll give you a brief outline!

I'm 46, but have always rented until now. Myself & my partner have actually bought the house we have been renting for a number of years. It is a modest 3 bedroom semi detached in a suburb of Derby. Nothing special, but we like the street and it saves us moving

The house has a long[ish] drive that runs down the side of the house to a detached garage and a gate to the small back garden.

I come from a practical background and manage a fabrication & maintenance company. I have lots of practical skills (mostly in machining etc), but ZERO DIY experience, short of putting up a couple of shelves and drilling the odd hole. I have always avoided it like the plague in all honesty. To say I am green would be an understatement, so I have joined this forum to ask [generally] daft questions. Sorry!

So, I have a few Tapo outdoor cameras that I would like to install properly, but I don't really know the best way of doing it in terms of wiring and power etc.

The one I want to put on the front is a 360 degree pan/tilt ball camera on a 90 degree bracket. The bracket isn't a problem, I can fix that to the wall, but what is the usual method of getting power to it? Should I try and get power from the loft (I know there is a light/switch in there, but not a lot else), or do people usually drill through an exterior wall and into one of the rooms in the house? I would imagine that the loft idea is the neatest & least hassle?

Do roofs (I told you I'm green!) generally have breathing space between the brickwork and the tiles or something? I.e. is there usually an easy way to feed the wire through?

An area I do have experience in is IT (from a former life), and part of my CAT7 cabling can be spurred off into the loft so that I'm not relying on wifi, as the ball camera has the option of both.

I have most/all of the gear I would imagine I'd need (drills, ladders, etc) as I'm practical, just with steel/metal and not bricks!

In terms of the rear, I would imagine that the camera will be affixed to the wall further down than the front (although not sure yet). If that were the case, would I still go from the loft for power (generally speaking), and use cable clips to run the power cable down the exterior wall? The rear is South facing and gets a lot of sun, so it may be that I try a small solar panel camera there, just to save hassle.

I'm sure it'll all make sense once I start, but I'm just looking for pointers to get me going.

Thanks, I very much appreciate any tips or advice.

Jon

 

[Mottie]

Sorry, I can’t help you with that but thanks for your intro and welcome to the forum. A couple of tips though - don’t mention Brexit or Israel.

 

[DIY_Novice78]

Sorry, I can’t help you with that but thanks for your intro and welcome to the forum. A couple of tips though - don’t mention Brexit or Israel.

Haha, thanks, I steer clear of anything political anyway, it's safer that way

 

[secureiam]

Welcome.

The first thing should be what do you want the cameras to see.

Too high up you get nice views of people’s heads.
View outside of your properties boundaries you run into ICO and privacy issues.

Getting power to devices can then be looked at.

 

[DIY_Novice78]

Welcome.

The first thing should be what do you want the cameras to see.

Too high up you get nice views of people’s heads.
View outside of your properties boundaries you run into ICO and privacy issues.

Getting power to devices can then be looked at.

Thanks.

The front one would probably point diagonally down and across. If you were looking at the front of the house, the camera would be in the upper right, pointing down and to the left (the front door). The left is the attached side, and the drive runs down the right side. The houses are all in a line as far as the camera would make out, so the intention is that it catches people coming to my door, but doesn't really get much else, although it will obviously pan, so if it were on the right corner it 'could' also capture the car on the drive, and even the drive leading down to the rear garage.

The rear camera would just be kind of central pointing on a slope to the back of the garden (which is very small), and it would potentially catch the UPVC door in the right of the view (left hand side of the garage, which runs down the right side of the back yard).

The rear is pretty straightforward, but not sure on whether the 'done thing' is to have a power wire clipped all the way down from the roof.

The front is a little awkward, as you say, because the angle has to be right, so not sure whether it would need a cable clipped all the way down the corner, although the supplied cable wouldn't be long enough so then I'd have to think about how I connect it to another cable and hide that.

Cheers

 

[DIY_Novice78]

This very crude diagram should help.

 

[sparkymarka]

20mm conduit down from soffit to angle box drill 4mm hole in bottom of this is case any water gets in then across to camera , you may be able to drop It down the cavity if it’s open at the top ( you will
Have to drill it back towards the window and up to avoid side cavity
I normally use cable rods to push up into the loft ( after looking in loft first as it may be a closed cavity )

 

[DIY_Novice78]

20mm conduit down from soffit to angle box drill 4mm hole in bottom of this is case any water gets in then across to camera , you may be able to drop It down the cavity if it’s open at the top ( you will
Have to drill it back towards the window and up to avoid side cavity
I normally use cable rods to push up into the loft ( after looking in loft first as it may be a closed cavity )

Thank you mate, I had to Google the angle box bit but I see what you mean now

I'm going to have a look in the loft later and see what's what over that corner. Hopefully I'll be able to get a cable down OK.

Appreciate the advice bud