Install 5 Top Home Protection Products like a Pro

Trying to install home protection products on your own? Avoid time-consuming pitfalls by reviewing our nuanced recommendations.

***Note: Before proceeding, read 5 Products to Heroically Protect Your Home***

1. Home Security System with Professional Monitoring

Getting started with Ring or other wireless home security systems like Boston’s own SimpliSafe can be a fairly straightforward do-it-yourself project. That said, we know multiple homeowners who installed a specific alarm for the wrong reasons, such as picking the first product they came across, or sticking with the same service provider that happened to be installed previously by prior owners.

To smoothly install an effective system that fits your needs, our top recommendation is to analyze the market to find the best alarm provider for you. If you don’t have time to compare multiple providers, you can take a look at this analysis from Wellesley Home Hero.

Next, we recommend coming up with a holistic plan that starts with a basic home security system and also considers other smart devices that you may value. To determine basic configurations like where to put keypads, motion sensors, and window/door sensors, you can make your own copy of these handy smartification recommendations. These not only help you design your home security system, but also nudge you to think through an expanded list of items that you might like and that might integrate with your alarm or other home automation system, like smart keypads, camera doorbells, and outdoor floodlight cameras.

Before buying, we further recommend that homeowners check with their homeowner insurance provider to ensure that their desired system is eligible for discounts that their insurer may offer. Wireless systems are usually eligible for the same homeowner insurance policy discounts as wired systems, although this is not necessarily common knowledge among all insurance brokers.

When it’s finally time to buy, be prepared to schedule your installation. You can start with the basic home security system and add other nice-to-have items over time if that helps. Services that specialize in assisting you with smart home installations often over-charge for simple installations like door sensors while declining to assist with non-low voltage items like floodlight installation. If a “smart home installer” is not ready to tackle electrical installations, you are better served installing base stations, motion detectors, and door sensors on your own. From there, you can rely on a licensed electrician to install integrated lights or cameras, a local handyman to install other detectors, and a technical support specialist to help overcome setup challenges.

One challenge when “doing it yourself” is scheduling providers so that they come in early within a limited window for returning home security products. If something doesn’t work as you expected, you will want enough time to return it. Otherwise, your busy schedule may leave you stuck with equipment that you don’t want simply because installation and setup didn't happen as quickly as you had first hoped it would. enough.

2. Smart Water Monitor with Automatic Shutoff

Once you’ve decided you want to prevent costly plumbing issues with a smart water monitor like Flo by Moen, you should first make sure that you have an outlet near your water main so you can power the unit. If you don’t have an outlet near your water main, you’ll need an electrician to install a new one.

Additionally, you’ll need consistent WiFi coverage at your water main, which may be in an out-of-coverage area. You can use your phone to test for basic WiFi coverage, and if it isn’t connecting at least reasonably well, you will want to expand the reach of your home network.

Next, you’ll need to buy the right size monitor for your water main. You can measure your water main yourself, or ask a plumber to do the measurement for you. Before buying, you should check to see if your homeowner insurance provider subsidizes installation, offers a discount on your policy, or both. Lastly, alongside your plumber’s installation visit, you’ll set up your smart water monitor’s mobile app, and hopefully install one or more integrated water leak detectors…

3. Water Leak Detectors

Installing these should be relatively simple. The trickier project that requires foresight and professional assistance is installing a smart water monitor, as above. While we recommend water leak detectors that are as closely integrated as possible with a smart water monitor, there are water leak detector options for homeowners who don’t plan to install a smart water monitor. For example, these water leak detectors from Ring won’t automatically shut off your water, but they will notify you when they sense water in unwanted places.

4. Smart Deadbolt Keypad

To install these, you first need to decide which doors would benefit. With any luck, your door already has holes for standard deadbolt locks. If not, you may need a carpenter, or a new door.

While physical installation itself can be a quick mini-project involving only a screwdriver, there are sometimes multiple “integration” paths within home security or smart-home apps, which can make for a confusing and frustrating self-install experience. Set aside lots of time, and figure out who you might contact for technical support to help. For example, Schlage gives great phone support, but is only available during certain hours, so we often recommend that homeowners doing their own installation of Schlage smart locks try to do so during Schlage’s designated support hours.

For additional peace of mind, we recommend that our homeowners install cameras near each installed deadbolt keypad, and for resilient access to your house, we recommend that our homeowners securely hide a physical key somewhere on the property, just in case the keypad isn’t working as usual.

5. Fire Rated Safe

“Installation” here is the simplest of the bunch. You just open the box and put your important documents inside. That said, we recommend keeping the small document safe somewhere other than your primary bedroom. A portable document safe is both portable and tempting for thieves.

Since thieves often go to the primary bedrooms first to look for valuables like jewelry, it’s arguably best to keep this elsewhere in your home. Additionally, we recommend securely storing one key offsite, just in case you lose your key, or in case a rescue worker is able to extract your safe for you but can’t take time to go back for your key.

What Comes Next?

Knowing how to install home protection products is helpful, but only part of the battle. Many of these products depend on WiFi, and creating a reliable network can often be trickier than most people realize. In our next post, we’ll detail how you can improve your foundational internet coverage. Stay tuned!

Disclosures

We do things differently at Wellesley Home Hero. This page does not contain any affiliate links and this article does not generate revenue by promoting specific products. Instead, Wellesley Home Hero always puts our homeowner’s best interests first. Accordingly, we earn revenue when busy Wellesley homeowners hire us for our time-saving expertise. If you’re a Wellesley homeowner interested in expert advice and time savings, request an invite to Wellesley Home Hero’s private beta. We would love to help.