Property CareHome › Home security & cameras
Knowing the house is alright.
Home security, CCTV, video doorbells and lock changes across Huntingdonshire. Most people come to this wanting one simple thing: to see who is at the door, and to know the house is fine when they are not in it. That can be a single doorbell or it can be the whole boundary. Either way it is worth doing properly, which means cabled rather than dangling, positioned for the approaches that actually matter, and recorded in your house rather than rented from a subscription.
From a doorbell to the whole boundary
Start with the door
A video doorbell is the smallest sensible step and the one everyone notices. Pressed, it can put the caller's face on the television you are already watching, chime through the Sonos so you hear it in the garden, or light the hall so whoever is outside knows somebody is home. You see the delivery driver, the neighbour, and the caller you would rather not answer to, all before you reach the door.
Then the boundary
A full camera installation around the outside of the house: cabled, weather-sealed, positioned for the approaches that actually matter, and made deliberately unobtrusive. Cable runs hidden in the same careful way we hide everything else, and no dangling white box under a soffit announcing that you own things worth taking.
Security that behaves like a home
Because it all runs through one system, the house can act rather than merely record. Lights that come on as somebody walks up the drive. Lamps that follow your ordinary evening pattern while you are away, rather than the tell-tale timer that snaps on at seven every night. A porch light that greets you instead of leaving you fumbling for keys in the dark.
Recorded in your house, not somebody else's
Footage is stored locally on your own hardware by default. No monthly subscription simply to see your own front garden, and no video of your children playing in the back garden sitting on a server on another continent. If you want remote access, we set it up securely and explain exactly what leaves the building.
Most lock problems are not a locksmith job
A great many people ring an emergency locksmith, pay an emergency price, and get a new lock they did not need. Usually the lock is fine and the door has dropped, or the keep is out of line by two millimetres, or the mechanism has never been lubricated in fifteen years. That is joinery, and it is what we do all day.
- Locks changed after moving in, or after a key has gone astray
- Euro cylinders swapped, including upgrading to anti-snap where the old one is a liability
- Multipoint mechanisms on uPVC and composite doors adjusted, serviced or replaced
- Doors that need lifting into the frame so the lock throws without a shove
- Hinges adjusted and keeps realigned, which fixes more sticking doors than anything else
- Night latches, mortice locks and deadbolts fitted or replaced
- Window locks, patio door locks and restrictors
- Keyed-alike sets, so one key opens the front, back and side doors
- Key safes fitted properly, into masonry rather than mortar
- Garage, shed and gate security sorted at the same time, since we are there anyway
We are not an emergency locksmith and we do not do lockouts, so if you are standing outside your own front door at eleven at night we are the wrong call. Safes, high-security master suites, access control systems and anything forensic belong with a locksmith proper. We will say so and point you at one. What we do is the ordinary work: locks changed, mechanisms sorted, doors made to close properly again, priced in writing beforehand like everything else.
The difference is in the parts you never see
Placement before hardware
Where a camera looks matters more than how many megapixels it has. We walk the approaches with you first: the gate, the side return, the shed, the spot where a van would actually park. Four cameras in the right places beat eight in the wrong ones.
Cabled, sealed, made good
Runs go through loft and floor voids and behind soffits, glands are sealed properly, and every hole is made good. This is the same joinery and making-good care as the rest of our work. It is the part most installers leave to somebody else.
Handed over, not held hostage
Passwords, documentation and the whole system belong to you at the end. If you never speak to us again it carries on working, and any competent person can pick it up. A setup you cannot manage without us is not a setup we would install.
What we are, and are not
We are not an alarm company. Monitored intruder alarms, safes and locksmithing are their own trades with their own accreditation, and where you want one we will say so and introduce someone rather than improvise. Mains work belongs with a NICEIC or NAPIT registered electrician, and we bring one in from our trusted network to do that part and certify it.
We are also careful about cameras and other people. A domestic camera that captures anything beyond your own boundary brings data protection duties with it, so we position for your property rather than your neighbour's windows, suggest a notice where one is sensible, and point you at the plain guidance the ICO publishes for households. And we will not fit cameras inside a home so that one relative can watch another. That is not security, and it is not ours to install.
What we do is the part that overlaps with the fabric of the house: cabling, mounting, weather sealing, making good, and joining it all to a system you actually control. It protects the house, the people in it, and the things that would be a nuisance or a heartbreak to lose.
Asked and answered
Where is my camera footage stored?
On your own hardware in your own home by default, not in a cloud service you rent by the month. You can see your cameras without a subscription, and nothing leaves the building unless you ask for remote access, which we set up securely and explain in plain terms.
Is there a monthly fee?
Not to us, and not for the system. Local recording means no subscription simply to watch your own front garden. If you later want a cloud service on top of it, that is your choice and your contract, not something we build a dependency on.
Do I need permission to point a camera outside?
Not permission, but you do take on responsibilities. If a domestic camera captures anything beyond your own boundary, UK data protection law applies to you as the operator, so it is worth positioning cameras to cover your property rather than your neighbour's windows and putting up a notice. We will advise on placement with this in mind, and the ICO publishes plain guidance for households.
Are you an alarm company?
No. Monitored intruder alarms, safes and locksmithing are separate trades with their own accreditation, and we do not pretend otherwise. What we do is the part that overlaps with the fabric of the house: cabling, mounting, weather sealing, making good, and joining it to a system you control. Where you want a monitored alarm we will say so and introduce someone.
Can it be done without cables everywhere?
That is rather the point. Cameras are cabled wherever we can reach, through loft and floor voids and behind soffits, so there is nothing dangling and nothing to charge every few months. Battery cameras have their place in awkward spots and we will tell you when one is the sensible answer.
A video doorbell fitted, wired and joined to the system is about £255. Cabled exterior cameras are roughly £350 each including the run and making good, and a local recording server built and configured starts around £455. Approach lighting, wired and automated, is about £290. A typical three-camera installation with local recording lands between £1,400 and £1,900, confirmed in writing before we start.
The services on this site are starting points rather than a menu. They can be combined, taken apart, or reduced to the single job you actually want doing. If all you need is a doorbell fitted properly and joined to the television, tell us exactly that and that is all we will price.
Most homes need fewer cameras than they are sold. Two good ones covering the ways somebody would actually approach beat six covering the fence. We would rather position two properly and spend the difference on a decent lock, which is the thing that actually stops people.
The rest of how we think is in the Book of Care.
Want to see who is at the door?
Tell us what worries you and roughly where the house sits. We will suggest the smallest thing that would actually help, which is often a doorbell and a light rather than four cameras, and price it in writing.