The planning phase

This is by far the most important part of the installation. Poor planning has caused more headaches than any other part of an alarm system installation project.

Step 1 – the walkabout

As the name suggests, take a walk around the property you will be protecting, both inside and outside. Try to think like a bad guy.

Ask yourself, "If I wanted to break into this house/office/warehouse, how would I do it?"

Take pictures if you think it will help. Make sketches of the inside and outside of the building, so that you can plan where you are going to put your sensors. There are a number of free landscaping CAD programs that will help you with this.

Here is a simple checklist for you:

• How many doors are there?

• What type of doors are they? Garage doors? Human entry doors? Pet doors? (Seriously, burglars have used children.)

• How many windows are there? How many open?

• How many windows are there on the ground floor and how many on the second floor? (Burglars use portable ladders.)

• Is there a...