Hardwired vs wireless in an old Victorian - my gamble backfired

I took on a 1920s Victorian in Portland last month and decided to go full wireless on the alarm system. Thought it would save me the headache of fishing wires through lathe and plaster. But after 3 days of troubleshooting interference from the old knob-and-tube wiring and thick plaster walls, I had to rip half of it out and run hardwired zones anyway. The wireless panels kept losing connection to sensors in the back bedrooms. Now I'm wondering if anyone else has dealt with this - do you always stick to hardwired in pre-1950s houses, or have you found a wireless system that actually works through plaster and metal mesh?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakeb8114d ago

Did the metal mesh in the plaster kill the signal?

the_thomas14d ago

You ever had that problem where you can't get a signal in your own living room? Buddy of mine re-did his whole basement with metal lath and plaster. Put his router down there. Couldn't stream anything. Ended up having to move the router to the other side of the house.

hannah32014d ago

My aunt had a similar issue in her old farmhouse, only it was the chicken wire in the walls that caused all the trouble. @jakeb81, you'd think that wire would be too thin to matter, but it sure messed up her TV signal back in the 90s. She ended up running a cable through the attic crawl space to get the antenna working in the living room. That metal lath your friend used sounds like it could act the same way, just making a big Faraday cage out of his basement.