Home Security and Control4 Smart Homes for Hinsdale, IL

Planning security for a Hinsdale home

A big house has a lot of ways in. Before we suggest anything, we walk the whole home with you: every exterior door, the door from the garage, the patio and terrace doors, the basement windows and the rooms on the second and third floors that sit over a porch roof. Then we decide what gets a contact, where glass-break detection covers a wall of windows better than a dozen sensors, and where one motion sensor can watch a main hall or stair. In a house with a back stair and a front stair, that last decision matters.

Older homes and new ones need different plans. In a house with plaster walls and original trim, we use wireless sensors that go up without cutting, and we look for a basement or attic path when a wire is needed. In a new build, we would much rather get there before the drywall goes up, so every keypad and sensor has a wire waiting for it.

What we install in Hinsdale

• Burglar alarms: Contacts on every exterior door and the openings that matter, plus glass-break and motion coverage sized to the house. We use 2GIG for clean wireless installs and DSC or Honeywell when the house is wired. Keypads go by the doors you actually use, often the garage entry and the main bedroom. If you want cameras, we add them as part of the security system: a video doorbell and a view of the driveway, with clips in the same app.
• Monitored smoke and carbon monoxide: Smoke and heat detectors that report to a monitoring center, with carbon monoxide sensing near the furnace and the bedrooms, so someone is called even when the house is empty.
• Alarm monitoring: Professional monitoring through Alarm.com over a cellular link, so a signal still goes out if the internet or the phone line drops.
• Control4 smart home: Control4 runs the music, TVs, lighting and shades. Security stays on its own Alarm.com system beside it. The two are separate, and each has its own app.
• Home theater: A dedicated theater in the lower level, or a family room TV with speakers in the ceiling and the equipment in a closet.
• Pre-wire: For new construction and full remodels, we run wire for keypads, sensors, speakers, TVs and the home network while the walls are open, and leave a clear map of where everything goes.

Local considerations in Hinsdale

William Robbins bought land along the new Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line in the early 1860s, platted the town in 1865 and planted rows of trees along the new streets. Hinsdale incorporated as a village in 1873. Robbins later laid out Robbins Park, a subdivision with curving streets and deep front yards, which is now a historic district. The village's own survey of that area lists Italianate, Queen Anne, Craftsman, Prairie, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival houses, along with foursquares and bungalows.

The latest five-year census estimates count 17,175 people in 5,689 households, and about 90 percent of households own their home. About 82 percent of homes are detached houses. The median home was built in 1981, which surprises people who know the old downtown, but the numbers explain it: about 16 percent of homes predate 1940, about a quarter were built from 1940 through 1969, and more than 40 percent date from 1990 or later. Two out of three homes have four or more bedrooms, and the median home has ten rooms.

That mix shapes our work. Many older homes have been replaced with new ones over the years, so we see a lot of new construction, and that is when a pre-wire pays off. In the older houses that remain, we protect the plaster and the trim. And because Hinsdale is a commuter town on the Metra line, plenty of homes sit empty all day, which makes phone alerts and remote arming worth having.

For Hinsdale shops and offices

Downtown Hinsdale is a walkable business district around the train station. For a shop, office or restaurant there, we plan around closing time: an alarm the last person out can arm, monitored smoke detection, and a user code for each employee that can be shut off the day someone leaves. See business security.

ZIP code: 60521

Questions from Hinsdale homeowners

Our house is more than a hundred years old. Will security mean cutting into the walls?

Rarely. Wireless contacts and detectors cover most older homes, and when a wire is needed we look for a path through the basement, an attic or a closet first.

We are building a new house. When should we call you?

Before the drywall. The right time is when the framing is done and the electrician is roughing in, so we can run wire for the alarm, speakers, TVs and network at the same time.

Our house is big. Is one keypad enough?

Usually not. Most larger homes get a keypad at the door you use most, often from the garage, and a second one upstairs by the main bedroom. You can also arm and disarm from the Alarm.com app.

Can Control4 run our alarm too?

No. Control4 runs your music, TVs and lighting. Your security system works alongside it in its own app. They sit side by side, so a problem with one never takes down the other.

We heat with gas. Should carbon monoxide sensors be part of the system?

We recommend them. A monitored carbon monoxide sensor reports to the monitoring center even when nobody is home to hear the beep.

You are in Forest Park. Do you come out to Hinsdale?

Yes. We plan every system in person, so we come to the house, walk it with you and go over the plan before anything is installed.

Building new in Hinsdale, or living in one of the older homes near downtown? Phone 708-705-9665, tell us a little about the house, and we will set up a visit.

Call 708-705-9665Send us a message

Our office is at 7340 Harrison St, Forest Park, IL 60130. By appointment only, no walk-in visitors.

Illinois Private Alarm Contractor 124.002139. Founded in 2009.

Nearby towns we serve: Western Springs · Oak Brook · La Grange

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