I have a customer that wants me to pre-wire for security. I do not want to do it but money is money.

What are you guys recommending for wiring besides each window and door? Do you still wire for motion? Glass break detectors? Smoke alarms? Etc.?

I really hate security but the contractor does not want to hire another sub.

Also my biggest pet peeve is when an alarm company comes in after me and runs all their wires to MY media cabinet. There’s barely enough room for all my s*** and then I have all their wires lol. Is it best to leave security wires behind a 2 gang blank? Or should I put in a separate small media cabinet?

Also should I just leave the wire drilled out in the holes? Or should I be putting in the contacts?

TIA

P.S I hate security haha

First, check your local and/or state regulations to see if you need to be licensed specifically for security, yes even just to prewire. In my state, installers require state license, background check, and testing and companies require at least one company agent that is essentially an installer license but with X amount of hours working in a managerial position in a security company.

Second, check your liability insurance as most require a larger premium and possibly a dedicated policy to cover security installations.

Third, is you saving your contractor a phone call worth you learning on the job? I'm not saying don't do security, but learn it on your time and your own system where you can really pick it apart and master the system before you install it for a client. It's not super complicated but each system wires and programs slightly different.

That being said, if you are determined to do it, here is a few off the top of my head. We run 22/4 for pretty much everything except smokes that require fire rated wire.

keypads
Sirens
Doors
Overhead doors
Windows
Motion detectors
Glassbreak detectors
Water sensors
Freeze sensors
CO detectors-please check your local codes for these
Smoke detectors-please check your local codes for these

I hate security. PITA. Tiny ass wires. Everywhere. We pretty much priced ourselves out of doing security prewire. Other companies do it dirt cheap, CRAZY cheap coz they want the monitoring. I say to them HAVE AT IT!

It really adds costs to insurance as well.

22/4 to each sensor, keypad, siren. If they want smokes you need to do fire rated wire. You can prob hide all the wires behind a single gang box or double gang that will be covered with a security panel at a later date. Dont pull into your panel

Do glass breaks, keypad, siren, doors. Doors drill with blank inserts, as well as single gang boxes at other devices with blanks at trim stage

Did this for years, and it was a great money maker for me.

22x4 to every window with a 3/8" dummy plug at each.

22x4 to each door with a 3/4" dummy plug at each.

22x4 to keypad, siren, and motion locations, blind wired with a nice big loop (diagram with locations stored for the eventual homeowner).

That will get a basic system going. Anything else that a homeowner needs can be done wireless most all the time.

When I was in the retail world, no alarm company would TOUCH any wires that were previously installed. Licenses were required to install.

There were two reasons for this:
A. They could not guarantee anything at all about wires they did not install. Hell, I would not have used other people's wire. For security?
B. They played a pricing game, playing off free installation vs high RMR, or paid installation vs low RMR. Many companies only offered one approach or the other, probably judging by the costs of the cars in the company parking lot.

The overall game for most security people is RMR. If it hurt them to do an installation because it was so ridiculously hard to bury the wires, they more than made up for that in a couple of years because of the monthly income from monitoring.

Got both the higher install prices AND the RMR.

It really never was all that difficult beating up the competition, their questionable sales practices would always do them in.

Although I've not done much security, I would agree with this in general. If your client is a typical wealthier client, many of them (mostly tech allergic people) don't like dealing with big companies. Paying you a little more for the right to call a single person who knows their system well, who is local, and that they trust makes a big difference to them.

Same holds true for most builders. Typical builder would rather deal with one person/company that can do it all.

One call and all the data, phone, cable, audio, and security wiring is covered.

Along with some other items in my case

Run a few extra 22/4 to attic accesses or areas accessible when finished. If for no other reason you can add wireless if/when a wire gets messed up.