Installing security cameras outside is not enough to protect your property as burglars can enter your area, cut the system wiring, destroy the CCTV cables, or sometimes steal system components to stop your system cameras from monitoring and capturing their identity.
However, every problem has a solution. The solution to issues like that is simple whether you faced this issue before or just sought to hide security camera wires outside. Here are the best options for you:
- Hide CCTV wires inside walls.
- Conceal camera wiring underground.
- Hide cables In a protection tube.
- Run camera wires outside through the attic.
- Hide outdoor security camera wires behind a tall fence.
- Collect outdoor security cables in the management box.
- Hide camera outside cables in wall raceways.
- Camouflage outdoor camera wire by painting.
Applying one way of the above methods will guarantee that your camera wires are hiding away from people’s eyes, and also protect them from birds, geckos, or any potential threats to the camera.
Below, we discuss each method separately to hide outside cable wires, mentioning some tips and tricks to allow you to get the best.
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Can You Run Security Camera Wires Outside? or Can I Hide Wires Outside of the House?
The short answer is Yes, you can run and hide security camera wires outside. However, you need to make sure that the wires you’re using are waterproof and can withstand bad weather. Or you can use any security camera wires available and bury them deep enough underground so that they cannot be tampered with or cut.
Why Do I Need to Hide Security Camera Wires Outside?
Nowadays, Intruders and criminals take many precautions before committing any crime.
One of their pre-stealing steps is looking for houses without surveillance cameras installed indoors or outdoors.
If they enter a separate house or flat and find it without any monitoring cameras, they steal it immediately.
On the other hand, if they discover that the house that they break into has an American security system installed, the first thing they think about is how to damage the system cameras, wiring, or DVR/NVR.
You can eliminate most of these problems and keep your outdoor system protected for a long time by hiding security camera wires outside, and then inside if you have an indoor system.
In this article, we’ll show you how to hide security camera wires outside and keep camera wires safe like professionals.
Additionally, we’ll dive into some tips to keep your system wiring protected against damage and tampering.
Next,
How to Hide Security Camera Wires Outside? or How to Hide CCTV Cables Outside?
Beginners always ask “What is the best way to protect wires from cutting?”
Well, hiding CCTV cables from people’s sight will protect them, keep the wires clean, and make it hard for anyone who looks to stop your system to find them.
Let’s see the most effective ways to hide security camera wires outside:
Method 1: Bury The Camera Wires Underground Inside a Protective Tube
Experts agree that burying wires in the ground is the best method to hide outdoor security camera wires, especially if you have more than one camera and the distance between each one is so far. All you have to do to hide wires underground is:
- Make a plan for your system wiring and devices.
- Choose the short wire path.
- Start trenching along the wire route using a shovel or pickaxe.
- Lay wire ducts, electrical wire conduits, or PVC pipes.
- Pull the cables inside the channels with the help of fish tape.
- Install the connectors on the ends of the cables.
- Once you are done, refill the trench you dug.
- Make your system connection, and ensure they are correct.
While this way is considered the best to hide security camera wires outside and protect them, there is a little issue, when the underground burial wire is cut by accident, the system will stop completely from working.
Helpful Link: Best Electriduct for burying wires.
Once you decide to splice the camera wires, you’ll need to dig again, get out the cables from the duct, and then check the wires along their length to find where it’s cut.
For this problem like that, a lot of camera owners prefer other methods of hiding security camera wires outside.
Method 2: Conceal Security Camera Wires behind the Home’s Tall Fence
The second method for how to hide outdoor security camera wires is by using tall fences or tall shrubs existing around the house.
These great physical objects are used to protect your home property from intruders. You can use them to protect and hide CCTV camera wiring.
In the case of tall shrubs, you can use branches to hide camera wiring, and the more you keep the cables and the cam high, the less chance for the camera and wires to be damaged.
Like tall shrubs, a tall fence that exists around the house can be used to conceal camera wire outside.
To add more protection for your system wiring, you can hide CCTV cables on tall fences or other tall objects, then paint the wires of the camera with a color similar to fence colors.
Pro tip: The painting trick can be used to protect security camera wires inside the home also.
Not only that but also, but you can also mount 2- way audio feature cameras on the outside area to hear or alert anyone trying to enter your area.
Note: This method involves using fence wire clips to secure the wires and drilling holes through the fence.
So, if you don’t have enough knowledge in installing security cameras you can contact professionals to do it for you.
Method 3: Run Security Camera Wires on the Cable Tray
Earlier when I was a beginner in mounting surveillance cameras field, one of my clients asked me” How to protect an outdoor wired security system with more than one camera, and each camera is installed in different places?”
I took a few minutes to find a proper answer to his question, I was hesitant should I tell him to bury the wires of the outdoor security system? absolutely not, because he will take too much time and effort to do this.
After that, I advised him to use a junction box. but unfortunately, his camera is hard-wired, not wireless cam.
Lastly, I told him to pick a protective tube or cable tray for wires, I found this solution is suitable and can be used outdoors for running wires without the need to dig into the ground or ruin the walls.
Anyway, If you decide to use this way to hide security camera wires outside, make sure you attach the cable tray to the soffit directly and don’t fix it on the ground by using poles as it will be easy to reach.
For more protection, put a protective cover over the cable tray to keep the wires clean, and also to prevent water from destroying the wires.
Note: A cable tray needs to be installed by an expert to show the right spots to attach it correctly to the surface.
Method 4: Pick a Mesh Wiring Cover to Hide Security Camera Wires Outside
If you want to keep your security camera wires hidden and safe for a long time, one of the best ways to do so is by using a mesh wiring cover.
Covering system wiring with this type of cover will help to conceal the wires while also allowing you to see them when there’s a cut or damage.
More than that the mesh wiring covers are cheap, easy to use, and have different colors.
Here’s how to use them to make your system wires hidden:
- Purchase a High-quality mesh wiring cover.
- Run the wires into the body.
- Use a staple gun to staple the mesh wiring covering to the walls.
- If you have a wall with different colors, paint the cover to match the surrounding area.
Now, that you’re finished, if you face any obstacles, then you can use a bungee cord to secure any exposed cables from the cover.
Method 5: Hide Different Types of CCTV Cables Inside Cable Concealer
Hiding CCTV cables inside a cable concealer is a great way to protect your CCTV cables from damage, while also keeping your space looks neat and tidy.
However, many customers think that cable concealer is designed for indoor usage only. But the good news is it suitable to be used both indoors, and outdoors to hide wires inside it.
To get the best of this way, there are a few things that you should care about before picking a cable concealer to hide security camera wires outside inside it.
First, Make sure that the cable concealer is long enough to cover all your system wiring.
Second, Always pick the wide cable concealer to run all your camera wires easily inside it.
Third, Change the cable raceway color to look like the surface that is mounted on it.
Fourth, If you install the cable raceway on textured walls, put caulk or any gap filler material between the raceway and the wall to fill the gaps.
After applying the above instruction you’ll get a durable cable raceway that is hard to remove from its place.
Plus, it will keep the wires clean and protected, increasing your system wiring lifespan.
Method 6: Install Outdoor Wireless/Wire-Free Security Cameras
As we mentioned above some of the wired outdoor security cameras cause many problems due to the long wires used and some wires can be cut easily.
To avoid problems like that, you can install wireless IP security cameras, and hide the cameras to make your surveillance system fully protected.
The wireless cameras use a few wires maybe one wire for power, and they send and receive data through wifi.
On the other hand, there is another type of wireless camera called a wire-free cam. What is a Wire-Free security camera?
Well, Wire-Free security cameras are a type of wireless CCTV camera that totally wireless and has no wire used, So, for this reason, called “Wire-Free cameras.”
This type of camera sends Data and recorded Videos using Wi-Fi and uses a Battery or Solar Panel to provide the camera with electricity.
Wire-free small cameras can be used if you have any problem with using one of the above methods for hiding CCTV security camera wires.
Aside from reducing wiring problems, wireless cameras will save time and effort in hiding wires.
And if you’re still looking for a better solution, then I recommend picking a wire-free security camera.
Note: Wire-free can be used indoors if you have children. Most people use wire-free cameras inside the home to keep home decor without any damage.
Method 7: Use Protection Box to Hide Security Cameras Cables
Not all homeowners have a complete wired security system, some of them have wireless cameras that have only power wires and they wonder if there’s any way to hide these cables.
In a scenario like that, we always recommend using a protection box to hide security camera cables inside it.
This protection box is sometimes called a junction box, and it’s used outside to combine camera wires in one box and keep them protected from damage.
Additionally, the box with its protective cover helps you to keep your camera wires safe from water when rainfall outside, and also allows you to avoid wiring problems that are common on wired systems.
It does not stop on this limit, this metal box can be mounted high on outside surfaces such as brick walls, aluminum attic, or wood pieces.
So, if any person wants to open the exterior box and cut the smart IP camera wires, he will be captured immediately.
Note: if you’re gonna use this method you should purchase for high-quality Metal Box that will do both hide and protect camera wires.
How to Run Security Camera Wires Outside?
The first section of this post is about How to Hide security camera wires outside. In the second section, we explain How To Run security camera wires outside.
Before, you run wires of a security camera if you have a wired security system you need to decide which method you will use to keep wires hidden. Is it by Burning the wires ground, using a protective Tube, or the other methods?
Once, you decide the method that is suitable for you then we follow the below steps:
- Plan the camera wires route before you buy your equipment to hide the wire of the camera.
- After Finish planning for the route of the wires, you can buy conduits and bury them in case you use 1 method to make wires hidden.
- The planning for the route of wires will find a short and easy way to bury the conduits which make the burial process easier.
- Make sure you use a wire guard, PVC, or metal conduits to protect camera wires perfectly from humans and animals.
- In the case of having a PoE security camera, you will use only one cable, as we mentioned above it provides both data connection and electric power for the camera.
Now, you’re finished installing conduits to protect and hide wires and pull the wires to connect the camera. But you don’t know how to install outdoor security cameras?
The best thing to do is to read the installation Guide Or contact a security camera installer expert to do it for you. If you don’t find one you can know Who installs security cameras Online.
Do all security cameras have wires?
The answer is NO, Not all security cameras have wires, there are wire-free security cameras that are totally wireless and it has no wire used. This type of camera sends data and recorded videos using Wi-Fi, and uses a battery or solar panel to provide the camera with electricity. So, for this reason, called “Wire-Free cameras.”
Wire-free small cameras can be used if you have any problem with using one of the above methods for hiding outside security camera wires.
They can be used indoors if you have children, or outdoors if you’re outside area unprotected as well. Additionally, they are small and unnoticeable to people’s sight.
Related: Best Outdoor Wireless Security Cameras without monthly fees.
How Long security Camera Wires Be Outside Should Be?
Well, It depends on the power source for the outdoor camera, whether it is near the camera or not. Also, the video recorder whether NVR or DVR is mounted on the camera range or not.
E.g. If you have analog CCTV cameras connected to a DVR with a coaxial cable, then it’s recommended to run wires up to 900 feet in case of long-distance areas. On the other hand, in the case of wired PoE IP cameras connected to NVR with network Ethernet cable, the recommendation mentioned that the wire length should be 320 feet, not more and this range will provide a stable network connection.
Before you go…
If you have one Analog CCTV security camera that uses wires to share data and power by an electrical cable you have a big problem.
As we know, the more wires and cables in the security system the more trouble you will be in.
The wires and cables will damage your home decor. Plus, the camera wire can be cut by thieves and stop your surveillance system from working.
So, hiding security camera wires is considered the perfect solution for protecting your camera wires, and keeping your home decor without messy wires, and cables.
The second option to avoid being in this issue is to install wireless or wire-free cameras to monitor your property.
In this article, we discussed in detail the best effective ways to hide security camera wires outside. Plus, we answer the common questions related to this topic.
If you have any questions feel free to email us or write your issue in the below comment section.
