Setting posts
There is nothing to mount a camera on where you need one. No soffit, no gable, no fence line at that angle -- just open ground at the end of a driveway. Setting a post is the answer, and it is the part of a perimeter job most often missing. Often it is what makes the job possible at all.
What the job is
One visit, one job: siting the post where the angle actually works, digging and setting it in concrete, plumbing and backfilling it, then running shielded direct-burial Cat6 from the house to that post in conduit sleeves and terminating it in a weatherproof enclosure at the top. At the post the line becomes 12 V DC through a PoE splitter, with a LiFePO4 battery buffer so the position keeps working through an outage (about 20 hours at a typical 5 W camera).
Your total with us, our flat $400 labor fee plus every part you buy from retailers, stays under $1,000 for the year, and this job is priced to fit inside that on its own. We never split one customer's work into separate projects to get around it.
Before any post hole is dug, we call Virginia 811 to have utility lines marked at the site. That call is free and required by law, and it is ours to make -- you don't need to do anything.
What it costs
Flat $400 for labor, one line item. We never bill for materials and never mark them up.
You buy every part yourself, at the retailer's own price, and the Procurement Hub names each one: the post, three bags of fast-setting mix, two conduit sleeves, the weatherproof enclosure, the cable, the PoE splitter and house PoE source, and one battery. Every link is dated, and the building supplies are priced per store, so the Hub sends you to your own branch rather than quoting a figure that would be wrong there. Read why you buy the parts for the reason that policy exists.
What is out of scope
Work happens outside and at points a person can already reach on foot -- we do not go into an attic or crawlspace, and we do not touch your home's high-voltage/mains electrical beyond what it takes to plug in a low-voltage adapter.
- Anything line-voltage. Everything here runs under 50 V DC, and we do not open or change your electrical panel.
- Attic work and crawlspace work of any kind.
- Locks, deadbolts, electric strikes, maglocks, or keypad/access-control entry hardware -- installing, servicing, or rekeying any of it. That is locksmith work under Virginia law, and it is not a service we offer.
- Masonry, structural work, or a job that needs a stamped drawing.
- A cable run over 328 ft from the house without a mid-span plan -- the calculator checks that before anyone visits.
Camera work is not part of any job booked here right now. The Virginia DCJS Electronic Security Business certification is in progress; this notice changes the day it is issued.
No video feeds are offered or installed today.
Start the Perimeter Upgrade Calculator and choose "A camera position, with a post" from the list of jobs it opens with.