Security Camera DIY Drilling through Drywall

Safety First - Step back and have a tail-gate safety meeting, even if your running solo!

It's makes good sense to evaluate the risks and how to prevent any dangerous situation.

Tools/Supplies:

• Safety Glasses/Googles
• Stud-finder
• Drill/ 1/4" Hex Impact Driver
• Drill Bit
• Drywall Anchor
• Pencil/Awl

Step 1: Identify the location you desire to mount the camera.  Attempt to identify the location of the studs.  Once you identify the stud you can either purposely align one or more of the holes to "hit" the stud or you can purposely avoid the stud and use only drywall anchors.  The will vary depending on the weight/size of your camera.  Most interior camera can be supported more than efficiently with drywall anchors.  If you have a heavy or large camera you would want to either anchor to the stud or use toggle bolts.

Step 2:  Mark the wall with either a pencil or small awl (I often use a small philips screw driver to make a small indent on the drywall) with the mounting template.  If you camera did not come with a template you can use either the camera mounting plate or camera.  This depends on your camera.

Step 3: (Optional, but recommended)  I like to drill a small pilot hole with a 1/8" or smaller drill bit in each of the holes I plan to use.  This helps to ensure that nothing is behind the wall that I want to avoid.  In particular if I'm trying to miss the studs, I do not want to hit one.

Step 4: Drill anchor holes using a appropriate sized drill bit and insert drywall anchors.  I prefer to use screw-in zip-it or EZ-Anchors.  Note: If you hit a stud in step 3 with one of your locations and now are purposely mounting one or more screws to the stud, you would not drill out the hole.  You will simply screw your mounting screw into the stud.

Step 5: Drill a hole large enough to feed your cable and connector through.  The size of this can depend on your camera model.  Some cameras the cable plugs directly into the back of the camera, others have leads that will need to be fed back into the wall cavity.

Step 6: Feed your cable through the hole and through the mounting plate if applicable.

Step 7: terminate your cable end and if applicable connect to the camera (depends on your camera model)  If you have a mounting plate, you do not connect the cable to the camera yet.

Step 8: Using your anchors/screws fasten your mounting plate or camera to the wall.