TV mounting, smart home and Wi-Fi in Yonkers, NY

Yonkers is a city of hills, and its housing follows the terrain. Pre-war apartment and co-op buildings line many of the older streets, multi-family houses are common in the established neighborhoods, single-family homes fill areas like Crestwood and Park Hill, and newer buildings along the Hudson waterfront look across to the Palisades. Each of these calls for a slightly different installation approach.

In pre-war buildings, interior walls are often plaster over brick or clay tile, which is solid but unforgiving. Mounting a TV means choosing the right masonry anchors and drilling carefully to avoid cracking the plaster around the hole. Running new cable inside these walls is rarely practical, so neat surface raceway painted to match, or placing the TV where the outlet and cable already are, usually works best. Wi-Fi also struggles through masonry, so a larger apartment may need two access points rather than one router in the living room. In co-ops, check with management before any work that touches the walls, and expect requests for insurance paperwork and limits on work hours. Sound carries between units in older buildings, so a soundbar or compact speakers aimed into the room are often a better fit than a large subwoofer.

On hillside lots, houses are frequently built into the slope, with a garage or lower level at the street and living space above, or the reverse. Those level changes can make it tricky to get Wi-Fi and cameras where you need them, but they also create useful wiring paths through the garage ceiling and utility spaces. Steep driveways and stairs to the front door are good spots for motion lighting and a camera that sees approaching visitors from below.

If your apartment or house faces the river, the afternoon sun off the water can wash out a TV and heat a room quickly. Motorized or manual roller shades with a solar or blackout fabric help, and you can choose a fabric that keeps the view when lowered. In owner-occupied multi-family homes in Yonkers, a single network with separate tenant access and shared cameras for entrances keeps things simple for everyone.