Where should CCTV cameras go on a semi-detached house?

Most semi-detached houses need four cameras: front door, driveway, side passage and back garden. Where you put them matters far more than which brand you buy. A cheap camera in the right spot will catch a face. An expensive one in the wrong spot will film the top of a hood.

This guide is written for homeowners fitting their own cameras, or deciding what to ask an installer for. It comes from years of looking at buildings the way a criminal does: where they approach, where they stop, and where they think nobody is watching.

The advice below is what I would tell a friend or family member: practical and honest, and based on how intruders actually behave rather than what is printed on the box.

How a burglar looks at a semi

A semi has one shared wall and three open sides. That gives an intruder fewer routes than a detached house, which makes them easier to cover.

The usual approach points are:

The front door, for parcel theft, doorstep callers and anyone testing the handle.
The driveway, for car theft, keyless relay attacks and catalytic converters.
The side passage, the quiet route to the back of the house, often hidden from the street.
The back garden and rear doors, where intruders can work on a door or window, out of sight of neighbours.

Cover those four and you have covered almost every way in.

Camera 1: the front door

A video doorbell is the simplest way to cover the front door. It sits at face height, so it records faces rather than the tops of heads.

Mount it at about 1.2 to 1.5 m, the height most doorbells are designed for.
Check what it sees on a phone before you drill. You want the whole person on the step and any parcel left on the ground.
Avoid pointing it straight at the street. It will trigger on every passing car and fill your phone with alerts.

If you have a porch or a deep recess, a small camera mounted above and to the side of the door often works better than a doorbell.

Camera 2: the driveway and front of the house

The driveway camera has one job: show who came onto your property and what they did to the car. That means seeing faces and, ideally, a number plate.

Mount it on the front wall at around 2.5 to 3 m, high enough to be out of easy reach but low enough to see faces.
Aim it along the drive, not straight down onto it. People approaching should walk towards the camera, not underneath it.
Cover the car’s driver and passenger doors. That is where relay thieves and catalytic converter thieves spend their time.
Do not rely on one wide camera to read plates. A wide lens shows the whole scene but rarely reads a plate at night. If plates matter to you, use a camera with a narrower view on the entrance to the drive.

A camera records a car theft. On its own, it rarely stops one. If your car has keyless entry, keep the key in a signal-blocking pouch or box away from the front door, and switch keyless entry off if the car allows it. A visible camera and a light on the drive add to that. They do not replace it.

Camera 3: the side passage and gate

On a semi, the side passage is the route most people forget. It is narrow, often dark, and usually hidden from the street and from neighbours. It is the natural way for someone to reach the back of the house unseen.

Mount the camera on the house wall looking down the passage towards the gate. Anyone coming through will walk straight towards it.
Place it on the garden side of the gate if you can. A camera on the street side can be covered or knocked before the gate is opened.
Add lighting. A motion-activated light here does as much good as the camera, and it improves the footage.

A good side gate that is locked and taller than head height is still the best deterrent. The camera is your record if someone gets past it.

Camera 4: the back garden and rear doors

The back of the house is where an intruder has time and privacy. Your camera here should cover the back door, any patio or French doors, and the route in from the side passage or rear fence.

Mount it high on a rear corner of the house, looking back across the garden and the doors.
Include the shed or garage if you can. Bikes, tools and garden equipment are common targets, and tools taken from a shed are sometimes used to break into the house.
Watch for the rear fence. On many semis the back fence borders an alley, a field or other gardens. That is a second way in.

If the garden is long or the shed sits at the far end, a second camera may be worth it. Most semis, though, are covered by one well-placed camera at the back.

Height, angles and night-time

Footage is only useful if it shows a face clearly enough to recognise. These rules get you there.

High enough to be safe, low enough to see faces. Around 2.5 to 3 m suits most outdoor cameras. Much higher and you film the tops of heads and hoods.
Angle down gently, not steeply. A steep angle hides faces under caps and hoods.
Film people walking towards the camera. Side-on footage of someone crossing the frame is rarely usable.
Keep the sky out of the picture. A bright sky makes the camera darken everything else.
Check the night view before you finish. Infrared can bounce off a nearby wall, gutter or window and blind the camera. Move it a little until the night picture is clear.
Protect the recording. If footage is stored on a box or a memory card inside the camera, a burglar can take it. Keep the recorder hidden indoors, or use cloud backup for the cameras that matter most.

The neighbours: shared walls, shared drives and the law

On a semi, your neighbour is a few feet away. That makes camera placement a legal question as well as a security one.

The rule is simple. If your cameras only record inside your own boundary, including your garden, data protection law does not apply to you. If they record beyond it, such as next door’s garden, a shared drive, the pavement or the street, then UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 do apply (GOV.UK guidance).

If that happens, you take on responsibilities: putting up signs, keeping footage secure, deleting it when it is no longer needed, and giving people a copy of footage of them if they ask.

On a semi, the usual pinch points are:

The shared side of the back garden. Angle the rear camera along your own fence line, not over it.
A shared or neighbouring drive. Point the driveway camera at your car, not theirs.
The street. A front camera will often catch some pavement. Keep it to a minimum.

Most cameras let you block out parts of the picture with privacy masking. Use it on next door’s windows and garden.

The simplest thing of all is to tell your neighbours before you fit cameras, and show them what the cameras can see. It avoids most disputes before they start.

Common mistakes

Mounting cameras too high. It feels safer, but you end up with footage of hats and hoods.
Covering the front and forgetting the back. The front camera catches parcel thieves. The back camera catches burglars.
No light at night. Infrared shows shapes. A light shows faces, and it puts people off.
Wi-Fi that does not reach. A wireless camera at the end of the garden with a weak signal will drop out when you need it. Test the signal where the camera will go.
Leaving the recorder in plain sight. If the footage leaves with the burglar, the cameras did nothing.
Never checking the footage. Look at your cameras every few weeks. Spiders, ivy and a shifted bracket can quietly ruin a view.

One more: buying more cameras than you need. Four well-placed cameras beat eight badly placed ones. Fewer alerts also means you actually look at them.

The short version

Camera	Where	What it should see
Front door	Doorbell at about 1.2 to 1.5 m	Faces on the step, parcels on the ground
Driveway	Front wall, about 2.5 to 3 m	People approaching the car, ideally a plate
Side passage	House wall, garden side of the gate	Anyone coming through, face on
Back garden	High rear corner of the house	Back doors, patio doors, shed, rear fence

Keep every camera inside your own boundary as far as you can, add lighting, and protect the recording.

Rather have it fitted? We install home CCTV across Worcestershire and the West Midlands, placed properly and set up on your phone before we leave. Get a fitted price.