So im having a totally unanticipated problem with a rental house. I have spent the last 1.5 years fixing and restoring all the stuff wrong with it, and its FINALLY ready to rent.

The problem is that its a 1939 house, so the walls were constructed with wire lath and plaster. (if you are not familiar, this is a sheet of perforated steel nailed to the studs, and plaster applied over it, instead of wood lath, and before dry wall.) IMO, an absolute pain to deal with, any wall repair needs an angle grinder to cut through the wire, but its pretty sturdy.

The entire house is constructed with this, so every wall has two layers of metal, and what this does is eliminate any cell signal from any provider.

So far this has been a deal breaker for 2 potential renters, the fact that they need to install a house line, and can't use their smart phone in the house anywhere but the attic is unacceptable to an increasing number of people. Not texting, no internet phone, nothing.

Its a major problem, this day and age the smart phone has become another limb, and having people discover that they can't use their cell in the house is like telling them no women allowed.

Does anyone know of any way I can boost the signal from the home, has anyone dealt with this problem?

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signal booster

another one

I'd try contacting one of these vendors and discussing the application.

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Jim

Look into cell phone repeaters. They use an outside antenna, an indoor antenna, and a transceiver/amplifier to bring signals into buildings. It sounds like it works like a wi-fi router for networking, but on cell phone frequencies. I have no experience, so Google may be your friend until others come along with more information.

Funny, I own an apartment in a prewar building that has the same problem and have rented it when I traveled in the past. Lack of cell signal has never been a problem -- free WiFi, so renters just would use Skypeout or Google Voice, and I have a land line for when I'm there.

This being said, if the tenants have wired Internet, they can get a box that routes their cell signal over the Internet or stick a WiFi calling app on their cell. I would avoid getting anything for them if possible, unless you want 2 am calls that their cell signal sucks.

PS - can you market the house to businesses and/or the foreign intelligence agencies as a TEMPEST certified Faraday cage?

Since one layer of aluminium foil with an air space is incorporated into some houses like the last one I constructed. This cell phone reception is an issue with it as well .

Not having foiled the ceiling probably would have eliminated the issue in my case. I know little or actually nothing about cell phone signal boosters. Or there practability in that situation. Yet cost little to try.

Actually on reflection they may very well work. As long as there is some indication of signal presence in the metal lath place. The phones do ring at least I hope.

The phone will usually ring in the case up here inside that house. Still no usable signal is present on pickup unless near a window. That particular house was built for the energy costs thirty years down the road as was our current one thirty five years ago. There are trade offs I found out for extreme energy efficiency as well. This was one of them. I have never worked on or been involved with a metal lath house either as they are not common here.

This is the "right" way to do it:

How does a cell phone booster/repeater work by UnwiredSignal.com

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

Thanks for the ideas everybody! Going to see if I can get my hands on some gadgets and try this.

The phones do not even ring, just go directly to no service whn inside. Outside, the coverage is 1-2 bars for the average cell phone, so I think its a combination of weak service and metal.

When I'm down there working, I go outside a couple times a day and get 4 or 5 beeps in a row from missed calls

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So you too live in a Faraday cage then?

We have a similar problem here - our house is made from reinforced concrete.

There's a product over here (that's really common as it is a common problem) that utilises the domestic power supply cables within the house => so next to your modem there's a box that generates a carrier signal which is whacked on top of the normal power supply and gets picked up by another box upstairs, for example, which can then be connected by UTP cable to your computer or to another wireless router that does upstairs...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!