Does a baby monitor reach the garden in a terraced house?

Why does the garden fail when indoor rooms look fine?

The garden path is front bedroom → stairs → kitchen → rear wall → patio → back fence. Indoor rooms can pass while the last two stops fail because the radio has already spent its margin on brick. BT says outdoor figures need clear line of sight; a parent unit on a terrace patio is looking through the house, not across a field.

Which? includes an indoor-to-outdoors walk 'until the quality of reception and range declined, or was lost' and notes that this matters if you plan to be in a large garden while the baby naps. Which? does not publish a mid-terrace, front-bedroom-to-rear-fence protocol — that walk is yours.

How do I test the patio and the end of the garden?

Do the indoor path first so you know whether the garden is adding a new failure or only repeating the kitchen one.

1. 1
   Baseline at the back door Camera still in the front bedroom. Stand inside the back door or patio doors. If this already beeps, the garden will not recover it.
2. 2
   Patio slab Step just outside, still in the door's radio shadow. Hold ten seconds. This is the 'cup of tea on the step' stop.
3. 3
   Mid-garden Walk to the middle of the plot. Note whether picture holds and whether audio only survives.
4. 4
   End of garden / back wall Stand at the far fence or alley gate. This is the stop parents mean by 'does it reach the garden?'
5. 5
   Side return if you have one A side return adds another brick leaf. Test it as its own stop; do not average it with the patio.

RoSPA says not to put a cot by a window because of blind and curtain cords. Do not 'fix' garden range by sliding the cot toward the rear window or draping the camera cable toward the glass.

What is the difference between patio and end-of-garden?

What if only the patio holds?

Treat that as a patio result, not a garden result. Stand where the log stayed usable. Placement changes that do not move the cot:

• Retest a metre from the fridge and microwave before you blame the fence — BT lists those as indoor interference on the same path.
• Avoid the windowsill parent unit. Angelcare notes metal strips in some frames as interference.
• Do not use a neighbour's garden as your line of sight. The published outdoor figure assumes an open path, not someone else's yard.

Is a phone app in the garden the same test?

No. A dedicated parent unit is talking to the camera. A Wi-Fi monitor is talking to your router, then to the phone. Which? notes that a smart monitor can keep working wherever the phone has a connection, which is a different failure mode (router in the front room, phone at the back fence). Test the system you will actually carry.

Does garden range change safer-sleep rules?

No. The Lullaby Trust still wants you in the same room for the first six months, and says a monitor never replaces supervision. A garden walk-test only answers where the parent unit still links. It does not make an outdoor sit-down a substitute for room-sharing.

In shortIn short: through the house, then patio, then far fence. Log each stop. Outdoor box metres assume line of sight. A patio pass is not an end-of-garden pass.