Virgin Media Installation - mid-terrace back of house?

[HangTime]

On Friday I am having Virgin Media installed. I have a lot of logistical questions / worries about the installation.

For background I live in a mid-terrace townhouse. They have already attached an external Virgin box to the lower front of the house earlier this month in preparation. What I require is:

• Broadband to be installed to 2nd floor, front of house. I assume this is no problem as they can just run a cable straight up the front of the house?
• Phone line to be installed somewhere, not fussed where but same place as the broadband would make sense
• Main V6 TV box to be installed to first floor, back of house. This is where it gets a lot trickier as there is no access to run cables round the side of the house so the only routes would be over the roof or internally through the house. How would they go about this so I can prepare accordingly (moving furniture etc)? I'm assuming this needs a physical coax cable and can't just run off WiFi?
• Second V6 box to be installed to first floor, front of house. Does this also need a physical cable? Should be easier than the main box as its at the front. Although I understand due to Covid-19 they will defer the install of the second box to a later date anyway. To be honest I am less fussed about the location of this box anyway, I could live with it being in another room and just put the TV there.

As I say the main worry I have relates to the main TV box, there is no easy route from where the main connection box is installed to the living room. Looking online it seems going over the roof may not be done any more(?) and internally I guess the most logical route would be to come in via the first floor at the front of the house (given I want a second box there anyway) and then run a cable through to the living room at the back. Still a bit awkward though in terms of running a cable around a few internal walls etc to get to the correct location.

One of those scenarios where I fear I will be given little option but to compromise and either have it installed in the wrong room or/ be just left with a loose cable and told to sort out the internal wiring myself because I won't have cleared the path for internal wiring adequately in advance (difficult when you don't know how it is going to be approached).

 

[Avalon]

VM won’t normally go above a ladder to first floor, especially on a 1 man install which this is likely to be if you have an exterior box. That means if you want it under the floorboards, you need carpets and floor boards lifted, furniture out the way etc. if not they will usually take a feed via skirting. All boxes need physical feeds and can be installed where you want within reason. The other option is the loft, but again they won’t be crawling about in your loft to drop a feed, especially if it’s unboarded etc.

 

[Rainmaker]

We have our VM feed entering the front downstairs, trunked along the skirting and over the door to the opposite end of the (double parlour) room. That's where the downstairs V6 box lives, in the back of the AV cabinet (where a network switch is cabled in for TV type stuff). From there they split the line and drilled out in the bottom corner of the back wall, ran an external cable, drilled in to the back bedroom window frame, and screwed said cable to a little box they screwed onto the end of our bedroom window sill. That has an internal cable coming out of it, stapled immediately and directly under the edge of the sill to the back wall, up the gap between the edge of the window frame and built-in cupboard, and onto the top of the cupboard where the V6 box lives. The TV is wall mounted next to said cupboard, so it's perfect and all the cables are basically invisible.

In my experience they're usually quite good at awkward requests if you offer a brew/biscuits/bacon butty... As Avalon said though, they do have hard H&S limits like climbing around on your roof! My father in law just tapped a feed off the existing one (with genuine VM cable the installer 'forgot' to take with him), tied a tennis ball to the end of the (very long) cable and threw it over the roof, then went around the back and drilled through.

 

[happy_2008]

They will probably just put the cable into your house and its your job to hide the cable nicely around the house. All they will do is give you enough cable length.