Will a Sky engineer do this for me?

Scam · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:17

We are (hopefully!) moving house soon and I've booked the Sky transfer complete with an engineer to come round the day after we move in. I know the previous tenants had Sky, they confirmed for us and we saw the dish, remote etc

Couple of things that bug me;
1 - The dish is on the rear wall at the back of the house, not very high at all. Feels like I could jump up and touch it if I remember correct. It looks terrible as you look back from the garden.
2 - The cables look like they were literally chucked over the roof from the dish (rear) to the front of the house and they are dangling down in a very ugly way. Not pinned or tidied to the wall or anything.

So, would the engineer move the dish up a bit for me or will he just say "no need, it works". And (I'm hoping he would), would he pin and tidy the cables for us?

We're also looking to convert the loft and replace the roof asap. I'm guessing it's in my best interest not to tell him/her this (so he thinks what he's doing is final). So, I'm assuming at some point the cables will get cut away etc. Can I get Sky back to sort it out afterwards? :confused:

Journey · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:19

Take the whole dish off the wall, and the cables, then just say the previous occupant took them when they moved... simple.

robj20 · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:21

Got to hate the idiots that just throw the cable over the roof. Takes only a few minutes to run it through the loft.

I'd do as above and take the current one off, you'll get a brand new one then.

Caged · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:38

Sky won't go into loft spaces, but I have pre-drilled the soffits in a house before where the dish was going on the opposite side of the house to the TV, and they had no issues passing me the cable through a hole and a box of clips to run it through the loft and poke down the other side. Then they clipped to the wall neatly as you'd expect.

Scam · 17 Jun 2021 at 18:08

Thanks guys.

robj20 said:
I'd do as above and take the current one off, you'll get a brand new one then.

But will he not be tempted to fit it in the same spot?

Caged said:
Sky won't go into loft spaces, but I have pre-drilled the soffits in a house before where the dish was going on the opposite side of the house to the TV, and they had no issues passing me the cable through a hole and a box of clips to run it through the loft and poke down the other side. Then they clipped to the wall neatly as you'd expect.

So would it go through the loft and out the front externally? Or down into the lounge internally?

Joxeon · 17 Jun 2021 at 18:35

Don't they need to carry out a risk assessment and call out the special heights team for jobs that involve going more than a few foot up a ladder?

WJA96 · 17 Jun 2021 at 22:33

Joxeon said:
Don't they need to carry out a risk assessment and call out the special heights team for jobs that involve going more than a few foot up a ladder?

Working at height is a nightmare. Don't ever under-estimate how dangerous working up a ladder is. Our standard RAMS call for us to drill an anchor point at every location we're going up a 3m+ ladder if the windspeed is over 1m/s. And it usually is over 1m/s so I've seen me in situations where I've drilled 8-10 anchor point locations in a customer's wall simply because we're lone-man working up a ladder. And I'm usually only carrying surveillance cameras. The biggest thing I mount is the Mikrotik LHG units and they're very light and not nearly as big as a Sky dish. I hate to think what it's like trying to manhandle a sky dish and a couple of LNBs up a ladder and mount and point it accurately.

Semple · 17 Jun 2021 at 22:40

Do they still fit Sky dishes nowadays? I thought they'd swapped to dumping their stream through the internet.

I actually just last weekend pulled the sky dish off our wall as it was a bit of an eyesore, and never intending to get sky seemed pointless to leave it up.

V F · 18 Jun 2021 at 01:24

Joxeon said:
Don't they need to carry out a risk assessment and call out the special heights team for jobs that involve going more than a few foot up a ladder?

This health and safety crap is really taking the pee nowadays.

I had to do it all in my loft to pass the cables through to him.

WJA96 said:
Working at height is a nightmare. Don't ever under-estimate how dangerous working up a ladder is. Our standard RAMS call for us to drill an anchor point at every location we're going up a 3m+ ladder if the windspeed is over 1m/s. And it usually is over 1m/s so I've seen me in situations where I've drilled 8-10 anchor point locations in a customer's wall simply because we're lone-man working up a ladder. And I'm usually only carrying surveillance cameras. The biggest thing I mount is the Mikrotik LHG units and they're very light and not nearly as big as a Sky dish. I hate to think what it's like trying to manhandle a sky dish and a couple of LNBs up a ladder and mount and point it accurately.

Funny, I didn't have issues climbing up a ladder that was thinner and waaaay more flex (front to back and side to side) than theirs and it was up 15ft to feed in CCTV cables. With no bolt placed into the house or belt.

At the same time the ladder was on gravel.

Yes, the Sky dish is a pain, it aint heavy but it's bulky.

whitecrook · 18 Jun 2021 at 09:39

V F said:
This health and safety crap is really taking the pee nowadays.

I had to do it all in my loft to pass the cables through to him.

Funny, I didn't have issues climbing up a ladder that was thinner and waaaay more flex (front to back and side to side) than theirs and it was up 15ft to feed in CCTV cables. With no bolt placed into the house or belt.

At the same time the ladder was on gravel.

Yes, the Sky dish is a pain, it aint heavy but it's bulky.

Well done you, but had the ladder slipped or you slipped or whatever and you fell to the ground, you easily have killed yourself literally no joke 15ft fall to ground is enough to kill to death.

Caged · 18 Jun 2021 at 09:42

You can fall from 2ft up, break your leg, get an open fracture and end up having to have it amputated. It's not worth risking an injury that you're going to carry for 40 years.

Scam · 18 Jun 2021 at 12:34

Joxeon said:
Don't they need to carry out a risk assessment and call out the special heights team for jobs that involve going more than a few foot up a ladder?

In our current flat (first and second floor) we were lucky because we have no access to the garden/rear where the dish needed to go. However the engineer was nice, and I showed him that he could go out the back second floor/bedroom window and scoot around on a perfectly big bit of roof, to fit it on the side facing over the roof. I was very thankful he didn't do a "computer says no" on me.

Looking at pictures of the rear of our new house, the dish is actually right underneath one of the rear bedroom windows. I now remember that's what annoyed me more than seeing it from the garden

It almost pokes over the window sill!

Perhaps my best bet is to leave it until we've done the loft extension.. ask the builders to remove it then I've got a good excuse to have it re-fitted? I also remembered that there seems to be two cables strung over the roof and into the front. The first I mentioned goes into the lounge, the second into the front bedroom. Would the Sky guy get rid of that? No need for the second cable no with SkyQ right? (Not that we'd ever use the second box)

flea.rider · 18 Jun 2021 at 13:08

Joxeon said:
Don't they need to carry out a risk assessment and call out the special heights team for jobs that involve going more than a few foot up a ladder?

daughter worked for sky for a while .. ground grips and anchor points and harness .. she's been up 3 floors to put a dish up ..
to op .. just ask but make sure you have coffee and cakes on hand .. and smile

WJA96 · 18 Jun 2021 at 13:32

V F said:
This health and safety crap is really taking the pee nowadays.

I had to do it all in my loft to pass the cables through to him.

Funny, I didn't have issues climbing up a ladder that was thinner and waaaay more flex (front to back and side to side) than theirs and it was up 15ft to feed in CCTV cables. With no bolt placed into the house or belt.

At the same time the ladder was on gravel.

Yes, the Sky dish is a pain, it aint heavy but it's bulky.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. I’m insured against injuring myself at work (and damaging anyone else or their property) and we have to comply with the Working at Height Regulations 2005 and they’re pretty explicit. Going up a ladder is a last resort and if you do it, you need to observe the correct precautions.

As a homeowner, you are completely free to do whatever you like, even if you injure yourself and incur massive costs to the NHS in doing so. Health & Safety hasn’t gone mad, rather it’s just moved into an era where industrial accidents aren’t the norm and people go home, whole and well, every night. If you want to go back to the ‘good old days’ when you could lose your fingers in a press or get asbestosis because no-one gave a xxxx then be my guest. Personally, I’m staying here in the 21st century.

drichardb · 19 Jun 2021 at 16:53

Semple said:
Do they still fit Sky dishes nowadays? I thought they'd swapped to dumping their stream through the internet.

They've been experimenting with this for years but have yet to launch a dishless Sky service. The only streamed service they have is Sky Go or Now TV.

Scam · 22 Jun 2021 at 17:00

We were back at the house today. Not sure the dish can go anywhere else at the back to be honest. There's two first floor windows - it currently sits right under one. I think I can put up with that although you can just see the top of it from inside which is annoying. The only other space is in between the two windows but that's above the rear 'extension' roof which is practically falling apart*. I don't think he/she could lean across to put it there :confused:

(*This will be resolved when we have work done on the kitchen/rear of the house).

The cables annoy me though. They go up and over the roof, not even straight. There's one cables that goes immediately down and into the lounge which isn't too bad. But then another which goes across under the front bedroom windows and into that room. Which we don't need.

Will the engineer get rid of the second cable going into the front bedroom?
Will he seal the holes it leaves if he does?

Caged said:
Sky won't go into loft spaces, but I have pre-drilled the soffits in a house before where the dish was going on the opposite side of the house to the TV, and they had no issues passing me the cable through a hole and a box of clips to run it through the loft and poke down the other side. Then they clipped to the wall neatly as you'd expect.

Do you think the Sky engineer would drill those holes for me and I could go into the loft and pass it through? Not sure if this may cause me more issues seen as we're going to convert the loft shortly (best not mention that to him)? :confused:

The roof will be replaced anyway, so the way I see it the cable is going to get cut at some point..

Caged · 22 Jun 2021 at 17:11

You've not mentioned the house being taller than two stories so I would imagine you'd be fine getting them to drill holes and you grab the cable. They are usually pretty accommodating but - like most 'installers' as opposed to a trade you've hired - they just won't go into lofts as the liability is too great and people love to pack them with junk.

V F · 22 Jun 2021 at 21:03

Caged said:
You've not mentioned the house being taller than two stories so I would imagine you'd be fine getting them to drill holes and you grab the cable. They are usually pretty accommodating but - like most 'installers' as opposed to a trade you've hired - they just won't go into lofts as the liability is too great and people love to pack them with junk.

Must be rough for older couples 60+ to get them installed. I remember back in 2008/9 they used to go into the attic fitting the cables. No more sadly. You're on your own and feed them out to the engineer or contract someone.

There's nothing worse than seing a tacky cable or two and more going across walls and your roof.

Caged · 23 Jun 2021 at 09:40

There's always the option of asking a satellite and aerials company to do the installation for you, and then you can have the cables run how and where you want, in exchange for paying for their time. A Sky installer with a target to get x dishes up per day and installing yours for free isn't going to get the same level of job completed.

You could also argue that new build houses should have the cabling already installed for satellite TV, and a point accessible on the outside of the building to connect it to, or there should be a collection of large dishes for the entire development and the signal distributed via fibre to each house, but lol house builders aren't interested in making quality buildings that are easy to live in, they just want profit.

Duke · 23 Jun 2021 at 10:08

Scam said:
But then another which goes across under the front bedroom windows and into that room. Which we don't need.

If you're not using that then you could just unscrew it from the LNB and remove the cable and fill the hole in the wall after? As mentioned above you could also get a local independent company to do this for you or help with parts that you don't/can't do.