Sky wont install + with Multi-room

old-harpers · 16-11-2005 2:24pm #1

Hi Guys,

First post here, great forum by the way, you have all helped me with various problems or kept me up to date with the news regarding satalite channels.

My problem started when I saw SKY+ with multiroom for 69 Euro, great deal i thought, rang up sky 2 weeks ago, Guy chatted with my wife for a while and set it up, was due to be installed yesterday, 15th of November.

Wife takes a day off work to wait for engineer, he arrives at 2.30 discusses with my wife where to drill holes etc. for cabling, takes a look at the sky dish attatched to the chimney and says " i'm not going up there, the roof is to steep, and i'm not insured" !!!!! WTF???

So wifey rings up and says the engineer refuses to fit the extra cabling on the roof and asks how come an engineer went up there the first time to put the dish on.

The girl at the other end of the phone says "My screen says it wasnt installed by us, it was installed by an "independant" (Dixons it was), and that we would have to contact them if we wanted to have Sky + with multiroom installed.

Why oh why couldnt the original guy we spoke to, that set up the engineer callout, have told us that? It would have saved us a two week wait, only to have to do it all again with Dixons!!!!!!:mad:

Waste of our time and the sky engineers time!

And why wouldnt Sky fit the stuff anyway? Cant see how it matters that dixons put the dish up?

Something to think about if your thinking of going for the deal.

Tony · 16-11-2005 2:56pm

the chimney is really the last place a dish should be fitted in all honesty. I've come across a few Dixon installs before and they seem to have a preference for chimney installs for some reason. Skys contractors seem not to have insurance for this type of work and the sky guy you spoke to would not be automatically aware that a chimney was involved. To resolve this I would speak to your local independent thats doing the sky deal and ask him if he is set up for chimney installs IE has a roof ladder. Might also be worth taking the opportunity to re locate the dish.

beer enigma · 16-11-2005 4:17pm

Many insurance companies now have a clause in their buildings policies that state that they will not cover any damage done to a house caused by 'chimney failure' if there is evidence of a dish being fitted to the chimney....

ie..if your chimney falls through your roof on a windy day with a dish attached....hard luck mate ! - could be an expensive lesson

iano · 16-11-2005 4:46pm

Is it not also the case that a chimney-mounted dish requires planning permission as it is higher than the highest part of the roof?
(See Erection of a Satellite Dish on a Residential Property)

Tony · 16-11-2005 5:38pm

iano wrote:

Is it not also the case that a chimney-mounted dish requires planning permission as it is higher than the highest part of the roof?
(See Erection of a Satellite Dish on a Residential Property)

Its not necessarily higher than the roof, it depends on the individual set up. Since his dish is already up I doubt planning is an issue right now . In any case different areas have different views on this.

old-harpers · 16-11-2005 6:06pm

Thanks for the replys,
the dish isnt higher than the chimney, I live in a dormer bungalow, I would have thought that the roof was less steep than a house with 2 floors and then a roof on top! Its accademic I suppose if he is not insured to go on the roof. Anyway I guess im off to Dixons.

Harpie

Tony · 16-11-2005 6:28pm

old-harpers wrote:

Thanks for the replys,
the dish isnt higher than the chimney, I live in a dormer bungalow, I would have thought that the roof was less steep than a house with 2 floors and then a roof on top! Its accademic I suppose if he is not insured to go on the roof. Anyway I guess im off to Dixons.

Harpie

Forget Dixons go to your local installer, I'm almost ceratin you will get better service

ixtlan · 17-11-2005 2:22pm

I've posted on this topic before... you might remember me as paranoid chimney guy...

Naive and ignorant as I was when my dish was installed (by a Sky contractor) I paid them an extra 30 pounds in 2000 to install on the chimney as the alternative was on the front wall, which would not have gone down well with the wife. Anyhow everyone else had theirs on the chimney.

Years older and wiser I asked my independent who did my Sky+ about this. He said many installers like putting the dish on the chimney as it's easier! Go figure. I've considered moving the dish but so far inertia has won out, along with the fact that on my row of houses almost all are on the chimney...

Let me ask a question though... Due to the directional position of my house and me being on the wrong side of a semi-detach I cannot put the dish on the side-wall (at least not without it pointing around the corner and hence being in front). It has to be the chimney or the front. However that planning doc (and I am in Cork) says it cannot be on the front. Does that mean legally, I have to put it on the chimney?

I want to know what to do when the storms blow it down, hopefully leaving the chimney in place. Got to check my insurance policy now.

Ix.

Tony · 17-11-2005 3:49pm

Why not use a stand off bracket and put it on the back of the house. I'm surprised many installers dont offer this option.

ixtlan wrote:

I've posted on this topic before... you might remember me as paranoid chimney guy...

Ix.

byte · 17-11-2005 9:53pm

Yeah, a stand-off bracket can be a good and neat solution in some homes, though I've come across various houses where the pitch of the roof was too steep to allow for this setup. Of course, it all depends on direction dish needs to point in relation to the house.

In some cases, I've put stand-offs on gable walls with dish overlooking the roof slope, instead of putting dish on chimney (many people with new houses don't want dishes on chimney any more than the front of their house, which can be good).

ixtlan · 18-11-2005 1:57pm

I may sound very ignorant here...

but what exactly is a stand-off bracket? I mean I can imagine, sort of... but when you speak of putting it at the back of the house, I get confused.

If there was a bracket at the back of my house surely it would need to go all the way over the roof?

Or if you mean on the side wall towards the back sticking out, the problem is that with the house angle it would have to stick way out and cross over into my neighbours territory, since I just have a 1m path at the side separated with a wall.

The only way it might work would be on the side wall very close to the front, but again the further it went back the further out it would need to stick. It just seems impractical! Maybe I'm missing something?

Just to clarify, the house faces almost due South but a little bit the wrong angle (can't work out the direction!). My neighbour on the right side could easily put a dish on the gable, but amazingly theirs is on the chimney too.
Ix.

watty · 18-11-2005 8:12pm

A bracket that sticks out past the gutter.

It either has a built in pole for the dish or a bracket that you bolt a pole of any desired length (more lenght means dish higher above gutter, but more leverage from wind).

Some of these are only designed for TV aerials and skinny or long poles are for TV aerials. A bracket and /or pole only ment for TV aerial is a very bad idea for a dish!

A nieghbour here has TWO stand off brackets on his rear wall with a Sky minidish on one and 80cm dish on the the other. The bottom of the dishes is about 200cm / 8" above the gutter and dishes point roughly toward peak of roof.

The upward view of Sky is about 22 Degrees I think,

Sky wont install + with Multi-room

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