Neighbours dish on chimney

mjsmyth

I live in a semi d bungalow and share a chimney stack with my neighbour. I noticed today that she has a satellite dish attached to it (its a solid one, not mesh, but not an 80cm dish)

Should her landlord have informed about this? I know that most installers who visit here advise against attaching dishes to the chimney.

The back of the house faces southerly and gets blasted by high winds thru out the winter. The last thing I want is her dish causing problems with the chimney.

Any thoughts?

MJ

The Muppet

I assume its attached to your neighbous side of the chimney so I dont really see what it has to do with you. They are entitled to put it there as long as they do not contravene the planning laws which it most probably would do if it were on the front of the house.

Propellerhead

Get a quad LNB installed on the dish and run a cable into yours?

Tony

The Muppet wrote:

I assume its attached to your neighbous side of the chimney so I dont really see what it has to do with you. They are entitled to put it there as long as they do not contravene the planning laws which it most probably would do if it were on the front of the house.

It has everything to do with him. Permission should have been sought as a chimney is regarded as shared property in the same way as permission should be sought for work on a party wall.

The Muppet

Tony wrote:

It has everything to do with him. Permission should have been sought as a chimney is regarded as shared property in the same way as permission should be sought for work on a party wall.

Are you saying legally they should have sought permission or just out of courtesy Tony.

How many chimneys have you seen taken down by 80 cm dishes?

ixtlan

I guess realistically it's unlikely to cause any problems, but perhaps for you, like me, it will be something that will bother you!

I wonder if your directions are wrong? If the rear of the house faces South then it would have been perfect to put the dish on the rear wall. However as I noted before, many many dishes are on the chimney, even when it could have been put elsewhere.

Anyhow, I agree the dish should not be on the chimney, but it's an awkward situation for you. It may be an expensive undertaking to move it, and neighbourly relations may be strained. However are you saying that the other half is rented out?

In another thread Tony and Watty gave me some useful info about stand-off brackets, which might allow me to attach the dish to my rear north wall sticking up over the gutter and taking advantage of the fact that the satellite signals beam down at 20deg plus... My dish is currently on the chimney, but I've given some thought to moving it. However I'd need an installer I could trust to do this, so I could explain exactly what I need, and I expect it would cost at least 100 maybe 200?

I know there's an installer best practices guide to not install on a chimney, but quite obviously this is widely ignored, at least by the Sky contractors.

Ix.

mjsmyth

Hi Ix,
Nope, the house is defiately south facing and yes I agree, it should have been put on the back wall, like mine is

While I own my house, the other house is rented. As for Muppet asking about how many chimneys have been taken out by their dish, well I don't have an answer to that, but I sure as hell would prefer if it does not happen to mine.

MJ

The Muppet

mjsmyth wrote:

Hi Ix,
As for Muppet asking about how many chimneys have been taken out by their dish, well I don't have an answer to that, but I sure as hell would prefer if it does not happen to mine.

MJ

Hi Mj,

You have other concerns if you house is so poorly built that a small dish will pull the chimney down . What sort of relationship do you have with the owner of the house next door? His tennant must have informed him about erecting the dish.

Lots of people have (or have had neighbours) that they don't get on with so would be reluctant to consult them about something like this when they know they are going to disagree.

Your inital reaction is to see can if you get the dish removed instead of trying to establish if there really is a danger of it causing damage to your property and to me that is not a very neighbouly reaction.

I have had a similar experience with an antenna a lot bigger than a Sat dish on my roof and my neighbour at the time did all they could to get it removed but they could do nothing as the installtion was not breaking any laws. That was quite a while ago but I would imagine you situation would be the same.

TempestSabre

All it has to do is cause a crack and then wind and rain will do the rest. Take a few years obviously.

Tony

The Muppet wrote:

Are you saying legally they should have sought permission or just out of courtesy Tony.

How many chimneys have you seen taken down by 80 cm dishes?

As far as I am aware legally permission should hae been sought in teh same way as there is a legal requirement to seek permission to work on a party wall. I have seen several chimneys damaged by poor installation and were eventually the dish has worked loose. A lashing kit is the best way to fix anything to a chimney where no other location is available.

Rippy

Tony wrote:

. A lashing kit is the best way to fix anything to a chimney where no other location is available.

While I agree that it always best to avoid chimney installs,TBH I have seen far more chimneys damaged by badly installed and unsuitable lashing kits than by being drilled and bolted.

.

Tony

Rippy wrote:

While I agree that it always best to avoid chimney installs,TBH I have seen far more chimneys damaged by badly installed and unsuitable lashing kits than by being drilled and bolted.

.

In what way were they damaged by the lashing kit?

mjsmyth

The Muppet wrote:

Hi Mj,

You have other concerns if you house is so poorly built that a small dish will pull the chimney down . What sort of relationship do you have with the owner of the house next door? His tennant must have informed him about erecting the dish.

Lots of people have (or have had neighbours) that they don't get on with so would be reluctant to consult them about something like this when they know they are going to disagree.

Your inital reaction is to see can if you get the dish removed instead of trying to establish if there really is a danger of it causing damage to your property and to me that is not a very neighbouly reaction.

I have had a similar experience with an antenna a lot bigger than a Sat dish on my roof and my neighbour at the time did all they could to get it removed but they could do nothing as the installtion was not breaking any laws. That was quite a while ago but I would imagine you situation would be the same.

I don't have any problem with my neighbour at all, well apart from the fact that I think she screams too much at her kid, but it jhust bugs me that they would install a dish onto joint property without even mentioning it. I don't know if they did it themselves and I dont know what the quality of the work is like.

If it is not fixed well and works loose like mine did last year (excepyt mine is on my back wall) it will bounce on the roof slates and can possibly damage them.

Simple really, I just think they should have mentioned it.

MJ

byte

Rippy wrote:

While I agree that it always best to avoid chimney installs,TBH I have seen far more chimneys damaged by badly installed and unsuitable lashing kits than by being drilled and bolted.

.

Hmm, that is a rare occurance, and as you've already said, only when the lashing isn't suitable for the load it's bearing.

One small problem though, is where people paint their chimneys. If the chimney has a lashing, some tend to paint the lashing also (or Sky bracket if that's what was used), and emulsion is very corrosive on any metals, and eventually, the tension wire will corrode and break. Though, this would take a long time, and you'd notice rust runs on the chimney plaster beforehand.

Rippy

I have often seen chimneys where the whole corner has been eaten away by the bracket moving. This is usually when a small bracket has been used and the wire not tensioned correctly. As the masonry is eaten away the lashing wire becomes looser , the bracket rocks more in the wind load and the damage escalates.
A cradle type bracket with a correctly tensioned lashing wire will rarely cause damage,but it is not unknown.

Unfortunately most dishes are affixed to chimneys purely as a matter of convenience for the installer - it is usually easier to work standing on a roof than up a ladder! Lift a tile to drop the cable into the attic, no cable clipping to do!
Never mind the risk of damage to the chimney, the most common damage I see is to roof tiles or slates by clumsy heavy footed installers.