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Pull satellite cable using existing cable

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  • 02-06-2020 3:45pm
    #1
    nialldinho
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭


    Hi

    I have Virgin Media broadband wired down from the attic to sitting room wall. The wall is the joining wall in a semi detached house.

    I also have a Sky dish on rear wall coming in through downstairs wall at the back. I now want to move the Sky box to the front room. Would I Be able to bring the cables in at the back across the attic and use the existing Virgin cables to pull it down?

    Is this a difficult job?

    Thanks!


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    #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,499 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    It should be doable yes.
    Go up to the attic and see can you spot where they come up.
    depending on the construction of the house the might be in wavin pipe or just going into the wall via a hole in the timber.
    give them a pull and see if they are loose .
    If they are tape on another bit of something (single core cable if possible) and pull it up to the attic then attach what ever you want and pull them down. Maybe pull in a spare pull wire for future use.
    Get one person to feed them from the attic and someone else to pull firm (not hard) from below.


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    #3
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    nialldinho wrote: »
    Hi

    I have Virgin Media broadband wired down from the attic to sitting room wall. The wall is the joining wall in a semi detached house.

    I also have a Sky dish on rear wall coming in through downstairs wall at the back. I now want to move the Sky box to the front room. Would I Be able to bring the cables in at the back across the attic and use the existing Virgin cables to pull it down?

    Is this a difficult job?

    Thanks!

    If you're happy risking losing the VM cables you could give it a go, but it's rarely trivial. If you do, try make the join as streamlined as possible, as the channel the VM cable is taking through your wall may not be much wider than the VM cable itself. Things can easily get caught in timbers and joints.

    One thing to clear up, your VM cable is downstairs, and you want to bring another cable down to it. You'd either need to pull the sky cable up from your front room, or have a lot of slack on the VM cable in the attic to pull it down.

    Be sure to attached an additional string to the VM cable so you can pull it back up/down.


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    #4
    nialldinho
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭nialldinho


    Thanks guys.

    And if I didn’t fancy doing it myself what sort of tradesperson should I be looking up to ask?!


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    #5
    Explosive_Cornflake
    Registered Users Posts: 2,104 ✭✭✭Explosive_Cornflake


    TBH, I'd be looking to route it a new way. I know in my house there's next to no chance of being able to pull one cable with another.


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    #6
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,499 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »
    TBH, I'd be looking to route it a new way. I know in my house there's next to no chance of being able to pull one cable with another.

    Every house is different.
    You don't know until you try !


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    #7
    nialldinho
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭nialldinho


    Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »
    TBH, I'd be looking to route it a new way. I know in my house there's next to no chance of being able to pull one cable with another.

    The original installer wouldn’t do it for me. His only alternative was go over the roof and down the front. That would have been fine but the cable would have to go around a chimney breast to get to where the TV is and he didn’t offer any good way around that!


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    #8
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,499 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    nialldinho wrote: »
    The original installer wouldn’t do it for me. His only alternative was go over the roof and down the front. That would have been fine but the cable would have to go around a chimney breast to get to where the TV is and he didn’t offer any good way around that!

    They won't do it because they are absolute savages and are paid by the install.
    The quality of their work is embarrassing.
    Cables clipped along skirts and around doorframes etc .
    The lad installing my fiber said he wasn't allowed in the attic because of insurance.
    I had to do it myself and he terminated it.


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    #9
    championc
    Registered Users Posts: 6,063 ✭✭✭championc


    It sounds like my house - a buried conduit running from the sitting room to the attic.

    It's likely that the conduit will be in two 3m sections meaning they are joined.

    I fed a Cat5 cable from the bottom up the conduit and I got up a decent amount. I did the same from the top and measured the amount in got in. It turned out that the upstairs bedroom wall was plastered, with a 1" gap between the two lengths of conduit. I dug it out and violla !!!

    So leaving the existing cable there, you should be able to feed a second cable down side by side. Once you get a pull chord in, you'll be sorted.

    I use this all the time.
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321555558731


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    #10
    dclifford
    Registered Users Posts: 218 ✭✭dclifford


    Not sure if you plan to still use the VM cable, its not clear from the OP.

    Have you thought about using the VM cable, from the attic down, as your sky cable? Cut the VM cable in the attic and join the sky cable to it. Set it up and check the signal strength. You wont lose anything by trying.
    If that doesn't work, try pull the cable as you were planning.

    7.8kwp South facing, Slane.



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    #11
    nialldinho
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭nialldinho


    dclifford wrote: »
    Not sure if you plan to still use the VM cable, its not clear from the OP.

    Have you thought about using the VM cable, from the attic down, as your sky cable? Cut the VM cable in the attic and join the sky cable to it. Set it up and check the signal strength. You wont lose anything by trying.
    If that doesn't work, try pull the cable as you were planning.

    Sorry yes I do need to keep the virgin media cable active


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    #12
    Calahonda52
    Registered Users Posts: 12,195 ✭✭✭✭Calahonda52


    nialldinho wrote: »
    The original installer wouldn’t do it for me. His only alternative was go over the roof and down the front. That would have been fine but the cable would have to go around a chimney breast to get to where the TV is and he didn’t offer any good way around that!

    what about a white conduit in the corner of the CB up into the attic..
    I think the risk of a world of hurt with the pulling is too high

    “I can’t pay my staff or mortgage with instagram likes”.



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    #13
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,421 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    That's what I did. If you paint the conduit in the same colour as the wall as well you hardly notice it in the corner.


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    #14
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,365 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Sky use a double coax while Virgin use a single. You want to keep the Virgin cable active, so you're going to be trying to fit 3 coax cables into the run. It may be tight.


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    #15
    nialldinho
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭nialldinho


    Alun wrote: »
    That's what I did. If you paint the conduit in the same colour as the wall as well you hardly notice it in the corner.

    What does this actually involve?

    Is it just something on the outside of the chimney breast all the way up into the attic? So down through ceiling on first floor and then through ceiling on ground floor?


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    #16
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,365 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Another option, which is a bit left field but maybe you were already considering it, is Sky's multiroom package on their Sky Q offering uses WiFi to connect their boxes rather than a cable.

    This is what we ended up doing in our house. The dish had to go out the back, and we have the main box in our sitting room at the back of the house, and then just a minibox in the sitting room at the front.

    Of course, this option means handing over more money to Sky every month...


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    #17
    nialldinho
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭nialldinho


    awec wrote: »
    Another option, which is a bit left field but maybe you were already considering it, is Sky's multiroom package on their Sky Q offering uses WiFi to connect their boxes rather than a cable.

    This is what we ended up doing in our house. The dish had to go out the back, and we have the main box in our sitting room at the back of the house, and then just a minibox in the sitting room at the front.

    Of course, this option means handing over more money to Sky every month...

    That’s actually our current setup! Sky Q is in the kitchen. For the first few months it wasn’t even connected to a tv! I’d like to have the UHD option in the sitting room now though


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    #18
    LenWoods
    Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭LenWoods


    [
    Virgin media uses RG6 cable looks like coaxial cable but is not the same Quality
    RG6 is silver shielded from radio interference where coaxial cable isint; and that affects the signal Quality or wifi strength, I've re-installed virgin media and sky in to every room of my house.
    I used Belden 1694A RG6 to re-install my system
    And webro WF100 for the sattelite
    See thread:
    https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/80864-living-room-project/#comments


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