Virgin Media Installation Conundrum

[BodgeIt]

I've decided I want to have sky sports for the new football season. I really don't want a dish on the side of my house so I'm planning to get it through Virgin Media. There is already a virgin media connection point in the pavement right next to the end of my drive. I have block paving laid on the drive and between the pavement and the house, its not possible to lay a cable from the connection point to the house without going underneath the block paving, the shortest run being about 3 metres. I rang VM to ask whose responsibility it was to lift and relay the block paving. They said they never touch block paving but there's no need for me to do it either, because their engineers "have ways" to do it. Well I don't see how a cable can be laid without lifting the paving. The call centre couldn't elaborate, only to keep saying "our engineers have ways to do these things". So my question is, has anyone had VM installed with a cable run under block paving (or tarmac, or slabs), and what 'special ways' did the engineers use?

Thanks

[Phil L]

I think it's quite obvious where the cable is going to be if they 'never touch block paving' - it gets clipped to your fence, or if you have a garden wall, it gets clipped to that - if you don't fancy either of these ideas, you ain't getting cable installed.

FWIW, they don't lift anything, for flags, they run the cable between the joints - yes even if they are staggered, and for tarmac and concrete, they grind out a small channel about an inch deep, put the cable into place and fill in.

[Bob Minchin]

I expect they use a "mole". The gas board do in these cases.

Bob

Bob

[Phil L]

They can't use a mole because they are 2 feet long, meaning they'd have to dig two holes in his block paving, one at the house end and one at the pavement end and each hole would have to be at least 2 foot square

[BodgeIt]

The only way they can do that would be to run the cable on top of the pavement, the pavement in our cul-de-sac is also block paved, as is the road. There is simply no route to my property that isn't block paved for at least 1.5metres width.

[The Medway Handyman]

They train in secret at the Hogwash School of Wizardry and Witchcrap with Barry Trotter.

[Lobster]

That's what they did that in my flowerbed, FFS...

David

[Phil L]

Do you have a fence or wall seperating your garden from next doors, and from the pavement?

Is there a small cement infill between wall/fence and block paving? - if there is, this is where the cable will go.

[Peter Andrews]

I think you are all very optimistic - round here they are just laid on the surface across paving and if you have a 'high class' installation the cable is put inside a bit of black flexible pipe! Equally if you want an additional 'box' at the back of the house the cable is often just thrown over the roof ridge.

Peter

[BodgeIt]

Yes, but it would be a tortuous route, probably 30 metres, whereas the connection point is only 3 metres 'as the crow flys' to where it would enter the house. Surely they wouldn't do that? Would they? How thick is the cable, like RG59 coax?

[BodgeIt]

Peter you are jesting now, aren't you?

[dennis]

Probably not.. I have seen such things done around here.

[Peter Andrews]

No.

Peter

[Rod]

We must be in a *very* posh installation - our flexible conduit isn't black - it's green! I guess that's to hide it between the blades of grass. When I did some paving and so on outside, I buried it as deeply as I could, but it had started out snaked through plants.

[geoff]

PAh - mine was hidden in a mortar fillet running down the side wall

[dmc]

Heh, Down here in "Posh" Folkestone (!) we have the same green conduit.

Ours is half heartedly buried in the gravel and the edge of our front garden. Had to sign something to say we accepted that it wasn't buried to the correct depth IIRC (it was installed 10 years ago)

Darren

[Bob Mannix]

And my lawn - lift an inch of turf, tuck underneath and tread down. Alternatively, they will make an appointment, drive to your house, take one look and drive away (I've known that happen too). If you want a proper job on installation, you have to provide the route yourself IMHO. Still happy with rest of service though.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Never a truer word spoken.

Installation teams are on a rate, and miking a net unobtrusive job costs money.

A decent conduit with a pull wire is the cheapest of all, IF you provide it for them..

>

[Pete Verdon]

We got cable installed (with landlady's permission) for Internet in our student house. The installers (while I was out) stuck it straight through the extractor fan in my basement bedroom. All I could really do about it was take the fuse out of the FCU to stop someone turning on the fan and tangling it up in the cable.

Pete

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Pete Verdon saying something like:

Oh dear. FFS.