mike1273

Has anybody experienced any problems getting a sky dish fitted to the chimney stack of their houses by the installer? Had the bloke round this afternoon, independant installer from a local dealer, and he couldn't get a decent signal from the front of the house, so I pointed out that next door had their dish mounted on the chimney stack, (done by sky) he wasn't having none of it, saying that fitting the dish on the stack would void the warranty and if fitted there it would be a non standard installation resulting in extra installation fees??? Just wondered if anyone might have any light on the matter before he comes back next week. cheers.

Shark Man

Ball ***** IMO, like many sky installers, he's just scared of heights.

Mind, there is an advanatage of having it lower; it's easier to re-align or replace LNB should it ever go wrong.

Also, if signal strength is a problem you don't have to have a mini-dish. A larger dish is a viable alternative. However you may have to pay more for that (even though a larger 60cm costs less that £20 including the LNB - brand new on eBAY )

mike1273

the trouble with the signal was the buildings on the other side of the street, thats why I thought that the higher point of the dish would be better. I'm on the same thought as you though, he just didn't want to get on the roof although it was raining, to be fair

simo

Mine is on the stack . Sky fitted it to a side wall, looked ****e so when I upgraded to a twin lmb I got it moved by an independant installer, no problem. When SKY installed SKY+ & changed the lmb again for a quad one the engineer had no issue with going a bit higher. Mind, he kept the twin lmb I had paid for previously the little bugger

mike1273

cheers for the info simo, Shark Man, think I'll have to go see the bloke in the shop that gives this installer all this the work. The thing that gets me is that next door got the work done from Sky, and this guy is supposed to be "sky approved"

scoobywrxuk300

I had the same problem, Sky fitter, said " health n safety issues prevent me from going too high up a ladder" also some politics to do with sky dishes ruining the skyline profile on house roofs..

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

What a load of b0llocks, they've got 'lashing' kits specifically for this type of job. He probably couldnt be arsed, or as sed is a *****.

bobsabuilder

As I understand it you shouldn't fix a sat dish to a chimney stack as in high winds it can bring the chimney crashing down. This may have been when analogue was around and the dishes were a lot bigger, but a mate of mine is an aerial and satallite installer with 20+ yrs experience and although he would strongly advise NOT to fix the sat dish to a chimney, he will do it as long as the customer accepts all liability if the wind should cause damage.

Bob

Shark Man

Surely the idea of a mesh dish was to allow wind to pass through it Solid dish I could understand but who sees them these days

ru'

I have a dish atached to the stack of my new house. Had sky engineer (lol) round to upgrade for sky+, he said they need to get 'heights' team in as it is too high.

Next visit, they (apparent 'heights' person) said it was too high, and must've been fitted by an independent.

Had to get a new dish fitted in the end, stuck on the front of the house; looks **** poor.

Bucnh of @rse.

CrisPDuk

Next time it's windy watch how much a washing line whips about, that'll give you an idea of how much wind doesn't pass through a perforated dish

The idea of fitting a satellite dish to a chimney stack is insane Even on a regular windy day the additional wind shear loads on the stack would be phenomenal, during a storm the gusts will take the loads well above anything bricks and mortar are able to absorb long term OK, weather permitting you may be safe for a few years, but make no mitake, one day one of your bedrooms will be getting an unwelcome visitor

BTW I design structural steelwork, amongst other things, for a living, so I'm full aware of what the wind is capable of.

Shark Man

And my family has been building houses for 60 years, so I know what chimneys can take

Think of the surface area of a chimney, now think of the area of a mesh 30cm mini-dish is right infront of it. Go to bed Fred Dibnah

CrisPDuk

It's got **** all to do with the surface area of the chimney, it's all to do with the way the poxy little mounting bracket is designed, allowing you to screw into at most three bricks. If you drill a hole in a brick wall, stick a bar into that hole and swing back and forth a few times on it the brick starts to crack because it's not intended to take that sort stress Exactly the same thing will happen around the dish fixing screws, eventually loosening the bricks.

The same thing happened with the old big dishes even when fixed to the side of houses. Our house had a dish on the back wall, I had to get a builder to come and rebuild the area it had been fixed to because the bricks were all loose & broken

BTW Bob, I can't go to bed I'm at work And for the record Fred Dibnah was joiner by profession, not an engineer

Shark Man

Of course those huge FM radio aerials don't blow down a chimney, plus they are heavier and give more leverage due to being raised up a pole. I'm looking at two as I type.... Refering back to your washing line analogy.....

Fred was a practiced steeplejack though.

Robbie T

iTrader: (8)

Above certain heights they do have to send someone from the special heights team to do it (from sky not independant).

Health and safety is regarded extremely serious by Sky, a mate got sacked a couple of weeks ago for not using an eye bolt on a fairly routine job. No if or buts just a red card