How to hide the sky cable from the roof

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flynkiwi

152 posts

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#57057 1-Feb-2010 19:49

Hi All

I moved into my new place in December and are working through my house renovation and my plans for wiring the phones, network and TV through the house as I take off the gibboard room by room.

I have complete internal roof access (concrete tile roof) and access under the floorboards to 1/2 the house. I want to centralise the SKY and UHF/VHF and keep any cabels outside out of sight. I plan to have the cetralised point in the basement along with the comms cabenet for the phone/network.

Currently I only have a single RG59 cable to the single areial on the roof (guessing UHF)

I am a bit dubious of sky installers as I have had them install twice for me and they dont seem to be in it for the astetics so are thinking maybe I have the cable there ready for them once they arrive.

I know I need to run 3 x RG6 cabels to the roof but are looking for suggestions on the best way to do this to keep the cable tidy - i.e is there a way to go through the concrete tiles??

open to suggestions. thanks :)

Kyanar

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#295282 1-Feb-2010 22:52

Oh, with the right sort of drill you can certainly go through the concrete. You'll probably still need a Sky installer on hand though, as they seem to be very particular about where they'll install the dish.

wellygary

8312 posts

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#295308 2-Feb-2010 08:47

If you stick you head up into the roof cavity and have a good look round in the middle of the day you may find a cap in the morter so you dont actually have to drill through any actual tiles.

You may be able to find a gap in the morter allowing you to run wiring out under a tile close to where the dish is one the roof, alternatively you can chip out the morter yourself. This preserves the tile face ( which reguires you seal the joint to prevent water ingress), slipping under a tile means that if your siliconing fails, it is unlikely the water will travel up to get into the roof.

vinnieg

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#295309 2-Feb-2010 08:49

yeah two options:

- either drill through the concrete and use a grommet and then seal it with RTV silicone
- lift up the tile at the lower trailing edge and make a small indent in it, then feed the cable beneath the tile through the protective black layer into the house

I did option two and it's never leaked, it's been perfect :) and looks the part

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

vinnieg

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#295311 2-Feb-2010 09:03

wellygary: If you stick you head up into the roof cavity and have a good look round in the middle of the day you may find a cap in the morter so you dont actually have to drill through any actual tiles.

You may be able to find a gap in the morter allowing you to run wiring out under a tile close to where the dish is one the roof, alternatively you can chip out the morter yourself. This preserves the tile face ( which reguires you seal the joint to prevent water ingress), slipping under a tile means that if your siliconing fails, it is unlikely the water will travel up to get into the roof.

whoops, was typing up my reply when yours came up :)

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

Dingbatt

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#295320 2-Feb-2010 10:13

I'm assuming you have no Sky installation at the moment.
As far as the installers being particular about the position of dish goes, they will try and put it in a position that requires the minimum material use and effort (in my experience). That is because Sky pay them a minimal fixed rate for each installation. They will probably suggest mounting on a gable, soffit or wall because that is easier for them. If you have a look at your neighbour's dishes that will give you an indication of how the dish needs to be aligned to get a clear view of the satellite and then YOU decide where you would like the dish to go.
For my own installation I pre-drilled all the required cable runs and had purchased wall plates so that when the installer arrived I was able to pull the cable through for him while he mounted the dish (where I directed it to be). Current installations are a thicker multi-lead cable so allow plenty of room in any predrill.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Niel

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#295412 2-Feb-2010 15:18

I got a great installer, he placed the dish completely out of site. He could have placed it at the front of the house and saved more than half the cable, but instead he placed it on the South side and low down but still gets maximum signal and seldom rain fade (East Auckland gets less rain anyway). Can barely see it from the road and (large) back yard. Cable runs in the rain gutter to the back of the house and around to about the middle of the back wall, goes down attached to down pipe, under house, and then almost to the front of the house before coming up through the floor with lots of extra cable for if/when we want to move the set top box. Some installer take pride in what they do. Very tidy job considering a 1960's 2-bedroom home that is beyond renovateability (unless for a batch) and will eventually be removed to build a decent size house.

You can never have enough Volvos!