Chorus made the news again..

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Suckerpunch

124 posts

Master Geek

#1982469 24-Mar-2018 10:57

blakamin:
sbiddle:

If they're removing all the existing concrete for the driveway it'll simply leave the exposed cable which can simply be concreted over - it's not going to damage it.

Not if they're doing their job properly... Once all the concrete is removed they have to re-level and compact the ground before laying any surface (concrete, asphalt, pavers, whatever).

A load of road-base will be going in (big sharp rocks). Getting finer and rolled, finer, and then rolled.. And if concrete, reo'd.

How do you do this with a fibre running across that's less than 400mm deep?? The moment any sub-base is compacted against any cable/fibre, the cable/fibre will come off worse than a rock.

This isn't a housing slab (even if it is concrete).

Driveways are built to a higher spec.... You're not driving a 2 ton SUV into your lounge every day.

You make a good point.
But from my naive point of view it still sounds feasible and if I was the home owner in this situation I wouldn't have even bothered getting Chorus involved...

1. Manually break up the concrete and cemix around the fibre to ensure its safety.
2. Break and excavate the rest of the concrete driveway.
3. Unearth more of the fibre either side of the driveway to give some slack.
3. Dig a new 900mm deep trench for the fibre to cross in under the new driveway.
4. Lay fibre in trench.
5. (Optional) Obtain 20mm conduit, cut a slit down one side of it it to open it, and put fibre inside conduit.
4. Fill trench in back to ground level.
5. Then apply driveway levelling, stones, compacting and concrete.

But that is a very naive point of view, and more context really would be needed.

richms

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#1982471 24-Mar-2018 11:05

And then the fiber would be broken and the home owners would expect the concrete guys to fix it at their cost.

Really, the people took the cheap/free install option and now are paying the price for it. No different to if you let sky do a free install of a dish on the side of the house and then have to relocate it to replace the rotten wall that it was attached to, except a few more zeros on the price.

Home ownership is expensive, this is just one of those things.

Richard rich.ms

Aredwood

3885 posts

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#1982496 24-Mar-2018 11:49

And I bet that those people who are getting the new driveway are not replacing the water pipes and power cables that are also underneath that driveway. The new driveway will get installed, and not long after they will need new water pipes.

I will be going through with all of this soon myself. As I also need a new driveway. Will need a new mains power cable, new watermain, new stormwater pipe, And approx 3m of 20mm Chorus ducting relaced. As Telecom installed it too close to the surface.

And I will almost certainly need a switchboard upgrade as well. As the current 1960s combined switchboard/ meterboard won't comply with the current electrical rules.

nunz

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#1982518 24-Mar-2018 12:16

acjh58:

nunz:

Had a client out the back of Chch Airport. There is major fibre running along pound road. To run it 3 feet (1m to you millennials ) so there is an end point at their gate - $15k. That ended that conversation there and then.

Common misconception that you can simply tap into a fibre running past your gate (unless it has been specifically designed for that). Can be done with RBI fibre in special circumstances, but often the fibre/duct arrangement may be cabinet backhaul or similar with no provision for direct customer connection - thus a much longer than expected fibre installation.

That probably means the people laying it had their heads some where than other than on the job. To lay fibre past 10-15 businesses, including rescue helicopter type business and NOT allow for a junction is spectacularly short sighted.

nunz

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#1982523 24-Mar-2018 12:20

richms:

And then the fiber would be broken and the home owners would expect the concrete guys to fix it at their cost.

Really, the people took the cheap/free install option and now are paying the price for it. No different to if you let sky do a free install of a dish on the side of the house and then have to relocate it to replace the rotten wall that it was attached to, except a few more zeros on the price.

Home ownership is expensive, this is just one of those things.

Hi @Richms - I do agree with you BUT there is one thing missing from your statement - just because the Govt cut costs doesn't mean the suppliers should do a shoddy job. doing something dum ass is not a sign of lack of funding, it is a sign that the installers lacked pride, common sense or training.

Further more the total costs go up when re-work or issues are faced - making that small budget less economic. it behooves them to do the job right first time - keeping costs down.

This sounds like a double failure - too little funding AND incompetence / not giving a rip about the work.

jjnz1

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#1982526 24-Mar-2018 12:28

Chorus recently completed my elderly neighbours fibre installation. They microtrenched across the top of the driveway, then saddled the naked black cable between the bottom of the concrete wall and her tar seal drive 20m down to her house.

No conduit, no physical protection. A weed eater would go straight through it. Cable could be pulled up from kids/animals too.

I have told her to complain, but she doesn't want to cause a fuss - she said she didn't even want fibre in the first place but they 'made' her.

I did offer to complain for her, but she declined.

toejam316

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#1982538 24-Mar-2018 13:14

The biggest issue, and one I'll keep going back to, is it's all well and good to say the owners agreed and should've known better, but ok the flip side the owners aren't industry veterans, they're not knowledgeable about civil works usually, and realistically can't have known the troubles that were hiding just around the corner.

You simply can't say they should've known, how could they have known?

Ideally I'd like this all to be something run through an independent authority, or even just a quick dumbed down run through so that it can be understood completely as part of the install, instead of the lfc or service company explaining it to customers.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

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raytaylor

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#1982637 24-Mar-2018 18:16

jjnz1:

No conduit, no physical protection. A weed eater would go straight through it. Cable could be pulled up from kids/animals too.

The 7mm thick black stuff is the conduit.

Edit: It has thick walls

The 1.5mm wide fiber cable is inside it

Ray Taylor

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jjnz1

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#1982671 24-Mar-2018 19:13

raytaylor:
jjnz1:

No conduit, no physical protection. A weed eater would go straight through it. Cable could be pulled up from kids/animals too.

The 7mm thick black stuff is the conduit.

Edit: It has thick walls

The 1.5mm wide fiber cable is inside it

That's like saying armour sheathed mains cable doesn't require plastic conduit...

I do understand the fibre cabling has a tough sheathing but I would still expect it to be in plastic conduit. It is very bendy and susceptible to kids and animals. Conduit would make it last longer.

raytaylor

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#1982707 24-Mar-2018 22:20

I have a roll of it at a job site at the moment. If someone reminds me next week, I'll cut some off and apply a weed eater to it and see what happens.

For Science!

Ray Taylor

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DarkShadow

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#1983037 25-Mar-2018 20:59

raytaylor:

For Science!

Remember to video it or it doesn't count!

webwat

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#1983559 26-Mar-2018 15:28

Saw one job where contractors ran ruggedised down the driveway, clipped directly to the CURB. Suspect the rubbish truck would have taken it out within a month. Customer complained and got them back to do it properly.

Time to find a new industry!

raytaylor

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#1985054 28-Mar-2018 17:07

Sorry for my very very bad filming skills

https://youtu.be/9qOPJFH3CUI

https://youtu.be/f-xwhtKAoyc

https://youtu.be/svIyRwiG0v4

Ray Taylor

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hio77

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#1985055 28-Mar-2018 17:10

raytaylor:

Sorry for my very very bad filming skills

https://youtu.be/9qOPJFH3CUI

https://youtu.be/f-xwhtKAoyc

https://youtu.be/svIyRwiG0v4

my head and ears hurt!

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

cyril7

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#1985084 28-Mar-2018 18:40

Hi the chorus stuff is double sheathed, there is a 5mm green inner, with a black tough outer sheath taking it to 7mm. We have a fair bit at work for our onsite network and I can attest it to being very strong, a weed eater is not going to affect it, an axe is another story.

Needless to say, it is easily as durable as if put in conduit.

Cyril

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