Full fibre install - Cabling on rendered house

Has anyone had full fibre installed with a rendered house? I’m considering having cable installed along the side of the house but I’m not sure how well the clips will stay in. I’ve seen some similar houses nearby and the cables are hanging down or the clips have come out and it and looks really ugly.

Will OpenReach make sure the cables are in a straight line at least? Without bricks to use as a guide I can see this being an issue. Do they carry a spirit level in their van?

Maybe I should just run ethernet inside instead, I can't decide what to do !!

you can get small wall plugs specifically designed to have a nail hammered in ie a cable clip. i dont know if OR would use/have them but if it might bother you why not fix it after the install by diy

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sour...

Edited by threelegs (Tue 31-May-22 15:28:47)

I prefer teh Tower 55P1 plugs https://www.millsltd.com/default/wall-pin-plugs-pk-1... same thing, just different brand. I use them in render or even when pinning on a mortar line.

On Openreach they are known as ‘pins plug no.1’ but not all will carry them.

The spirit levels are only tiny things, so no good for a long run.

I’d suggest you run your cat5 inside, then you know you’ll be happy.

Otherwise, mark the exterior run with a chalk line on the day ?

Please do update when you get your install done, I am interested to know the outcome.

We have rendered walls over EWI and there is no way I am letting anyone use hammer attach anything to that . Currently the overhead phone line goes in to the attic, where the router is, via a hole in the soffit and length flexible conduit. When we get fibre I really don't want it run down the outside of the house and back up, but from reading posts here that is Openreach's preferred method?

You can have the external cable taken into a loft and terminated into a CSP there, but your loft will have to be boarded, well lit, and the access will have to be a proper loft ladder. Openreach engineers won't be crawling across insulation with a torch.

It also depends on the engineer you get on the day whether they are happy to work with what you have.

It is. But you could try negotiating an internal CSP with the installation engineer in the attic immediately on the other side of the soffit, as long as it was reasonably and safely accessible to the engineer (lit, boarded and reasonably ventilated). They may still refuse.

Alternatively if you think engineer access is not going to be safely possible on the day (poor crawl space, generally not fit on H&S grounds as above)…

- if the existing conduit path is known to be reasonably new, clear of obstruction, smooth and without sharp bends (big if!), reuse the existing conduit and sacrifice the copper as a draw to a location for an internal CSP. That however may be ‘suboptimal’ in terms of location of the CSP. Sooo…

- install your own new 20mm conduit path with draw rope to where you want the CSP located (as close as possible to the external entry point), and ask the engineer to use this on the day.

Edit: duplicated reply with jpm 😉

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 06-Jun-22 14:03:03)

Thanks to both jpm and pheasant for the helpful replies and apologies to Kobrakai for hijacking their thread.

My loft/attic is boarded and lit with good access, and the none of the Openreach engineers who have recently been to fix our VDSL have complained or adversely commented. The flexible conduit runs several metres from the soffit to where it emerges in the attic but it's the shortest route and free of sharp bends.

Talking to one of the Openreach engineers, we are scheduled to get FTTP in next year or so. Getting an internal CSP will probably be a case of making their life easy, asking nicely, and having a new packet of chocolate biscuits on the day .

For a ground level accessible CSP.....When we had our gas main replaced I ran 54mm ducting from our boundary to the house, and would consider paying for the ~40m of pavement to be trenched to the nearest pole but don't even know where to start getting Openreach to quote to do this.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

It is. But you could try negotiating an internal CSP with the installation engineer in the attic immediately on the other side of the soffit, as long as it was reasonably and safely accessible to the engineer (lit, boarded and reasonably ventilated). They may still refuse.

My loft ticks all those boxes, fully boarded, and with workshop grade LED lighting, and a proper permanently fixed access ladder.

I'm inclined to drill a hole through from outside JUST in case I have an agreeable installer on my install day, and they agree to mount the CSP in there, (which would be my ideal solution). From there internal fibre run into the top of my 'comms cupboard' where the ONT could be fitted (Which is where the NTE5 and router are anyway)

What diameter hole is required, and would it help if it was 'sleeved' with (say 7mm) conduit ?

Or isn't worth the slim likelihood ?

You don't need to sleeve it unless you want to. On my install the external fibre was drilled through a double brick wall, via the path of least resistance - aka the mortar joint. The cable is approx. 5-6mm in diameter.

For a ground level accessible CSP.....When we had our gas main replaced I ran 54mm ducting from our boundary to the house, and would consider paying for the ~40m of pavement to be trenched to the nearest pole but don't even know where to start getting Openreach to quote to do this.

You can request to do this via Infrastructure Solutions. I've done it on my own project in London in 2019, but it will be eye-wateringly expensive. A new swept tee into existing Openreach ducting which required just footpath work was over £2K. It was a morning's work. We installed our own 54mm grey duct up to the property boundary/curtilage. Openreach out of the kindness of their hearts free-issued said duct as part of the contract.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

You don't need to sleeve it unless you want to. On my install the external fibre was drilled through a double brick wall, via the path of least resistance - aka the mortar joint. The cable is approx. 5-6mm in diameter.

Ok, thank you. In my case it's wood cladding (easy) and then a single layer of breeze block (not so easy) I'd be drilling from the outside, in, so very unlikely to strike lucky and hit a mortar joint, but if I did it might be a good omen !

If you've got access to an SDS drill, an 8mm x 460mm masonry bit is available from Screwfix for around £6 - should give you enough length to get through the timber cladding and blockwork.

Breeze block is very soft, concrete block is fairly hard but can be softer than brick.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Breeze block is very soft, concrete block is fairly hard but can be softer than brick.

Tell me about it, I have all three, 40CM think walls, its like drilling through a bunker, it's a nightmare, I normally have to drill from both sides as the drill bit is slightly too short, blown a brick because of it once. (obviosity different situation was running CAT 6A, but still a nightmare).

The annoying thing about breeze block is that it tends to spit and throw up a lot more dust and bits compared to concrete or brick. (at least i noticed)

It's only really a problem if you are in a confined space like the small loft space I was boring a 3 inch cable hole, where it was basically breathing the dust as you could only crawl in, no room to move in any direction. To get out you would have to try and back out again and hope your foot didn't go through the ceiling or didn't miss the precariously placed step ladder which was on a slippery floor and would shake around.

A great combo if you ask me. That and with the steamed up safety glasses because bits of breeze block were being thrown up in your face. All of the things I love, basically drilling blind. Even better when you find out the soil and vent doesn't have a one way cap on it and someone flushes the toilet while you are drilling and then the confined space and the whole of the room under it gets gassed out, so you end up needing to evacuate and fix that as well.

The fun to run cables, I'm sure no one here misses the experience.