Running conduit for Virgin and BT

Hey there

So I'm currently planning out our new extension, which will include an integrated garage.
As part of the garage, I'm planning on relocating some computer gear into a dedicated rack. I also want to relocate our existing BT and Virgin business services to the same location.

As I'm going to be digging up the driveway anyway, I'm thinking it would make sense to run conduit to enable the new cables to be pulled in easily and to where I want them without having to clip to the side of the house or drill holes...

Has anyone done anything similar? Any pointers on how best to proceed?

Thanks in advance.

Gavin

How does your existing BT line get from your front boundary to your house (e.g drop wire from pole or duct)?

The BT line is ducted and pops up on the side of front garden before clipped along the external wall.

I think the virgin takes a similar route, with the brown box being on the front of the house, and again the cable is clipped along the external wall up the driveway...

I used a blue water pipe to protect just one fibre cable. It is the wrong colour, but easy to buy. I put a draw string in the pipe before I laid it. It is important to remember that water may get in the pipe.

There are plenty of places selling 54mm 'BT' grey ducting - just google it.

Lay that with a blue draw rope in it and you'll be sorted.

Don't be tempted to use any cheap alternative.

I'm going to be addressing this issue later.

Do service providers object to sharing a duct? I read elsewhere that they did.

If one is thinking of running more than one service through a single duct would it be prudent to go for 96.5mm duct rather than 54mm?

NJSS

In reply to a post by NJSS:

Do service providers object to sharing a duct? I read elsewhere that they did.

If they both use Openreach for their infrastructure then a single BT Duct 56 (54mm) should be good enough for both a copper and a separate fibre service, if you're thinking of one Openreach and one from a different provider (say Virgin) then I would recommend you need two ducts. Please remember if your current service via Openreach is via a drop wire and pole you may want to discuss with Openreach\your provider first before you start as you may be wasting your time.

We had new swept tees in the footpath for both Virgin and Openreach in London. Cost to install said tee from Openreach was about five times greater than Virgin. Whilst we were at it I put in a third “spare” duct for any other providers laid up to the property boundary with a draw rope and sealed. Future proofing as re-laying Yorkstone slabs isn’t easy or cheap, but duct is practically free...

Virgin also free issued their 54mm green conduit to us (and a drum of quad-shield coax!). We had to procure all our own 54mm grey for Openreach.
They won’t share ducts and don’t even like digging up at the same time, as the sub’s prefer to line their pockets twice.

That's good to know, thanks...

Did you terminate the ducts internally to your property? If so, how did you handle preventing water and gas ingress?

Thanks

Topical about gas leaks, whilst we were in construction, we had a series of leaks whilst the ducts were still open ended into the basement space. The plumber picked up on it and it resulted in evacuation of the whole site! It was around Christmas 2019 and the Cadent emergency repairs team “solution” was to dig up the footpath in places all down the street, and also smash open all our newly laid ducts and tees. We weren’t popular with the neighbours that Christmas - but as it turned out it was a loose union on a neighbours gas main back feeding into the virgin and Openreach ducts! So there a while sorry saga about resolving and remediating that!

Anyhow long story short all the ducts were sealed on our side with purpose duct sealant. I have a tube remaining here somewhere, so I’ll find out what it was. It’s bright red in colour and I think it’s intumescent rated.

If you've not found the Openreach developer guides yet then it is worth a look on the website and a read through. Interestingly it says “We’ll supply all the Openreach materials you need to build and install the network on your site, for free.” Now this might only apply to developers but would be worth asking especially if Virgin were to offer their ducting for free.
There is also a note that says “For all Single Dwelling Units (SDU) duct must be terminated on the external surface of the property.” so I’d be aiming to build a chamber where the existing duct enters your garden (to save them digging up the pavement at my cost) and then a straight run with a swept end coming out the ground just outside the extension where you want the new cables to end up.

I’d start with a phone call to both saying you want to move the termination point and explaining that you’d like the ground works doing to fit with your timetable and see what they say. You might find the cost they come up with means it isn't worth you going to the effort of doing it yourself.
One more point, in your first post you mentioned ‘business’ and if these are business lines then I’d expect the cost to be more.

In reply to a post by fatmcgav:

That's good to know, thanks...

Did you terminate the ducts internally to your property? If so, how did you handle preventing water and gas ingress?

Thanks

So the product our builders used was Filoseal+

https://www.filoform.co.uk/filoseal-re-enterable-duc...

Came in an applicator kit...
https://i.postimg.cc/rFVYk3MS/IMG-9039.jpg

Thanks for the suggestion. I have come across the developer guide, but I missed the single dwelling note.

Will start making some calls soon to find out what options are.

And only the virgin connection is a business one, due to me working from home. But it was just connected into the preexisting brown box that was on the wall...

Cool, thanks for the link...

Will make a note for later 😊

I'm a big fan of doing a job right but do the connections actually have to move? A couple of decent lengths of Ethernet cable between the old location and the new is cheap and easy to install if the routers (or ONT if it is FTTP) can stay where they are now.
Would save a load of cost and effort but isn't as a nice a solution.

Yeh, I'm keen to try and make things as clean as possible.

I'm going to be digging up the driveway to run a new water and gas pipe anyways, so the digging isn't the issue...

I know they won't share conduit runs, but would they share a conduit box?
For example if I stuck something like this on my boundary and ran the conduit from it to the garage? https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/naylor-...

In reply to a post by fatmcgav:

Yeh, I'm keen to try and make things as clean as possible.

I'm going to be digging up the driveway to run a new water and gas pipe anyways, so the digging isn't the issue...

I know they won't share conduit runs, but would they share a conduit box?
For example if I stuck something like this on my boundary and ran the conduit from it to the garage? https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/naylor-...

Usually you want to maintain separation up to their network demarcation, but honestly I can’t imagine there should be any issue with that as it’s all within your own property boundary.