Bad experience with CommunityFibre

They failed to turn up for the original installation date but did on the second attempt. That is not my concern.

The problem I had was that they wanted to drill holes in the brickwork of my house to secure their ladder. Furthermore to complete the run of the cable they would have had to move the ladder more than once and drill additional holes each time.

This would have resulted in many holes and damage to the old (140 years) brickwork and frankly is a ridiculous and excessive approach. As a comparison I have never had this with other builders or even OpenReach.

Even if the cable had been run directly to the front of my house without the need to run along a sidewall this would clearly have required at least once their ladder to be bolted to my brickwork this therefore is not due to my desiring the cable to enter via the side of my house and not the front.

I am well aware of health and safety and the need to safely use ladders and also aware ladders can have stabilizer legs and anti-slip attachments but bolting to someone's house is unacceptable.

I thought Openreach also drilled holes to secure their ladders. Is there anyway you could use a hoist instead?

If they didn't secure the ladder and a supervisor stopped by they would be sacked. Maybe they would be happy to do the install if you provided scaffolding but that would get quite expensive.

I agree that if their rules require their installers to do this that it is the companies rules that are the problem and not the individual installer and the individual installer should obey their rules.

However that is my point, these rules by CommunityFibre are not legal H&S rules only their own rules. My neighbour recently had OpenReach (not CommunityFibre) do a fibre install and they did not do this for that. It is clearly down to CommunityFibre's own rules which I regard as excessive.

I have suggested to them the use of a small scissor lift, a cherry picker would not fit on my path or be able to reach all the way from the street.

A ladder with stabilizer like the following would to me be the obvious approach they should be using and would along with a the presence of a second engineer (two did turn up) provide more than adequate support.

https://titanladders.co.uk/product/aluminium-ladder-...

TBH , Openreach also use this method ( as do Sky satellite dish installers ) the rules around OR techs is as soon as they have had the appropriate ‘tetra’ training they are supposed to use it on every occasion they climb , and as stated, if caught climbing without using ‘tetra’ it is a disciplinary matter, so if a recent Openreach installation didn’t use that either the tech hasn’t yet had the training, or had , and was taking a risk , not necessarily with their safety but with their employment

Edited by Iniltous (Fri 22-Dec-23 16:07:19)

Its the world we live in today, these companies are unlikely to change their best practices just because a customer disagrees. I am not sure how you move forward with this.

In reply to a post by Iniltous:

TBH , Openreach also use this method ( as do Sky satellite dish installers ) the rules around OR techs is as soon as they have had the appropriate ‘tetra’ training they are supposed to use it on every occasion they climb , and as stated, if caught climbing without using ‘tetra’ it is a disciplinary matter, so if a recent Openreach installation didn’t use that either the tech hasn’t yet had the training, or had , and was taking a risk , not necessarily with their safety but with their employment

If the Openreach installation was by 'Kowboy Comunications' they might well have ignored any safety rules.

I have seen these methods of securing ladders before.

I'm not someone who climbs a ladder for a living, but it does come up as part of my work from time to time and I own one big enough to access most of the exterior of the house.

I'm also not completely unfamiliar with the concept of a risk assessment and generally believe we shouldn't be in the business of injuring people while they work.

With all that said I don't really see the problem that these drill and strap kits are responding to. Was there an epidemic of ladders sliding away from the walls of houses?

In reply to a post by ft247:

With all that said I don't really see the problem that these drill and strap kits are responding to. Was there an epidemic of ladders sliding away from the walls of houses?

It only takes one accident for someone to have life changing injuries and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It does always look over kill but its done for the right reasons including the engineer being attached to the ladder. I can understand why a lot of the old school guys don't like it.

Companies that don't impose their H&S policy are being heavily fined and are wide open for damages claims if their employee is injured or killed. Falls from height are still top of the accident causes and I was glad to see Openreach techie in harness when he installed our FTTP high up the gable wall.

I shudder to think of strolling out on an icy aircraft wing in years gone by. We thought nothing of it, in fact the RAF issued Plimsolls in case we damaged the upper surfaces! But I'm so glad that workers have proper equipment now. And having tried a cherrypicker to refit our own gutters it's a revelation, stable and safe platform with tools in my box and not sticking out of every pocket.

Erm, no holes were drilled into any walls to secure the ladder, on our house that is around 133 yours old, the only hole that was drilled was on the fascia board just below the gutter and that was to attach the fibre to before it goes down the wall and that was it.

I was even asked where I wanted the cable fitted due to being a end house I had the option to have it either on the front or side of the house, I chose the front to make it easier for them.

---
Paul

In reply to a post by jellockwood:

However that is my point, these rules by CommunityFibre are not legal H&S rules only their own rules. My neighbour recently had OpenReach (not CommunityFibre) do a fibre install and they did not do this for that. It is clearly down to CommunityFibre's own rules which I regard as excessive.

I think it was just your installers decision to do this or maybe Community Fibre has recently changed this, I know they didn't do that for my install 2+ years ago and they didn't a few weeks back when they installed next door also BT didn't do it either when they installed FTTP back in 2016 for several neighbours.

Sure they do and have attached the ladder to the phone poles, when I have seen them working up the pole.

---
Paul