Installation advice needed

[dkh7m]

My wife and I are moving into a new house next week. Yesterday, I called to have our Dish acct. transferred to the new place. However, I called back to cancel altogether today b/c I'm not sure about the wiring situation at the new house.

On last walkthrough, there were no cable outlets wired that I could see. Our seller is a contractor who has totally renovated the house. We saw new cable from the local monopoly (Comcast) outside the house, but no wall outlets inside. He didn't indicate whether or not that was something he was going to get to before closing. So I basically have a 50/50 shot of there being pre-wired outlets in the new house.

As such, I'm thinking of either a. ordering Dish and having their guys wire at least one, but possibly more outlets, or b. calling an electrician and having them do it. I've read online (mostly here) that the Dish guys will run "outside-in" lines, but not "attic-down in-wall" lines. The latter being what I want. Anyone here have any experience w/ the Dish guys. We have attic access, but I want the cable run down two floors from attic to basement where the TV room is, and I'm not sure if they'll do it. The rep, of course, told me they would, but I've heard that song and dance before.

A follow-up would be, would going with a local reseller be better, since I'd be dealing directly with the contrator and could negotiate what I want, as opposed to having the work dictated by Dish?

TIA for any advice!

 

[Laddyboy]

I think you'd be better off going local if you don't wan to do it yourself or have the contractor do it. Be prepared to pay quite a few dollars regardless of who does the cabling. Most installers get paid very little for actually doing the install and they aren't going to fish wires all over the house in addition to mounting the dish.

 

[dkh7m]

thanks. yeah, i'm really confused as to why our seller didn't run any tv outlets whatsoever. he apparently redid all the walls inside, so it's not like it would have been that hard. i did notice a lot of coax outside when we were there last, so maybe he was planning on doing it later. oh well. at least we're close enough to town now that i can get the old rabbit ears out in a pinch. i'm half-tempted to just do it myself, but i know if i screw up the walls in the new house, the wife'll never let me hear the end of it!

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

Its nearly impossible to wall fish from the attic down 2 floors to a basement, especially if its a exterior wall, without cutting the wall some. There is just not a good way to fish the wire down that far, though sometimes you can get lucky.

 

[bhelms]

Frankly I am a bit surprised if this is a real "new" house, as in recently built. Even the most basic construction includes at least a modicum of media outlets in key locations.

Parts or all of this kind of job are DIYs for quite a few of us. If you have reasonably open access via either the attic or basement to the rooms where you want to install the outlets the job becomes a whole lot less complicated especially if you can do it on inside walls. You need the proper drills for drilling through the plate or header boards and of course the wall fish itself, both of which can be purchased for not a whole lot at Lowes or HD. You might also be able to arrange a "hybrid" - get an electrician or intaller to do the parts you don't want to handle and you can run the cable yourself. If you really don't want to get involved then I agree that you should contact a local installer. They can come on site (perhaps for a price) to give you an estimate in advance and you can work from there. That way you would know exactly what lies ahead. An electrician can do the wiring as well, but if he is not familiar with sat. installations then he won't know the best options as far as equipment locations, etc. And if you end up pulling coax for TV you might also want to consider what other types of low voltage systems you'll eventually want, like internet, phone, and/or security, and get all wiring planned at once, and perhaps installed at the same time. Don't forget wiring for speakers, etc. in the room that will eventually become your HT ("man cave" ??)

 

[tastim]

You can throw your hopes that the Dish guy will do it completely out the window. NOT gonna happen, no matter what the CSRs say.

Have an electrician do it. Would be helpful to him if you could get him a copy of the blueprints to your house as that is the only way he could possibly pull off a 2 story wire fish.... and even then, chances are slim.

The guy that renovated your house had no intention of wiring it for you or he would have done so while he had the drywall off... which would have been a 3-4 hour job. Now you're talking a whole day more than likely, if it is even possible. Expect to pay a pretty penny to have this done.

 

[dkh7m]

yeah, it's "new" in the sense that it's new to us. house was built in 1958. the current owner bought it a year ago, gutted it and did a full reno to flip it. he did very, very good work. but as i said, i saw no sign of coax outlets. there are a couple of spots outside where the old cable coax came in, so maybe i can reuse those inlets. i was just really surprised that he didn't even replace the old outlets, much less install new ones.

thanks for all the advice. i will probably bring in an electrician to at least take a look and give me an idea of what i'm dealing with. if i can at least convince the wife that doing it "clean" will cost an arm and a leg, she may be more willing to allow a few wires running outside the house here and there.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

yeah, it's "new" in the sense that it's new to us. house was built in 1958. the current owner bought it a year ago, gutted it and did a full reno to flip it. he did very, very good work. but as i said, i saw no sign of coax outlets. there are a couple of spots outside where the old cable coax came in, so maybe i can reuse those inlets. i was just really surprised that he didn't even replace the old outlets, much less install new ones.

thanks for all the advice. i will probably bring in an electrician to at least take a look and give me an idea of what i'm dealing with. if i can at least convince the wife that doing it "clean" will cost an arm and a leg, she may be more willing to allow a few wires running outside the house here and there.

He didnt do you any favors on the cabling thats for sure. Chance are that old cable will not work. To install Dish all cable must be RG-6 to at least 2150 hz. It is better to be swept up to 3000 but it usually does not cause a problem.

 

[topcat0399]

He didnt do you any favors on the cabling thats for sure. Chance are that old cable will not work. To install Dish all cable must be RG-6 to at least 2150 hz. It is better to be swept up to 3000 but it usually does not cause a problem.

if you do have your electrician do it, the proper thing is RG 6 from every possible TV location in the house "HOME RUN" to a central point such as near your breaker box. The Dish cables should also enter near that point.

Makes life so much eaiser now and in the future.

 

[RayG]

Interior cabling (post-receiver) does not have to be RG-6. It is a good idea to install quality cable but your distribution system should work with RG-59 unless you have extremely long or harsh environment runs.

He didnt do you any favors on the cabling thats for sure. Chance are that old cable will not work. To install Dish all cable must be RG-6 to at least 2150 hz. It is better to be swept up to 3000 but it usually does not cause a problem.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

Interior cabling (post-receiver) does not have to be RG-6. It is a good idea to install quality cable but your distribution system should work with RG-59 unless you have extremely long or harsh environment runs.

True but why bother. RG-6 is not much more and you never know if you might change rooms in the future, or if something new comes out.

 

[tastim]

Interior cabling (post-receiver) does not have to be RG-6. It is a good idea to install quality cable but your distribution system should work with RG-59 unless you have extremely long or harsh environment runs.

Only to TV 2 locations would RG59 be ok... line from the Distribution location to any receiver location needs to be RG-6 too.... 59 was ok with Legacy Dish Network... but no longer meets Dish Network specs.... nor does it meet any TV provider specs for that matter....it's ok for sending VHF from a VCR or Receiver to a TV... that is about it.

 

[dkh7m]

cable is not a problem...i have about 300'+ of RG-6 that a guy gave me a while back. that's one reason the DIY approach is getting more and more appealing. i mean, i have all this cable just sitting there, so why not use it?

thanks again for all the great advice. i'll check back in in a few weeks and let you know how things go.

 

[dishcomm]

My wife and I are moving into a new house next week. Yesterday, I called to have our Dish acct. transferred to the new place. However, I called back to cancel altogether today b/c I'm not sure about the wiring situation at the new house.

On last walkthrough, there were no cable outlets wired that I could see. Our seller is a contractor who has totally renovated the house. We saw new cable from the local monopoly (Comcast) outside the house, but no wall outlets inside. He didn't indicate whether or not that was something he was going to get to before closing. So I basically have a 50/50 shot of there being pre-wired outlets in the new house.

As such, I'm thinking of either a. ordering Dish and having their guys wire at least one, but possibly more outlets, or b. calling an electrician and having them do it. I've read online (mostly here) that the Dish guys will run "outside-in" lines, but not "attic-down in-wall" lines. The latter being what I want. Anyone here have any experience w/ the Dish guys. We have attic access, but I want the cable run down two floors from attic to basement where the TV room is, and I'm not sure if they'll do it. The rep, of course, told me they would, but I've heard that song and dance before.

A follow-up would be, would going with a local reseller be better, since I'd be dealing directly with the contrator and could negotiate what I want, as opposed to having the work dictated by Dish?

TIA for any advice!

Two story wall fishes will cost you regardless. That type of work is not included in a standard basic install.
I do them but it depends upon how the house is built. Older homes with the furnace in the basement are easier to fish because there are chases from the upper floor to the basement . In the absence of that, there are ways to run cables through closets to the floor below provided there is a wall below the closet. In newer houses most likely the only way to fish is by cutting holes in the drywall. One other thing. If you want two story wall fishes you will have to be flexible on where the TV/Sat receiver will be placed. Be advised. If you go with a local contractor that negotiation you mention will go both ways. Be prepared to pay up for this kind of work. But shop around and get the best person you can.

 

[dishcomm]

Interior cabling (post-receiver) does not have to be RG-6. It is a good idea to install quality cable but your distribution system should work with RG-59 unless you have extremely long or harsh environment runs.

"post receiver"?

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

"post receiver"?

= tv2. Man loves his RG-59.

 

[dishcomm]

= tv2. Man loves his RG-59.

..LOL!!!!

 

[RayG]

Post-receiver just means the signal as it exists coming out of the receiver. Whether it's from Tuner1 or Tuner2. I always use RG-6, Quad Shielded, Peppermint Flavored, Lemon Scented cable myself. My only point is that it is not required to the TV (because you are dealing with low UHF frequencies (or VHF in older 3/4 out receivers) at that point).