Can water infiltrate conduit pipes and cause even more long-term damage to the cables ?
Not if it's done right. Pipe should be fitted and glued like plumbing and be water tight. The ends above the ground should have fittings that prevent water from getting in if the pipe doesn't terminate inside a structure. If not, you will get water infiltration. Condensation shouldn't really be a problem since the ground is, on the average, warmer than the air above it. Unless something chews through it, it should be forever dry and last a very long time.
dishcomm said:
BTW even if you are correct and your township requires burial, tell me, do your taxes pay for a cable burial enforcement officer? Does he have unfettered acccess to all private properties so he can dig up a homeowner's lawn to see if his satellite cable is surrounded in plastic?
Taxes and permit fees do pay for inspectors who also act as enforcement officers where I live. As enforcement officers, our county inspectors even have police radios and are allowed to carry firearms. But unless the job requires a permit no one will come to inspect the work. If it did require a permit (or if there is a complaint of a code violation) you can bet they'd have an all-access pass to that site. However, even if it was covered they wouldn't have to dig it up. Just the fact that the wire comes right out of the dirt is enough to prove the job is not up to code. They're not stupid.
dishcomm said:
With all that, are you insisting that someone else beside yourself supply material for an unfunded govt mandate?
If code says you can't bury cable without conduit then you shouldn't. And if it costs more, then the companies contracting the job should take that into account when they bid. If you don't know the code how can you ethically bid on a job? This isn't an installer's issue it's an issue for the people who bid on the lucrative installer contracts. The problem is the companies bid the jobs so low they only make money if the installers go quick and dirty on the installs, so they don't reward the installer for doing a good job. They only reward the installer for doing a quick job. So when a customer makes them work longer to do the job right it doesn't exactly make them happy.
So who should pay for it? Ultimately the customer pays for it all in subscriber fees. But up front, if the customer is promised a free installation with no caveats they should get it regardless of the installer's cost. If there are certain things that cost extra, those need to be dealt with up front so the customer is an informed consumer. But the installer should have everything they need to do a good install including wire, connectors, clamps, PVC pipe, fittings, glue, etc. The customer should never have to supply anything.
Plus, I don't ever hear about someone getting money back from the installer company because their install was exceptionally easy. By the logic that extra costs should be borne solely by the customer, shouldn't the customer get a rebate if their install goes really quick? Let's say all their cable and connections are already installed and all the installer has to do is throw on the dish and hook up the box. Takes all of a half an hour. What kind of rebate does the customer deserve in that situation? And wouldn't all you 'techs' ridicule them for asking for one? The truth is you should make money on most jobs but not necessarily all. Unless you go to a structure where all jobs are bid individually (a very expensive way of doing business which would be very costly to the consumer), you aren't going to make as much money on some jobs as others, and on some you should expect to lose money. As long as you make a decent profit overall you shouldn't complain about the ones that cost more.
Otherwise, in the end no one is really happy. The customer is mad because he got a poor install or got charged for a 'free' install, the installer is mad because his pay is lower when he does bigger or better job, the company is mad because the installer didn't do as many jobs so they don't make as much money. The only winner is the satellite company because they negotiated a good deal for themselves.
Now personally, I think if you have to dig a trench to install a cable you've done 90% of the work and incurred most of the costs already. If digging the trench was included in the price of the install then so should the pvc. A couple bucks for pvc and a few minutes to put it together is really nothing after paying for a trench.
Steve