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[bogof]

Does anyone have specs on the holes that Openreach or contractor's will happily use to get a fibre into a home?

BT have dug out a couple of neighbour's flowerbeds to get to / upgrade the underground boxes that come from the street - we now have some nice boxes with new concrete covers.  From there currently it looks like my cable comes underground as armoured and emerges in mine and my neighbours garage (armoured cable) from where it goes through a tortuous route to the NTE5 in my hall next to power, which is on an inside wall round the corner from the staircase.
Assuming they're not going to bring the FTTP in that way as it looks like torture (and my hatch in my garage is actually blocked off now...!)  then I guess they're going to distribute fibre from these 2 boxes to the 7 houses in the terrace. 

There is really only one place that makes sense to bring the cable into the house - one area of an outside wall would allow access into the small corner of our staircase bottom few steps, and we could then get to the area under the stairs.  it's a bit annoying as the bottom of the staircase is plasterboarded, but I figure a conduit from the outside wall emerging out of the plasterboarded under stairs to the main understairs opening would work.

How can I encourage such an install?  If the conduit of the correct spec was already in place, could OR be encouraged to use it to get the fibre to the only location where I have power (under the stairs?)  Or would they go to such faff as a matter of course, so actually I'd be wasting my time doing it in preparation?  I don't really want them to bring the fibre in on any of the exposed wall sections in the hallway as it is still going to have to run all the way round the houses to get to the understairs area.

Hopefully attached plan of what they're doing may make some sense:

[bogof]

Couple of photos of the ideal entry inside and outside.

[Ronski]

My only concern is, to get from either chamber they'd have to go across an entrance to a garage, are you sure they aren't originally ducted into the garage's?

Normally the engineer will be happy to use a suitable pre installed duct, it after all saves them time and work, but you need to consider how the are going to get the fibre to the external entry point.

[bogof]

My only concern is, to get from either chamber they'd have to go across an entrance to a garage, are you sure they aren't originally ducted into the garage's?

Normally the engineer will be happy to use a suitable pre installed duct, it after all saves them time and work, but you need to consider how the are going to get the fibre to the external entry point.

A couple of years ago the garage was converted to cinema and the hatch blocked up on my side, however at the time I got OR to update the terrible terminal block in there.  It does just look like an armoured cable coming up between the properties, with the armouring taken back 6 inches.  There was a thread about it here:
https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,20944.0.html
Even if they could get in (assuming it is ducted), the route from there into the house would be terrible.  The cables come out of the corner of that wall box in the garage, go into the floorspace above, across the width of the house, then twist and turn and come out under the stairs, which is the only place with power at the front of the house.

Maybe they're doing all this work for nowt and were assuming they could come up into the houses.  Or perhaps the assumption is they're going to have to come out of these new boxes in the flowerbeds and up the fronts of the properties.  Not sure if they'd go across the front of a property above a garage though, which leaves the next option - that they come out of the flowerbeds and lift the paving to get across the garages. 

The two boxes in flowerbeds serve 7 houses, and the flowerbeds are only in front of 4 of the properties, so there must be a plan for the other 3 (or maybe not, perhaps we're SOL and not getting it).  Lots of my neighbours have done various vors or conversions in their garages so if the plan was to come into the houses between them in the garage, lots of us won't get service.

What is also a bit weird is that all through the various works ongoing the OR availabiity checker keeps changing it's mind.  Sometimes it says FTTP coming soon, sometimes not.  At the moment if I try to move my FTTC service and do the search for that with an ISP (eg BT, though currently with EE), it returns that FTTC is not available, and only offers ADSL!  I guess that might be a symptom of them not wanting to do anything with FTTC given the forthcoming FTTP?  I did check and it's not just me.  Even the neighbour who's directly in front of the flower bed can now only get ADSL.

[Alex Atkin UK]

A couple of years ago the garage was converted to cinema and the hatch blocked up on my side, however at the time I got OR to update the terrible terminal block in there.  It does just look like an armoured cable coming up between the properties, with the armouring taken back 6 inches.

Why would you block a hatch you knew OR would potentially need access to if there was a fault?  Seems perfectly reasonable that they would want to come in that way.

[tubaman]

Why would you block a hatch you knew OR would potentially need access to if there was a fault?  Seems perfectly reasonable that they would want to come in that way.

I thought this too, but suspect that Openreach will just deal with it when the time comes.
 

[Ronski]

Seems some people can't be bothered to read the history in that other thread, particularly Black sheep's advice.

Cinema room, I have one of those, just Google Ronski cinema room finally finished.

Looking at the thread you linked to it's clear it's not ducted, so they wouldn't be coming in that way. Perhaps they'll lift the block paving, or simply run the cable along the wall. So I would suggest installing a suitable conduit where you suggested.

When I built my cinema room I ran a length of 15mm plastic heating pipe from the external wall down under the floor and up in to my equipment room (shoe & cloakroom), at the time this was just in case we ever had Virgin or FTTP installed. Well virgin arrived first and the engineer was more than happy to use the pipe. FTTP is on its way in the near future hopefully, not sure if that will fit through as well as the Virgin cable.

[bogof]

Why would you block a hatch you knew OR would potentially need access to if there was a fault?  Seems perfectly reasonable that they would want to come in that way.

Risk / reward.  I did it to death at the time.
https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,20944.0.html

Basically, there was no practical way to allow any form of >future useful< access at the time the work to convert the room was happening within what we wanted to do with the room.  The hatch is a bit of a source of annoyance as it is one service cable and junction accessed from both of our garages, so we were both free to meddle with each others phone wiring at will.  At the time the options really were leave it as is and block it, or pay OR to come and move the entry point before the works.  While friendly with the neighbour access is available through their side. The view was that I could just defer moving the entry point to a point in time where it needed to be moved for access, which might be never.  A few more knowledgeable folk on here thought this was quite a reasonable approach.

I'm not 100% sure though, but the cable is the grey sheathed outer with the SWA portion cut back and taped over, which was usually not used for ducted applications I thought, and more commonly used instead for direct burial.  If is is direct buried I can't see how they could use it for access.  And as I say, from there it is torture to get into the house anywhere useful, and probably not a route the fibre could easily follow anyway.

---

For anyone interested, the attached are the boxes that have been installed in flowerbeds.  Lucky homeowners with these in their flowerbeds, won't be growing much in there!  They take up half the bed.

[bogof]

When I built my cinema room I ran a length of 15mm plastic heating pipe from the external wall down under the floor and up in to my equipment room (shoe & cloakroom), at the time this was just in case we ever had Virgin or FTTP installed. Well virgin arrived first and the engineer was more than happy to use the pipe. FTTP is on its way in the near future hopefully, not sure if that will fit through as well as the Virgin cable.

Good shout, I think I'll do similar, if I can get the Pipe through from the outside, under the stairs return and poke it out of the plasterboard that covers the stairs return they can either choose a really hard time, or run the fibre around the house on the outside a little from wherever it comes out of the paving (hopefully) to the entry point. 

Is anyone aware of any reg from BT I need to be aware of?

[Ronski]

Bend radius shouldn't be too tight, and the CSP needs to be at ground level so the fibre can be safety spliced, but neither of those will be a problem for you.

Everything I've seen suggests there isn't with the exception of the above, just a suitable diameter pipe, preferably with draw string installed, but if its a nice smooth pipe and straight then probably wouldn't be required.

I did see this post this morning https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4667807-its-arrived.html?fpart=2&vc=1,  Zarjas is a serving BT engineer.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Risk / reward.  I did it to death at the time.
https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,20944.0.html

Ah well fair enough, if Black Sheep advised to just do it then who am I to argue?

Seeing the pictures it does look like a really bad way for them to do it in the first place, meant a gap in the insulation between the properties and potentially a path for a fire from one garage to get into the adjacent one which seems bad to me.  Surprised this is allowed under fire regulations.

[bogof]

Bend radius shouldn't be too tight, and the CSP needs to be at ground level so the fibre can be safety spliced, but neither of those will be a problem for you.

Everything I've seen suggests there isn't with the exception of the above, just a suitable diameter pipe, preferably with draw string installed, but if its a nice smooth pipe and straight then probably wouldn't be required.

I did see this post this morning https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4667807-its-arrived.html?fpart=2&vc=1,  Zarjas is a serving BT engineer.

Thanks for the link.
In for a penny, if I'd going to go to the effort of putting a pipe through the wall it might as well have a bit of string in it.   
The only thing I need to have a bit of a measure up of is how far above the soil in the flower bed my entry through the wall needs to be, I've a feeling the front of the house inside is lower than the ground level outside...

Ah well fair enough, if Black Sheep advised to just do it then who am I to argue?

Seeing the pictures it does look like a really bad way for them to do it in the first place, meant a gap in the insulation between the properties and potentially a path for a fire from one garage to get into the adjacent one which seems bad to me.  Surprised this is allowed under fire regulations.

Yeah, it's pretty awful, so I'll be really glad if we get a new FTTP installation that ignores all this old cruft.  The terminal block that was in there was the crustiest thing you've ever seen, and the houses have only been here 35 years.  There are other little bits of excitement (!), like the gas from the meter cupboard also having been run in that cavity from the meter cupboard at the front of the house only to emerge out of the breezeblock a few meters into the garage (I had the plumber get rid of this when I did the conversion).

[Ronski]

The only thing I need to have a bit of a measure up of is how far above the soil in the flower bed my entry through the wall needs to be, I've a feeling the front of the house inside is lower than the ground level outside...

That's an easy one, get the floor level from the front door, then just follow the motor joint round, then measure up from that.

[burakkucat]

. . . potentially a path for a fire from one garage to get into the adjacent one which seems bad to me.  Surprised this is allowed under fire regulations.

At the time of the build, the steel hatch covers specified and installed then complied with all fire regulations.

[bogof]

At the time of the build, the steel hatch covers specified and installed then complied with all fire regulations.

He he... And today, between my neighbour and I, we only have 1 steel cover and one polystyrene insulation block.  I guess even those bits have done well to survive 35 years...!