11 years of tree growth is now a problem

[Road Rage]

My dish location, pole mounted, has been in place since 1999. The last couple of years during the warm periods I've noticed certain HD channels pixelate for no apparent reason at various times of day in perfect weather. Put 2 and 2 together and I notice that the neighbors hardwood has finally grown tall enough to mess with my line of site a little when the leaves come out. Plus when I went HD the DTV guy said I might have "issues" in a few years if that tree kept going.

So, what exactly is involved in getting my dish relocated on my property? I'd like to keep the pole mount as that opens up more real estate for relocation. Does DTV send someone out to point out the good spot and then dig the hole and install pole or do I do the digging? I assume this won't be free. Any info so I can be armed before calling support would be helpful.

Thanks.

[BattleZone]

Expect to pay for a service call ($49) and $100 or so in custom work for a new Slimline pole and up to 30' of trenching.

[xmetalx]

Expect to pay for a service call ($49) and $100 or so in custom work for a new Slimline pole and up to 30' of trenching.

Why exactly would the tech charge for a 2nd Slimline pole if he already has one? afaik, it would be a $49 relocate + whatever the cost for the bury cable ($1/foot)

[David MacLeod]

hard to reuse a pole that has cement stuck to the bottom, hard to secure it.

[samrs]

Why exactly would the tech charge for a 2nd Slimline pole if he already has one? afaik, it would be a $49 relocate + whatever the cost for the bury cable ($1/foot)

I can charge you more to dig the old pole out of the ground...your choice.

[BattleZone]

Why exactly would the tech charge for a 2nd Slimline pole if he already has one? afaik, it would be a $49 relocate + whatever the cost for the bury cable ($1/foot)

If the tech is an in-house tech, DirecTV will pay him about $20 for a dish relocate. This will take 2-3 hours of work, usually.

If the tech is a contractor, he might make as much as $35, out of which he has to buy the pole, the cement, the new cable (usually 4 lines x 60-100', which is 1/3-1/2 of a $70 box of cable), connectors, and gas to get there. It will also take 2-3 hours of work, usually.

Do YOU work for free?

[jodyguercio]

I would place my faith in what Battle is saying, a tech is not going to come out, dig up the old pole AND cement and then try and re-use any of it.

[ebmsjml]

If the tech is an in-house tech, DirecTV will pay him about $20 for a dish relocate. This will take 2-3 hours of work, usually.

If the tech is a contractor, he might make as much as $35, out of which he has to buy the pole, the cement, the new cable (usually 4 lines x 60-100', which is 1/3-1/2 of a $70 box of cable), connectors, and gas to get there. It will also take 2-3 hours of work, usually.

Do YOU work for free?


yeah ...i can see this ... the tech will come out & see the work involved & look at the pay & tell them ...SORRY >>> BUT THERE IS NO LINE OF SIGHT

[joe diamond]

My dish location, pole mounted, has been in place since 1999. The last couple of years during the warm periods I've noticed certain HD channels pixelate for no apparent reason at various times of day in perfect weather. Put 2 and 2 together and I notice that the neighbors hardwood has finally grown tall enough to mess with my line of site a little when the leaves come out. Plus when I went HD the DTV guy said I might have "issues" in a few years if that tree kept going.

So, what exactly is involved in getting my dish relocated on my property? I'd like to keep the pole mount as that opens up more real estate for relocation. Does DTV send someone out to point out the good spot and then dig the hole and install pole or do I do the digging? I assume this won't be free. Any info so I can be armed before calling support would be helpful.

Thanks.

ANOTHER APPROACH would be to raise the dish where it is. Get at least two U clamps long enough to clamp two 2" pipes. Acquire about four feet of 2" od pipe and clamp them to raise the height of the dish about three feet.

You might have to extend the cable.

Dish relocates start at $100.00 because they can constitute rebuilding all outside work.

Joe

[justanotherjoe]

time to buy a chainsaw

[Piratefan98]

time to buy a chainsaw


Either that or a heapin' helpin' of Round-up. Trees with no foliage are pretty harmless.

Gardner Jeff

[jdspencer]

I'd go with the pole extension. But i'd get a smaller pole that can slip inside the 2" pole (make it longer enough for stability), drill though it and the existing pole and bolt it in place. Then slip the longer 2" pole over that and bolt it down as well. This would make for a much neater solution.

[cosmo]

as an indy installer a pole mount is $70. for pole and quick dry cement
and up to 20-25 feet of buried cable.
you can try and raise dish but how will you dither the dish on a pole so high?
OR
you can go get a pole and cement and install the pole yourself and the tech will move dish from old pole to new pole and re adjust dish just make sure pole is plum and you have a 10 % view of what you need for clear reception.

[jdspencer]

... just make sure pole is plum and you have a 10 % view of what you need for clear reception.Ooops!!!

[2dogz]

If the tech is an in-house tech, DirecTV will pay him about $20 for a dish relocate. This will take 2-3 hours of work, usually.

Hmmm. $10/hr if your're quick.

If the tech is a contractor, he might make as much as $35, out of which he has to buy the pole, the cement, the new cable (usually 4 lines x 60-100', which is 1/3-1/2 of a $70 box of cable), connectors, and gas to get there. It will also take 2-3 hours of work, usually.

My math fails me here. Is this the reason you get Bevis and Butthead jumping out of an old rusted out Tradesman van for your service call? Because they can't add?

Do YOU work for free?

Dang near it. Beer money maybe.

Seriously, this bad? There must be some sweet money to be made somewhere to balance things out.

[BattleZone]

Hmmm. $10/hr if your're quick.

Right. But it might also take 4 hours.

My math fails me here. Is this the reason you get Bevis and Butthead jumping out of an old rusted out Tradesman van for your service call? Because they can't add?


Seriously, this bad? There must be some sweet money to be made somewhere to balance things out.

I was explaining why there's a $100 custom charge for the pole and trenching on top of the cost of the service call. A normal dish relocate means moving the dish from one section of the roof to another. Custom work like pole mounts and trenching aren't included.

Yes, I know *someone* is going to pipe up about how they got theirs for free. Fine; you either got lucky, got a new tech who didn't know any better, or your tech looked at the alternatives and figured the pole mount was less work. If you look at my math, you can see how screwed installers are. The point is: DirecTV doesn't pay for pole mounts, and if YOU aren't paying, you're taking money out of some poor installer's pocket.

[Avder]

So have you tried asking your neighbor if he could prune that tree?

[netraa]

Hmmm. $10/hr if your're quick.


Dang near it. Beer money maybe.

Seriously, this bad? There must be some sweet money to be made somewhere to balance things out.


There are....

5 box swim install with perfect LOS from the roof right over the NID right next to the meter pan where the customer already has the TV's pulled away from the wall all the TV's are right where the cables come in and the homeowner says, put your dish where you need to and run whatever cable you have to. now your talking.....

should take you about 2 hours to put in and an inhouse sr tech should make about one bill off that install

problem is.... those make up for the 'normal' install where the LOS is not at the nid, and the homeowner wants/needs the dish in the back, the house has RG59 anyway so you can't use any of the existing wire and you have to wrap the house twice just to get the 3 box standard in. that's going to take about 4 hours, and pay about 55 bucks.

[Shades228]

You could always dig the trench and mount the pole yourself. This would cut down the labor cost significantly.

[brett_the_bomb]

You could always dig the trench and mount the pole yourself. This would cut down the labor cost significantly.

im with this guy, a little common sense goes a long way, i had a tech come out and he had to fix a burried cable we hit. i riped the cable out of the sod and had him string the new cable across the grass. guess who burried it when he told me the cost... me. burring cable is pretty easy if you have decent back, plus you typically care more about your grass than a tech so imho, do the "labor" part yourself, or get your highschool age son to do it...

[BattleZone]

I was out doing a pole mount with a tech today in a rural area. It took over 3 hours to dig the hole due to huge root systems everywhere, that we ended up having to use a drill to cut through. I was in another area a few months ago where a customer wanted a pole mount, but their house was on bedrock. The customer thought I was "lazy" until he spent 20 minutes trying to dig a hole with his pick-axe and didn't get more than 1/2" down.

In some places, you can dig a hole for a pole in 10 minutes, but where I work, that's the exception. We have lots of rock, lots of hard clay, and lots of areas with heavy growth where roots are thick and stacked up, and digging a hole is hardly trivial.

That's yet another reason for "local variations" in custom work charges.

[Davenlr]

You need a power auger like they use to drill holes in ice for ice fishing :)

[HDTVsportsfan]

Surprised the obligutory picture of a chain saw hasn't made a visit yet.

[ben4715]

I was out doing a pole mount with a tech today in a rural area. It took over 3 hours to dig the hole due to huge root systems everywhere, that we ended up having to use a drill to cut through. I was in another area a few months ago where a customer wanted a pole mount, but their house was on bedrock. The customer thought I was "lazy" until he spent 20 minutes trying to dig a hole with his pick-axe and didn't get more than 1/2" down.

In some places, you can dig a hole for a pole in 10 minutes, but where I work, that's the exception. We have lots of rock, lots of hard clay, and lots of areas with heavy growth where roots are thick and stacked up, and digging a hole is hardly trivial.

That's yet another reason for "local variations" in custom work charges.

Absolutle! Where I live, I'd rather do a pole mount, just so I don't have to take my ladders off the truck. I've been sent to other areas where a pole mount is damn near impossible.

[Shades228]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31XtIBZfO7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

[netraa]

i've been doing this for a while, and i can say without a doubt, that i've drilled anchors into bedrook and used a regular mast and monopoles more times than i've ever dug a pole mount.

the only thing that contraption is going to do where i live is kick up a little dust, and get you a broken arm.

[BattleZone]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31XtIBZfO7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Where I was yesterday, you'd have easily been dismembered trying to use one of those. I assure you that you won't be able to hold it as it tries (and fails) to dig through multiple 4-6" diameter roots. What would happen is it would snag and the top would spin and try to jerk your arm off.

And in places where there is bedrock, I've seen a ditching tractor's blade skim right over the top of the rock and do nothing more than scratch it.

http://www.yardngarden.com/images/article/1203974857268_tractors9.jpg

Every area is different.

[Tibs]

There are....

5 box swim install with perfect LOS from the roof right over the NID right next to the meter pan where the customer already has the TV's pulled away from the wall all the TV's are right where the cables come in and the homeowner says, put your dish where you need to and run whatever cable you have to. now your talking.....

should take you about 2 hours to put in and an inhouse sr tech should make about one bill off that install

problem is.... those make up for the 'normal' install where the LOS is not at the nid, and the homeowner wants/needs the dish in the back, the house has RG59 anyway so you can't use any of the existing wire and you have to wrap the house twice just to get the 3 box standard in. that's going to take about 4 hours, and pay about 55 bucks.

Thats why I do all the internal pulls before they show up. Its not fair on the installers, and I sure as hell dont want guys getting shafted moving things around when they are in a hurry.

I crawled all over the place in my mother in laws 100 year old crawlsapce and did all the box pulls, had everything tied up nice and neat for them when they got there, they were very grateful. Did a 3 box install with Slimline 5 with 72.5 locals in one hour, did a very good job, on Xmas eve, and were tipped for the fact they did it right and very clean. We were probably the best call out that week. It was the year of D10 launching and they were getting a ton of installs.

When I built my house I only ran 2 home runs from the dish and one to each room - DVRs were not out yet. When I had the HD upgrade come in, I ran the second runs to each room myself and homed everything back to the service panel, they had to drill one hole in the wall to get the two extra runs from the dish home, and that was it. I felt much better doing it myself then having someone else pulling my house apart.

Not everyone can do thier own work, not everyone should - but some of the stories I see on here make me wonder if people are expecting failure they dont do everything they can to prevent it. After seeing how little the guys are paid for complicated jobs, it doesnt surprise me.

When I worked peice meal in residential construction we would have a threshold that would trigger hourly rate. It was called Custom rate. Some houses are just harder than others to do fast. It was always more money to do the fast cookie cutter houses - but at least we knew we would never fall below our hourly rate which was above minimum wage but low enough to encourage efficiency for the business to succeed.

Back to topic - I suggest you find a good spot, put in a new pole high enough, and then have them move the dish to that spot and expect to pay appropriately.

[Piratefan98]

They have the extra large pole kits at Wal-Mart

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1231/577417879_2becb63e3b.jpg


Jeff

[curt8403]

They have the extra large pole kits at Wal-Mart

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1231/577417879_2becb63e3b.jpg


Jeff

I've seen those in my neighborhood, Problem is they tend to roll away without warning.