What price for an aerial installation?
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV In responses to the guideline I posted about how much having a new aerial fitted should cost, Ian Grice posted: "£40-£50? Every aerial fitter I contacted wants at least £150+VAT considering you can get a class 3 aerial for under £10 and a class 2 for under £15 and cable is 40p a metre why are they charging so much for 30 minutes work?"
OK, for some places putting up a TV aerial is hard work, such as multi-story properties. As many people will simply be exchanging a Group A, B, C/D, E or K aerial for a wideband type, often without changing the supporting pole or cable, a high price cannot be justified.
I am concerned that some companies will exploit vulnerable groups (such as the elderly).
So, I what prices have you been quoted for aerial installations? What price have you paid for installation?
Do you know of any companies to avoid? Do you know of any companies that are good value for money?
Or do you work for a great aerial installation company?
Help with TV/radio stations?
Monday, 18 November 2013
Hi
I know this is totally out of context on this forum but if its OK by you Brian I like to direct a question to any of the lads in the TV Industry that goes back to the early 70s who used to meet up at Alan Drakes business Telefield Bristol Ltd .
I really miss them days what with the banter and exchange of technical information.
Anyone including the lady rigger that used to frequent there please email me and let me know how your getting on.
Regards
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
M
mark winters7:17 PM
hi chaps been offered some install work from love digital anyone got any knowledge of these .sky sat installs
| link to this comment |
mark winters:
Go onto www.lovedigitaltv.co.uk and read all about them.
I have used a similar company in the past, but would avoid them.
It depends on what your work load is for yourself.
These companies generally need very short notice appointments seeing to, usually same day.
Do you want to sacrifice the service to your regular customers for these pay in 30 day companies.
Also your profit margins will probably be very low.
| link to this comment |
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Hi Mark
The reason why they are offering you work is because of the time of year building up to Christmas, most of us are working flat out like every year and having to turn work down to the ring around customers and concentrate on keeping personal customers happy .
The quiet times in the TV industry is and always has been the month of August then starts to build up 1st week in September.
If you are quite then give them ago and tell them you need to be paid weekly, so then if they default on payment you wont get so badly stung.
Just bare in mind in all probability they will drop you like a hot cake early in the new year when things go back to the normal flow of work but that's just the way it is.
Anyway all the best.
Regards
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 23 November 2013
N
n l robinson12:07 AM
I've just returned home to find my elderly father has paid £450 for a new aerial to be installed, for 4 rooms and a wall switch that turns out the signal off for all 4 tv's, does this sound right? we lost all tv signal a couple of days ago, he rang the first ad he saw in the paper, guy came out today and did the job there and then. all tv's have good signal now, better then before the trouble. Any thoughts on the price charged would be appreciated..
| link to this comment |
NICK ADSL UK
2:13 PM
2:13 PM
it's about right from a top installer
| link to this comment |
n l robingson
If the install included 4 new cable runs along with the new aerial install the charge should realistically not be over £300.
If the install was for a new aerial with connection to existing cables the job should not be more than about £200.
IGNORE THE COMMENTS FROM NICK ADSL UK
£450 is excessive
I use galvanised brackets and CAI approved cable, im RDI approved and my jobs would never go over the prices above. These are maximum prices should the install be non standard.
regards
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 24 November 2013
How can anyone here give a fair unbiased comment on whether or not Mr Robinson's dad was over charged or without seeing the job.
Nick may well be right in his comment because none of us know the length of cable runs and what work was involved getting them there.
For all we know he may have been moving furniture lifting carpets pulling floor boards to get access to other rooms.
I was doing one a few months ago and was having to cut out tong and grove polished flooring from front to back of the house due to lack of rear access, and they didn't want to see any cables, which I wouldn't of either.
Anyway that job was started 9-15am and finally after retuning there TVs and PVR to Mendip Walked out the house at around 6-30pm and that was just two outlets back and front of the house with Aerial on the roof.
.So what could have been a 2 hour job and invoiced as such turned out a full days work with know breaks and one cup of tea, which made the bill which had been quoted before work commenced quite expensive comparing to a typical two outlet system.
Jamie... You say CAI bench marked cable as if its a guaranteed quality cable without stating part numbers, Well I can a sure riggers and customers alike its not a guarantee of top notch quality cable, there are various grades .
For example Televes produce a RG6 type cable that's got the bench mark which is very cheap.
If you look at the construction and specification you will see why, I personally wouldn't chance it even for fly leads because of its screening properties.
Some Information for everyone:
You got to be careful these days because the equipment that been churned out from some of the manufactures where the screening is so sparse they are using impregnated plastics with carbon instead of tin copper your liable to all sorts of problems if using cheaper coaxial cables.
I have done various tests in the workshop that relate to this and when hooking up a spectrum analyser and monitoring equipment like the typical sky box and some of these PVRs branded and unbranded alike, you would be suprised at what crap they radiate. The typical fly lead from wall socket to equipment and interconnecting leads are critical if not more than the down lead itself due to close proximity.
So its worth baring in mind its not just outside interference you have to worry about its also and often internal.
Some of these cheaper cables with the typical 12 meter down lead from stack to front room are OK far as signal strength, the problems that often arise is the errors within the signal due to screening and overall construction that's picked up on the way, and it will not get solved by fitting way over sized aerials that were never required in the first place like we see so many of.
Mr Robins
The reason why your been able to switch off the signal to all 4 TVs from the wall switch is because the rigger has used a form of distribution amplifier that's power supplied via a power supply unit plugged into your wall socket and fed via the TV coaxial lead .
Allot of riggers do it this way if there is no permanent supply near to where the distribution unit is installed which is often in the roof space.
The way around this is get a qualified electrician to take the mains feed from a permanent live source normally upstairs lighting circuit, fed into a fused spur fused at 3AMP then everything is neat and tidy.
Regards
| link to this comment |
NICK ADSL UK
6:07 PM
6:07 PM
that's right Dave a standard install here in the south via a top installer is £250 i myself was ripped of to the tune of £650 for 2 hours work so i do know that things can go wrong at any point
in my case the installer i had used for the past 35 years was the very best you will ever find but on the day of my last install in my new house he was not available having retired so someone else was sent instead and that's when things can go wrong and in my case very badly
i did get 100 pounds back after a couple of years but none the less whoever you are you have to take care and that goes for all trades
| link to this comment |
DAVE
sorry I should have said which CAI cable I use.
Its true that some CAI products are crap such as philex aerials that have poor build quality.
I use Webro WF100 coax or Webro HD100 and sometime CT100
I also use these same cables for fly leads from the outlet plates using compression f connectors, not the crap pre made cables.
:)
| link to this comment |
jamie's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Select more comments
Your comment please