How do I get Comcast through my envelope prior to blower door test?
In anticipation of a blower door test, water, sewer, electricity, and gas were run to house with one phone call each. Can anyone suggest a way to convince Comcast to provide a stub-out to new construction with studs not yet covered?
Three weeks and half a dozen phone calls (each one requiring a half hour just to get to someone who could look at the job ticket) I usually get: “T.V. has to be ready to hook up before we can install service.” Why, I ask, can you not bring the cable to a utility box and test the signal there? Yesterday I learned this:
“The T.V. is required to test the radio signal, to make sure it is strong enough. Technicians cannot test the signal strength without a t.v. Also, if the cable just terminated in a utility box, it would leak radio signals and interfere with air traffic.”
Any ideas on how to proceed? Also, how does one respond to an assertion like radio waves leaking out all over the place? Reminds me of the James Thurber cartoon attached.
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On my house, I hired a home automation person to install the phone lines and ethernet cabling. He also ran the coax for the cable service. His work included providing outside connection points for the phone and cable.
Steve,
The last two house I built that were on crawlspaces, I just ran 1" conduit up to boxes in all the rooms to provide flexibility for upgrades as the technology changes. With the proliferation of wireless devices I wonder if even that will be seen as an obsolete approach soon?
Malcolm,
That is a valid point. Fewer people are paying for landlines and instead opting for cells as their main number. Wifi (especially with a mesh network) is pretty reliable for internet service. And streaming is getting better all the time. I might not worry about structured wiring if building in 2017. But I would put in phone lines. Conference calls on a cell are a pain.
I'm trying to get the cable laid underground from house to connection, with the house part inside the envelope. Cable should go in before hardscape, like all other utilities. Comcast does not seem to have the capacity to do this, nor can they acknowledge that they are a utility.
So far: local government and small business = great service; mega-monopoly Comcast = frustration and futility.
David,
Install a 2-inch run of PVC electrical conduit between the cable drop and your house. Include a length of strong twine in the conduit. When the house is complete, the Comcast technician can pull the coax for your service connection. The PVC also will protect the coax against damage.
David,
When you run into a problem like this it is often helpful to step back and see if the builders around you experience the same thing, or if it might stem from a misunderstanding as to how the process generally occurs
I've never heard of the utilities or media companies being responsible for arranging access to the residence. They just run wire. If it is above ground they run their service from their pole to your mastheads. If it is underground the builder supplies two conduits, During construction the ends get capped at the house until they are required. The cable and phone companies are just expected to bring wire to the residence, not arrange anything else.