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What prices have you been quoted and paid for an aerial installation?
Published on by Brian Butterworth 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?
I am staying at the post code BN1 6AA and have recently purchased a freeviewbox, however i am not able to receive any free view channels at all. Is the area where I stay covered for free view reception? I would be grateful for a response. Thanks.
Mandar - Your postcode shows you should get Freeview from Whitehawk Hill, you will need a group C/D aerial with the rods positioned Vertically. Otherwise the Brighton Central transmitter from 2012.
My parents need to update their aerial as one of the chimney straps have come off & they might as well get a new digital one fitted anyway. I'm a bit worried about so many companies popping up at the moment & i want to find a decent company in our area which is Gloucestershire GL13. How do i find the right company...any ideas...??
i have cable in my living room but need an out side aerial for my bed room as cant get hardley any reception from any channels or free view its a down stairs flat any one know how much it would cost.belfast n.ireland
To Iain Davies: £50 for a full installation? You are far too cheap. I agree £140+VAT is a lot but £50 is too cheap. As an example washing machine repair men charge £45 just for call out before even looking at a machine. Don't sell yourself short. You are risking your life after all, regardless of the material costs!
I charge £85 for one full aerial install and £130 for 2. Most local riggers charge double that. I call that a reasonable charge.
i live in glasgow G51 and have bt visionbox however of late i keep losing channels and currently only get about half of what im meant to. BT advised i need my aerial upgraded? i am trying to weigh up the cost of that or maybe switching over to Sky instead. what advice can you offer?
Thanks Sandra
smatv/irs commisioner Monday 2 November 2009 8:49PM
do any of you know anything at all about aerial and satellite? just seems like bunch of ppl who dont know what there talking about with too much spare time...sad
50.00 quid for an install, i couldnt even buy the equipment and drive there for that, what do you give a 12 hour warranty.. 140.00 for a job that will work and last..
Problem you've got here is were do you draw the line... There's folks out there driving around pretending they're proper installers and they haven't a clue. I have an installer not a 2 miles from were i live who's afraid of heights. Who buys poor cable and drills holes in your walls with no insurance and offers an aerial for 40 quid... Often when you pay for shit you get shit.
mark winters Wednesday 18 November 2009 5:13PM Bracknell
hi jord that sounds cheap compared to a job i done monday .have a guess what the previous company charged for an 8 way amp laid in the loft with an extention lead running through the hatch?? and see if you can name the company???
lorraine Wednesday 18 November 2009 8:56PM Littlehampton
Hi...I live in the BN16 3QW area and have just lost my roof aerial due to the strong wind recently..Is it possible for me to fit a aerial in my loft as i cant afford a fitter and i cant climb the roof myself..What type of aerial would i need... or could i use my sky dish instead..
lorraine Wednesday 18 November 2009 9:18PM Littlehampton
sorry did not explain myself very well.. my son has a freeviewbox which ran off the aerial..so could i add more cable to my sky dish..sorry to sound daft...
Posted by Marie (1 post) on Monday 26 October 2009 6:10PM
Posted by glenda (1 post) on Tuesday 27 October 2009 4:27PM
shame no one could be bothered to answer these ladies to busy boys?
lorraine your post code registers as a non freeview reception area but if you were getting a signal in your sons room before you have nothing to lose trying your old aerial in the loft give it a go just run a loose cable through the loft hatch to test it if it works you can sort the cable out after.
I have just found this site and i have to say it's a good read so don't take these comments the wrong way but we're at the end of our tether and need help. Our Freeview reception has always been rubbish even know we live pretty close to our nearest mast at Sandy Heath. Our whole cul de sac and the street behind and infact the area so i'm told. Since we moved in were promised the issue would be looked into but still the Freeview is useless. We've had aerialmen round countless times working for us and the letting company and tell me and my next door neighbour the problem is unsolvable. We share a joint aerial with a signal amplifier and goes into both our loftspaces. Why on earth we need to boost the signal when the mast is up the road is beyond all logic but i'm just a layman. Cost nearly £230 pounds to set up and plus the call out fee's of £50 quid a time, the endless phone calls and chasing up tradesmen then to have these folks out that can't help us. I was on top of a ladder today looking over our roof and can see the tv mast and just can't explain what the problem is. Across the road they have a large aerial pointing the opposite direction and their picture is just a mess all snow and fuzz, the sound gets periodically deafening like buzzing for no reason even if the volume is on mute on my telly. Constantly says no signal detected, one engineer blames the mast, one blames the height of the mast, somebody said we're to close, another rumour is that the tv signals go up and not down or over our heads or something. Another says the power is to high at the mast. One says we need a new aerial of another level which turns out to be total nonsense. A man i got talking to in the pub says he had a good signal then they did something to the mast, men were working on it and his telly has been shot ever since. I had a guy in my house for 6 hours yesterday scratching his head. I and a friend went up to the mast when some work was being done and tried to talk to someone there and a man give us an e-mail address of which nothing ever came of. Very very frustrating, when you read online the digital switching over is going really well it isn't on the ground were the viewers are because none can watch it. If someone could definitively say it's the mast, or it's our aerials, deceptive tradesmen taking advantage of us for their gain or something completely different i haven't thought of i would be eternally grateful. Thank You Charlie.
Charles Kelly - Having read all that, i'll take a punt and say it's the Village of Sandy in postcode SG19... I know the area quite well and worked in the area for a number of years. Although it was a quarry when i was last there. I don't believe it's deceptive tradesmen probably a lack of knowledge on the engineer's part. To blame the height of the mast is nonsense, even though Sandy Heath's mast is 250 metre's tall it's still only 55 metres above sea level (ordnance datum)... Sandy owes it tremendous coverage area to relatively flat land and being one of three of the most powerful transmitters in the country. Transmitter's have a function known as Beam tilt in lay terms this is a deliberate angle made for broadcasting signal to areas in close proximity to the mast, Sandy's isn't as aggressive as some transmitters due to it's height. Check two things that all signal amplifier's, booster box's apart from a splitter which you need to feed a signal into the two properties. Rip them out, the power of the multiplied signal at (107db) field strength. Through the amp and into the tv's tuner is causing that deafening sound and may indicate a blown tuner or set top box... Very important check the aerial whether on the roof or in the attic that it has a slight tilt upwards and i say slight to meet the top of the mast. With higher gained aerials i'm making an assumption this is a new installation, they are very directive to the point if they're not bang on they reject the signal coupled with a signal amplifier that's just destroying any viewing happiness you will ever get. Just run your eye over all the cabling check for any joins can sometimes be the very simplest things... Good Luck.
How much should I expect to pay for a tv aerial and 7 internal receiving points. It is an end-terrace house in Fulham . I would want it to be handle all the modern digital requirements.
I'm just wondering when will people finally twig that having a reputable Aerial & Satellite firm rig your Television aerial will actually save you money rather than destroy your wallet or savings... I think only a picture than speak a thousand words in this case... This particular installation if i can call it that, is a common site on rooftops across the land. Now that one and his dog has taken up aerial rigging. This cost of this act of pure debauchery is £230 for the original installation (note not even a masthead amp or power supply unit was fitted even though it was billed for) Which fell down onto the neighbours rooftop while they were sleeping after only 4 DAYS. The neighbours sky dish has had to be replaced including cabling which was pulled out of the wall (Missing from pictures) it was knocked from it's bracket and into the front garden. A tiler and roofing contractor need to be hired to replace roof tiles and a survey needs to be completed on the chimney to decide if it's needs re-pointing. All of course at the owners expense. That was an expensive days works and of course the rogue installer can't be contacted and will more than likely re-invent himself and do this all over again somewhere else...
Just in true Blue Peter style here's one we made earlier and how it should be done...
Brian - Could you open them up if possible. Cheers.
hi, I am thinking of having my sons' flatscreen tv fixed to his bedroom wall and having an aerial lead fitted so that he can have access to watching tv and not just playing on his xbox. We have an aerial in the loft and have 3 tvs coming off it but we cannot get another split to his bedroom, can anyone tell me what I should be asking the aerial fitter to do . . ? Also does anyone know of a good fitter in the Portsmouth/ Chichester area, many thanks
Brian - Need a bit of advice... I've two skyhd boxes on hd multiroom. One box connects to tv (50 sharp) in main room were both boxes are, other connects over 25 metres of hdmi cable to a tv (46 panny) in an upstairs room. PS3 is connected to one of the other hdmi inputs. Just on hd broadcasts (BBCHD & ITVHD) suffers bad picture blocking, a pink type of blocking only on hd. I noticed it creeping in on SKY1HD the other night. All 4 feeds are fine and 70cm dish is fine. All cabled on MF100. I'm thinking one of the hd boxes is on it last leg's, this morning the psu was going like a jet aeroplane. Considering changing the fan, capacitors and possibly the psu itself... Just wondering if you'd ever come across that...
Jordy: A certain Skybox (begins with 'T') has known PSU issues. Just google the problem. I had mine changed out and a 1TB disc put in, works a treat. stevetowells.vispa.com
Jordy - Interestingly though have trawled all the known sites and have yet to see any capcitor - PSU failures on Freesat boxes!! Albeit the software issues with Harvard group - now corrected. Unless you know otherwise.
Once upon a time Mr and Mrs Edwards were enjoying their new life after retirement, they decided to build themselves a lovely conservatory... They hired a reputable building firm and sparks to carry out the work which was a lovely job once finished! They put a new flatscreen tv in their new conservatory and waited for the aerial company to arrive to set it up for them. The Spark who i know personally used his head seen they had a full working rig and dist amp for Freeview and Sky, so he ran a cable from the loft to a point in the conservatory. All said aerial company had to do was feed 5ft of cable wire the point and tune the tv hey presto. Well covered under a £55 call out charge.
This one goes beyond cost, there is a red brick partition wall built on top of the dwarf wall, it's function was simply privacy. This company arrive make up a load of nonsense ignore the sparks work, take two loft brackets and a 6 ft pole and stick an 18 element contract aerial on the partition wall which was built to hold a plant pot with the aerial above the GLASS ROOF... The aerials reflector was actually bent as they squeezed it against the glass and used the water drainage channels for the cable which was FLUNG OVER THE GLASS ROOF. They drilled i still don't why 3 holes and used one covering them over with a patress plate. We now have a conservatory that has no guttering, roof skylights that can't be opened and a huge draught at night. One of the complaints to me besides the state of the job was they couldn't use the conservatory because IT WAS SO COLD!
EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION, This is what happens when you hire chumps...
LES NICOL : My Maplin VAOVO PVR wirred away happily for about a year, then started switching itself off every few seconds. With a groan (how will I identify the dodgy electrolytic?) I opened it up. Lo and behold, the cap of an electrolytic on the switch-mode PSU had flown off and was lurking in the corner of the casing. I have yet to find time to replace it, but trust it didn´t start a chain-reaction.Over the years it has most frequently been the switch-mode PSU that fails. The flat-screen one was recently replaced with a solid-but-unsightly weight-lifter job with a real tranny. Joy!
Jordy: I just find it funny that we can have laws to perfectly normal adults interacting with children, but when it comes to total rip-off merchants you come across, it's left to BBC Watchdog once every few years.
Brian - Such a tough job checking a point for signal, terminating a cable into an amp, making a 5ft flylead and tuning a set! Stressful... It's the pure bulls*it that annoys me, "John The Aerialman from the local leccy shop, Say's you haven't wired that right" Is that right well if he's such a clever d*ck why didn't he fix it while he was in your living room talking complete sh*te to you...
As for Watchdog a waste of time, take a fuse out of an amp and call the aerial guy in... Like that's a very common fault. Of course in your first instance you'll change the amp. Then jump on the fellow for not carrying 3 amp fuses. Just needed a bit of a rant...
Jordy: If this page isn't for ranting, then I don't know what is!
I suspect that the whole aerial thing just falls under the radar.
The worst that happens is that people have to get someone in to re-do it. Each job price is usually small compared to gas, water, waste and electricity and in particular building work.
Add to that that it seems "very technical" to most people, and even more to the "won't wire a plug or change a washer" generations, so most people can be bamboozeled.
Also, there has been a general decline in installation standards (those dead to cable-TV trees and Sky analogue installations) so people are quite used to shoddiness, even from large corporations.
Please help! I am trying to get freeview in my room on HDTV but unable to locate any channels at all. Freeview built in to the tv although there are no DTV channels coming up. I have tried all aerials in the house and it doesnt work either although the two main tvs are fine and support our Virgin Media. Please advise on what to do? New aerial? My postcode covers Freeview, i called an engineer and he said i should have no trouble getting freeview. How much would it roughly cots to call out an engineer for some help. PLEASE HELP!
Jordy. I would rate our aerial installation as OK nothing more. I suspect that with a proper mast booster fitted we could have got a good signal from the transmitter rather than the relay we are now using but that wasn't tried or suggested at the time. The guy was here for less than an hour so it was a really expensive exercise. We already had a freeview pvr so we stayed with an aerial. Wish now that we had taken the plunge and gone for freesat as that seems to be the way the BBC want to to.
Jane - Hi, clearly he just couldn't be bothered. Caldbeck is perfectly usable near to were you are close to Picken. I know the area very well we have an installation at Cally Palace Golf Club which has been picking up Caldbeck/ Sandale long before the digital switchover. I can pick up Caldbeck on the other side of the Irish sea so it isn't an excuse! It shocking to pay that amount of money and not be paying not only for the expertise but the knowledge that is required, it seems to me television installation engineers are not knowledgeable and infact some are just opportunistic...
It is of no comfort to you after spending the money initially but you could explain to another reputable installer exactly what you want. Do some research, Have a quote done for the work, with no strings attached. You can walk away if it's to expensive. What i find if you explain to people the processes of what you're doing they can learn as well to look out for the rogues who smile and nod and see you as nothing more than a cash machine.... If you need anymore information i and several other very experienced engineers are very willing to help and of course the advice here is completely free...
Hi,
We live in a split level maisonette (upper ground & Lower Ground).
We currently have one direct aerial point in our living room (upper ground)but want to receive TV downstairs.
Would the most straight forward way of achieving this be to fit a splitter and run the cable downstairs?
We need this job done ASAP! Can anyone recommend someone that could do this for us and let us know how much we can expect to pay? We live in West London.
Hi Jordy
Thanks for your advice, we may make some more enquiries later this year. But I must say that the installer we used is an accredited installer and one of the main independent operators in the area. It was an exceptionally busy time when we moved in here - just before digital switchover - so maybe they were more rushed than they should have been. I'll go back to them first and see if they are prepared to have another look at it, at no further charge of course.
07:02
on UK Free TV
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