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Without seeing the house its hard to tell wether they would have had the right ladder or not, anyone that installs knows that theres a diference between a two story and a two story with a raised floor plan and half a basement below the ground and a raised ceiling plan on each floor. Theres also a diference between a flat roof and a flat roof thats actually a modest sloping roof.

All of that said I have noticed that more and more installers are going out with a simple step ladder and a 16 - 20ft ladder and fewer are going out with a 28ft ladder and a 40ft ladder, when I was installing I had for the longest time a step ladder, 16ft ladder, and a 28ft ladder and sometimes had a 40ft ladder on there as well as the others.

Van said:

Without seeing the house its hard to tell wether they would have had the right ladder or not, anyone that installs knows that theres a diference between a two story and a two story with a raised floor plan and half a basement below the ground and a raised ceiling plan on each floor. Theres also a diference between a flat roof and a flat roof thats actually a modest sloping roof.

All of that said I have noticed that more and more installers are going out with a simple step ladder and a 16 - 20ft ladder and fewer are going out with a 28ft ladder and a 40ft ladder, when I was installing I had for the longest time a step ladder, 16ft ladder, and a 28ft ladder and sometimes had a 40ft ladder on there as well as the others.

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I am scratching my head over this ladder thing. At our company, a 28 ft ladder or the ability to purchase one it is a pre requisite for employment. No 28 footer, look elsewhere for work. I use a stabilizer. Best pruchase of an accessory I have ever made....40 footer is a bulky and tough to handle ladder. We use two men on that detail.. Cust pays for the extra guy if there are other location options.

Thanks for the help all, I really think I will try this one myself. I am fairly knowledgeable from reading up on all of this. I like to have a good idea of how things work especially pertaining to electronics and what not. I might give this a try. Any tips for a self installation, any tricks of the trade I should be aware of?

gcrantstl said:

Thanks for the help all, I really think I will try this one myself. I am fairly knowledgeable from reading up on all of this. I like to have a good idea of how things work especially pertaining to electronics and what not. I might give this a try. Any tips for a self installation, any tricks of the trade I should be aware of?

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Brace the mast and make sure that it is perfectly plumb. In addition, when you use your compass and inclinometer to verify your window; you will need a 30 degree window (5 to the left of the 101 sat which is where your coordinates will point you to, and 25 to the right to account for tree growth and such). In addition, you will need a 10 degree elevation window +/- 5 degrees of the setting for the same reason.

Excuse my ignorance as I think I may have been mistaken. When I had Directv previously, I believe I just had a dual lnb 18" round dish. That dish was installed by a pro in Jan. 2006. The other info is correct, it is still mounted to the side of the brick house about 8-9ft. up. Will I still be able to use the pole adapter to install the ka/ku dish to the side of the house or will I have to just put it on the roof? It's not a big deal either way, I just want to be sure I do everything right.

gcrantstl said:

Excuse my ignorance as I think I may have been mistaken. When I had Directv previously, I believe I just had a dual lnb 18" round dish. That dish was installed by a pro in Jan. 2006. The other info is correct, it is still mounted to the side of the brick house about 8-9ft. up. Will I still be able to use the pole adapter to install the ka/ku dish to the side of the house or will I have to just put it on the roof? It's not a big deal either way, I just want to be sure I do everything right.

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The pole adapter would be fine, if you have enough clearance for the new dish. WE've done many of them.

dishcomm said:

I am scratching my head over this ladder thing. At our company, a 28 ft ladder or the ability to purchase one it is a pre requisite for employment. No 28 footer, look elsewhere for work. I use a stabilizer. Best pruchase of an accessory I have ever made....40 footer is a bulky and tough to handle ladder. We use two men on that detail.. Cust pays for the extra guy if there are other location options.

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Not sure what your confused about but if its the placement of the ladders its easy to explain for all four of them. Step ladder and 16ft in the back of the van, 28ft and 40ft on the roof racks, dish used to require two guys set it up but when the stack rankings came into effect in 06 that went out the window as nobody had the time to help each other out.

gcrantstl said:

My house has half the basement above ground as well as high ceilings (about 12ft.). I am also unaware about if the roof is truly flat having never been up there myself. If I had to guess I would say that it has a small grade from front to back. It can't be a big slope, the front is probably about a foot or two higher than the back. I don't know for sure. Would that adapter work even to mount the dish on the wall? If I could receive a signal with the 3lnb dish, could I get the HD signals in that same location?

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Ok so you have what could really be seen as a near 3 story house with half the basement above ground and the raised ceilings. From the sounds of it you have a gradual sloped roof probably a variation of a Wright design so a non pen roof mount is not advised becuase if water gets underneath and freezes it could slide with a partial thaw.

gcrantstl said:

It shouldn't be a problem with the extra room. I also should mention that the house is brick. Would that make any difference. I just want to make sure that if I were to purchase the mount that it would work properly and that the installer that comes out would know what it is and actually attempt to use it.

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Brick is an installers friend most of the time unless its the hardened brick that you find on homes built over the last 15 years or so, majour pain in the back side to drill into.

chadzx11 said:

Tapcons are approved now?

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They were always approved for use, it was the lag shields that were discontinued for a while and then brought back. They were taken away because guys would use them in mortar mounts to hold the dish mast inplace and within a day to a month or so the mounts would pull out and the mortar would be damaged.

dishcomm said:

heck yeah....They hold great as long as they are in the brick/block and not in the mortar..actualy they hold pretty darn good in the mortar too.

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Mortar mounting is not allowed by dish, mortar crumbles to easy and its an autofail on a QA inspection. I stand behind dish on this one because I've seen way to many homes that werent even 80 years old where the mortar was falling out from between the bricks and I fixed more mortar mounts than I cared for. If your going to use tapcons then always put them into the brick.

Edit: let me clarify that tapcons and the lag shields I'm talking about was during my employment with dish network, I am not familiar with the practices of directv as there seems to be varying diferences between all of its subs and rsps and retailers.

Well, I have the dish and receiver. I am awaiting the adapter, expecting that today (hopefully!!) and then I can get this show on the road. Once I have everything installed and am ready to activate, will Directv require a pro come out to look things over before activation or do I just have to call them and give them the info?