Sat Cable Connections - certain that this isn't right

[Vee239]

When we had the house extended a couple of years ago I didn't know where the TV would be placed.
I did know that the Sky box would be in the front room and wanted a feed to 3 different points in the extension via an amplifier.
I asked the builders to run 3 seperate cables under the floor from the front room to 3 points in the back.
It appears what they've done is run one cable to point 1, then connected another to point 2, and from point 2 to point 3 another.
Each point ends in an F type wall plate.
The connection at each wall plate is simply 2 cables twisted together.
Unfortunately my preferred TV location is point 3.
I'm certain this isn't right. While the picture quality is pretty good, I'm sure it could be better. Is there anything I can/should do ?

Thanks in advance for any advice !

 

[ChrisFrost]

1) Don't trust builders with anything AV related!

You wouldn't ask your mechanic to build a patio for you... As a general rule builders haven't got a clue about AV and really don't care enough to find out how to do it right.

From the sound of it you have a daisy-chain of cable from the Sky box via the TV points. I'm in two minds about what to advise you. Part of me that wants to say "make the joints properly with decent connectors*". The other part of me that has been down this road before when called in to rescue botched installs is screaming "run away, run away!!" I'm leaning heavily towards discretion. The proper answer of course is to get the builder to install the cable as you originally specified (and presumably paid him labour & materials for) and then get a pro in to finish the head-end and wall plates with the appropriate types for whatever it is you want to do. The alternative is leave it well alone until you can afford to have it done correctly.


* Take a look at Satcure for F connectors of the correct diameter for your cable, some F-type back-to-back connectors, some silicon grease and self amalgamating tape if you want to patch up what you have.

 

[Vee239]

Thank you Chris.
Having it done properly is not a realistic option as the house is finished and I don't want go go pulling up floors nor rerunning cables along walls so they're visible.

I'll go with the option of joining up each connection and see how I get on.

It's frustrating as I bought a reel of cable and asked them to run 3 seperate cables from the front room.
I also provided them with Cat6 and they've run this as requested.
I've no idea what posessed them to run the co-ax they way they did !

 

[ChrisFrost]

I've no idea what posessed them to run the co-ax they way they did !

General Builders will have some knowledge of lighting and mains circuits - rings and spurs; so they fall back on that knowledge and assume that daisy-chaining is fine as far as aerial cable goes. It's a pretty common problem I come across as an AV installer.

CAT5e/CAT6 is a little out of the ordinary for Builders. It's something to do with computers, so they're more likely to listen to instructions and follow them as far as running that cable is concerned.