# New Roof and Dish Realignment



## blueoyster (May 3, 2007)

Getting a new roof soon and am wondering what the latest way to get the dish realigned by DTV is. I have the Protection Plan so I suspect it shouldn't be a major problem. Just call DTV for a realignment and the Tech will realize it's a new roof and not care that was the reason? Also how far in advance should I call? Never had to use them for this. Don't want to wait a week for a Tech to show up. Thanks for any replies.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

If you have the roof replaced, you pay to have the dish remounted, PP or not...PP does not cover re-roofing your house and having the dish remounted free of charge, nor should it....


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## blueoyster (May 3, 2007)

The roof is being replaced because of Hurricane Irene. The roofer will remount the dish. Chances are it will be out of realignment after the remount.


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## ke3ju (Aug 18, 2006)

I just went through this...it's only $50...although my circumstance was slightly different...I had a metal roof put on, and didn't want the dish put back on that, so they came and put a poll in the backyard. Still, dude was here from 7pm 'til 11pm, and it was only $50...


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## blueoyster (May 3, 2007)

$50 is a fair price. Thanks ke3ju.


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## deardeva (Sep 16, 2011)

call protection plan, explain you had roof work done, that roofers did remount the dish, you need realignment....they will tell you what you need to know


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

blueoyster said:


> $50 is a fair price. Thanks ke3ju.


Since it is being done due to the hurricane, it should be included in the cost of the roof replacement through the insurance policy....


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## fleckrj (Sep 4, 2009)

When I had my roof replaced, the roofers marked the position of the mount for the dish, removed the dish, replaced the roof, and reinstalled the dish. It was about 3 years after the roof was replaced before I had to have the dish realigned. 

The reason I ultimately called DirecTV to align the dish was that I had a 5 satellite LNB, but I do not have LOS to 119, and did not have good signal strength on 110 and was having problems with the guide not updating. I do not need 110 or 119, so I wanted DirecTV to replace the 5 satellite LNB with a 3 satellite LNB and align the dish. 

DirecTV had agreed not to charge me, since I had been a customer for so long without ever having a service call; however, when the DirecTV technician came to the house, he refused to go up on the roof to align the dish. It would have required using a ladder to get to the garage roof and putting a second ladder on the garage roof to reach the dish on the roof to the main part of the house. He went onto the garage roof, but could not reach the dish from there without a second ladder. The technician said that they were not allowed to do a two ladder install. I told him that obviously, someone did that, because that is where my dish had always been mounted. The technician said that it must have been installed by a third party installer, because DirecTV would not have mounted the dish there. All he was willing to do was mark my account so I could cancel without penalty (although I am long, long past my two year commitment period). He did leave the 3 satellite LNB on the garage roof. Whether that was by accident or on purpose, I do not know, but I was not supposed to have been charged for it if he had installed it, so I did not feel guilty about keeping it.

I called a third party installer, who came out the same day, replaced my old 5 satellite LNB with a 3 satellite LNB, and aligned the dish for $90. If I pro-rate the $90 over the time I have been with DirecTV, I have spent less than $8.00 per year on service. I can live with that.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

The only way I would ever allow a roofer to mount a dish is if they were to install a commdeck mount. I've seen way to many roofer installs where they use whatever screws/bolts/nails they had laying in their truck and slapped on a tube of caulk. Nothing like telling someone that you need to put an additional X number of holes in the new roof as the ones the roofer did are not going to work. Good times.


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## netraa (Mar 28, 2007)

RobertE said:


> The only way I would ever allow a roofer to mount a dish is if they were to install a commdeck mount. I've seen way to many roofer installs where they use whatever screws/bolts/nails they had laying in their truck and slapped on a tube of caulk. Nothing like telling someone that you need to put an additional X number of holes in the new roof as the ones the roofer did are not going to work. Good times.


^^^^ is dead on.

NEVER ever let the roofer put the dish back on.

you didn't call Directv to replace your roof, don't let the roofer replace the dish.

Too many times I have seen them 'drive' (with a hammer) the lag screws back into the exact same holes the bolts came out of.

Because of a major quality crackdown over the past few years If the technician comes out there and the roofers job of installing the dish isn't up to spec, he's going to come down, charge you, and tell you he is going to have to reinstall the dish, leaving the old mast foot, and monopole mounts behind, and install 10 more lags into your bran new roof a few feet over.

Call Directv, pay the 99 bucks, or whatever discounted rate they give you for an ODU relocate, and make sure it's done right.

*note, this excludes the ultra rare instances when you get a hack installer that doesn't know his arse from a tea kettle, and the even rarer instances where the roofer has someone that is a former installer and still has his meter and actually does the dish right.


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## Manctech (Jul 5, 2010)

Personally as a tech it boggles my mind why the protection plan does NOT cover a simple re-alignment. 6$ a month should cover this as it is NOT customer caused. 

If you have the protection plan I would advise never to be upfront with the CSR that you had a new roof put on. Just say your signal goes out frequently. The tech will know and will not care. 

I had a lady today who was pretty upset about this very issue and I agree!


edit: and as for having a roofer put the dish back on, the problem is within the warranty. If the roofers don't put it back up and someone else does it could void the warranty of the roof. If the roofers do it, obviously they guarantee that.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

Manctech said:


> Personally as a tech it boggles my mind why the protection plan does NOT cover a simple re-alignment. 6$ a month should cover this as it is NOT customer caused.
> 
> If you have the protection plan I would advise never to be upfront with the CSR that you had a new roof put on. Just say your signal goes out frequently. The tech will know and will not care.
> 
> ...


The protection plan does not cover customer caused issues, such as having the roof replaced.


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## Manctech (Jul 5, 2010)

RobertE said:


> The protection plan does not cover customer caused issues, such as having the roof replaced.


I know it doesn't but I think it should!  At least the roof being replaced. In many cases it is necessary and un-avoidable unlike a dog chewing the cable or a drunken riding lawn mower into a pole! A roof replace is once every 10 years and should be covered under the protection plan especially since most service calls for this issue are less than 30 minutes.


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## adidas208 (Dec 1, 2011)

Manctech said:


> I know it doesn't but I think it should!  At least the roof being replaced. In many cases it is necessary and un-avoidable unlike a dog chewing the cable or a drunken riding lawn mower into a pole! A roof replace is once every 10 years and should be covered under the protection plan especially since most service calls for this issue are less than 30 minutes.


LMFAO had the drunken riding lawnmower happen a time or two. Not to seem unsensitive to the orig poster issue: but it does say that pp does not cover customer caused or acts of god(hence hurricane) Now me being a svc tech, i never customer cause these because i dont see the point in a potentially p'd off customer calling back because of the 50-130 possible charge for this close code. If it was upto me there would be a csr caused or case manager caused close code and those people would get back charged becuase they drop ship a rcvr and cant figure out what dish setup they have...dont kill me just my two cents


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## wallfishman (Dec 31, 2008)

Please listen to Robert and Netraa and DO NOT let roofers remount the kaku dish., Just tell the to take it down gently and do the roof. If you are having Directv come out anyway Let them do the entire job. Between me and you when I come back out to the job if the dish is not perfect looking I will put you up a brand new one rather than waste my time messing with junk that is possibly bent . Every single time I have to mess with something a roofer installed there is a problem. The last one I did a few months ago i wish i took pictures they had the mast and supports totally backwards.


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## LCDSpazz (Dec 31, 2008)

I figure I'll be needing a new roof in about 5 or 6 years, if I'm still a customer then I'm going to call DTV and if they don't come and realign the dish for free I'll just drop DTV. I specifically wanted the dish mounted on the side of the house on the brick wall but the installer didn't have the mounting anchors or whatever and flat out didn't want to install it there. I finally relented and let him install it on the roof. Normally I'd have no problem paying the $50 or whatever change, but that's ridiculous - I didn't even want it put up there. He appears to have done a good job installing on the roof, but this very situation is one of the reasons I would've preferred it NOT be put on the roof.


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## netraa (Mar 28, 2007)

Manctech said:


> I know it doesn't but I think it should!  At least the roof being replaced. In many cases it is necessary and un-avoidable unlike a dog chewing the cable or a drunken riding lawn mower into a pole! A roof replace is once every 10 years and should be covered under the protection plan especially since most service calls for this issue are less than 30 minutes.


How about this one...

Tech goes out and installs a new system, 3 days later, they replaced the roof and tech gets popped with a sin7 and the obligatory backcharge because of it.

an upgrade, like an ODU relocate is not punitive to the prior techs numbers.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

LCDSpazz said:


> I figure I'll be needing a new roof in about 5 or 6 years, if I'm still a customer then I'm going to call DTV and if they don't come and realign the dish for free I'll just drop DTV. I specifically wanted the dish mounted on the side of the house on the brick wall but the installer didn't have the mounting anchors or whatever and flat out didn't want to install it there. I finally relented and let him install it on the roof. Normally I'd have no problem paying the $50 or whatever change, but that's ridiculous - I didn't even want it put up there. He appears to have done a good job installing on the roof, but this very situation is one of the reasons I would've preferred it NOT be put on the roof.


Brick wall mounts are very difficult due to the bits needed and will not pass a QC. It would be considered a custom install and you would have had to pay for that yourself, it would not be a free install which you probably also would have balked at. In your situation, the tech did right whether you like it or not.


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## ndole (Aug 26, 2009)

RobertE said:


> The protection plan does not cover customer caused issues, such as having the roof replaced.


Neither does it cover natural disasters like Irene.


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## ndole (Aug 26, 2009)

I LOVE trying to take the foot off of an ODU mast that's covered in BlackJack tar. Wrenches love the stuff


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## Manctech (Jul 5, 2010)

netraa said:


> How about this one...
> 
> Tech goes out and installs a new system, 3 days later, they replaced the roof and tech gets popped with a sin7 and the obligatory backcharge because of it.
> 
> an upgrade, like an ODU relocate is not punitive to the prior techs numbers.


That is very rare. If a tech says, "I'd like to put the dish on your roof", the customer almost always replies, "Well I'm getting a new roof put on in three days".

Then it's on the tech.


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## Manctech (Jul 5, 2010)

CCarncross said:


> Brick wall mounts are very difficult due to the bits needed and will not pass a QC. It would be considered a custom install and you would have had to pay for that yourself, it would not be a free install which you probably also would have balked at. In your situation, the tech did right whether you like it or not.


Brick mounts are perfectly acceptable mounting surfaces. Chimneys on the other hand are NOT. (This was recently amended to say chimney mounts above the roofline) At least this is the case in my office. I love brickmounts, I can do pull ups from the mast it is so solid!


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## dst2012 (Dec 2, 2011)

I advise leaving the dish off the house and let a professional installer replace it after the roofers are gone. I have replaced a lot of dishes because roofers install them into the decking and not roof rafters. Or they use nails instead of lag bolts. Then you have to either call the roofers back out to remove the old foot mount and repair the shingles or live with the old mount still attached to your roof. You can send the directv bill to your insurance for reimbursement. They almost always have to be realigned. Especially with hd.


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## dst2012 (Dec 2, 2011)

CCarncross said:


> Brick wall mounts are very difficult due to the bits needed and will not pass a QC. It would be considered a custom install and you would have had to pay for that yourself, it would not be a free install which you probably also would have balked at. In your situation, the tech did right whether you like it or not.


They won't pass a qc if you mount them in the mortar, but they will hold stronger than mounting to the roof (even hitting rafters). Even if they would pass a qc they still wouldn't be as popular because installers are lazy and typically overbooked. I'm not really complaining though because their disregard to quality installations is job security for me.


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## johnp37 (Sep 14, 2006)

Manctech said:


> I know it doesn't but I think it should!  At least the roof being replaced. In many cases it is necessary and un-avoidable unlike a dog chewing the cable or a drunken riding lawn mower into a pole! A roof replace is once every 10 years and should be covered under the protection plan especially since most service calls for this issue are less than 30 minutes.[/Q
> 
> 10 years?? Never heard of a main roof job having to be replaced every 10 years. It should last minimum 20-25 years. I had mine done in 2003 and is guaranteed for 50 years.


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## RoyGBiv (Jul 24, 2007)

Not to argue with those who have had other experiences, but.... My dish is mounted on the side of my house. Two years ago I had my house resided and the dish put very carefully back up in its previous location. I got a good, but not great signal. I thought I could do the fine tuning myself but never could get what I needed. I had the protection plan and finally called D* assuming they would charge me. I told the rep the true story, but the rep said, "I hear you had very high winds the past few days, so maybe that's why you need it re aligned." He said that they could have someone there the next day and because of the protection plan I would not be charged. That's what happened and no charge to me.

SMK


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## johnp37 (Sep 14, 2006)

Depending on one's dish alignment expertise, my situation was this: dish was originally mounted on my home's rear extension which needed a new roof. Long story short, my son and I relocated the dish to the rear of my yard on the extended roof off my detached garage. Used a heavy duty tripod with included 2" o.d.x3' post from SolidSignal and braced with monopoles. Less than 20 minutes of alignment tweaking and was getting mid to high 90s and 100s. Two years and Hurricane Irene later has not budged.


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

If Irene is the cause of this, you probably get the dish installed for free from DirecTV. They'll just right it off as one of their Irene's repairs.


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## ndole (Aug 26, 2009)

Drucifer said:


> If Irene is the cause of this, you probably get the dish installed for free from DirecTV. They'll just right it off as one of their Irene's repairs.


:nono:


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

netraa said:


> Call Directv, pay the 99 bucks, or whatever discounted rate they give you for an ODU relocate, and make sure it's done right.


Dish relocations are $49.


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## BarkingPumpkin (Feb 1, 2013)

With a properly installed rooftop HD dish performed by a DirecTV-hired installer how often should I expect the dish to require a realignment? Every six months? Every year? 

What is everyone's experience?

I've asked two installers this question and they both said "never" since they've done the install properly (into rafters, using support arms).

What's more likely to occur to restore service to "spec"? A need to realign a dish, or replace an LNB, or cable (or cable fitting), or something else?


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## profmrw (Oct 9, 2006)

I had siding and roof work done back in August - they charged $50 to setup the dish again. I had the $50 included in my contract that the installer paid the cost.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

BarkingPumpkin said:


> With a properly installed rooftop HD dish performed by a DirecTV-hired installer how often should I expect the dish to require a realignment? Every six months? Every year?
> 
> What is everyone's experience?
> 
> ...


Mine's been on my roof since Oct 2006, never had it re-aliigned, signals are still 90+ to 100 across all necessary transponders.


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## johnp37 (Sep 14, 2006)

johnp37 said:


> Depending on one's dish alignment expertise, my situation was this: dish was originally mounted on my home's rear extension which needed a new roof. Long story short, my son and I relocated the dish to the rear of my yard on the extended roof off my detached garage. Used a heavy duty tripod with included 2" o.d.x3' post from SolidSignal and braced with monopoles. Less than 20 minutes of alignment tweaking and was getting mid to high 90s and 100s. Two years and Hurricane Irene later has not budged.


 Sandy blew through and the dish never budged. My tripod with monopole bracing definitely made the difference. Still mid 90s to multiple 100s signal strengths.


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## Bill Broderick (Aug 25, 2006)

BarkingPumpkin said:


> With a properly installed rooftop HD dish performed by a DirecTV-hired installer how often should I expect the dish to require a realignment? Every six months? Every year?


I've had DirecTV since 1996 and have never needed a realignment. During that time, I've had 3 dishes replaced. But they were always for upgrades (SD->HD 3LNB -> HD 5LNB).

In the past 2 years, I've been hit with Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, with no adjustments needed.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

A properly installed and aligned dish should not ever need realignment under normal conditions/circumstances. Normal does not include hurricanes or tornadoes.


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