Once you get to someone's property boundary your job is done. Well that's the principle, but you need to check that the householder has the necessary information to finish the installation.. You have to issue guidelines and keep a watchful eye over the proceedings – try at least to get the owner to explain his plan before he does it and inspect the finished result. This saves a lot of disappointment on fibre blowing day when you find he has put the backplate on upside-down or has his orange duct sticking out of it.
Before you got duct to his boundary you probably met the owner. You know if he's interested. You can probably only easily reach part of his boundary with the spur duct, and you will have to discuss the point where he would ideally like you to get to. There will often be a wall or a fence at the boundary, sometimes you will help getting through this obstacle.
You will end up getting very involved in some peoples installation, just because some people haven’t got a clue and they need help. If you had a volunteer who could be responsible for this job it would be very useful.
Guidelines - this is the handout we eventually issued, but by the time we knew enough to write it, it was a bit late.
The policy of Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), is that volunteers take the duct up to the boundary of a property and that the householder is responsible for getting the duct from the boundary and across their land up to the wall of the building to which the connection is to be made. Your local B4RN volunteers should leave a coil of duct at the boundary. The duct is 7mm in diameter (about the size of a pencil). In some cases, it is not necessary to wait for ducting to reach you, you can be supplied with ducting so that you can complete the route across your property and a join can be made later at the boundary.
Whether householders employ someone, or they do this job themselves, there are a few simple rules:
There will be a huge difference between a garden that has ducts leading to other properties and one that is just the responsibility of the owner.
The physical work will be similar, but it's going to have to be a top job, and need a few volunteers.
concrete and forget
okay, it doesn't look promising, but in soft soil there is a technique where you can press down on the protective ducting with a spade and it goes down nicely.
Caton
some very neat and very long trenching
drilling through a garden wall
this was dug by hand!
You can see the plan. And it should work really well
that looks a good plan, using 16mm as a shield. Wait until its got fibre, then concrete it in.
Once the project gets focused on a particular short section your DIY man comes into his own. You are also within range of electrical machines and toolsheds.
Plastic sheets to collect the soil leads to a very tidy job with hardly any extra effort.
Touch of concrete and a nice job. Mark the point where the black and orange join
Getting under paths
The householder is often left with the job of getting under a concrete or tarmac path in his garden.
Dig down each side and then get as much soil out as possible with a spade under the path before moving on to hand tools. Tunnel further, getting as much as you can out with a trowel. Now you are at the difficult bit, the metre or so of path you can't get at. You can try various methods
Avoiding kinking 7 mm in outer ducting
It is common to use up off-cuts of 16 mm by giving them out to householders who wish to protect the 7 mm across their garden. They might also use ducting of their own. This route can be quite convoluted and is in danger of kinking the inner duct without you knowing,. If you pass the 7mm through after the outer ducting has been laid you can check that the 7 flows smoothly.