Underground ducting direct to property?

[Iceman1]

My existing phone line comes to my house via underground ducting. 

My question is, does and should the ducting run right up to my house wall where the cable comes out?

I ask as when I got a driveway done a few years ago, the cable 'popped' out from the ground about 2m away from the box that is on my wall. There was definitely no ducting for this last 2m.

This open reach photo I've found also suggests the ducting is not straight to properties, is this correct?

If that is the case, I'm just concerned on how they will install a new fibre cable to my house if the duct is directly all the way to my house.

[iniltous]

The image you have posted is for a road crossing , before ducts are connected to and from it , so the duct type , depth of cover etc are irrelevant and it’s not helpful in regards to the duct to your house wall …

however the duct to your house should be all the way to the house wall not 2m short , about this distance the duct should join with a duct 90 degree bend that allows the duct to emerge at the house wall , however although the duct is Openreach property ( or BT before Openreach ) , the developer/builder of the house does the groundwork supposedly to BT/OR specifications , unfortunately they don’t always to the correct thing , so if your duct stops short , it’s possible the developer had no 90’ bends , didn’t reinstate the ground until a cable was inside the duct , then backfilled, and said it was done correctly ( what the eye can’t see etc ) ……so getting a new cable into that duct and up-to the house wall may be problematic, and should you order FTTP it’s entirely possible you will have to agree to excavation to repair or replace this defect

If this is under a newly laid drive ( or even an old driveway you don’t want interfering with ) and you don’t consent to excavation, the order is cancelled , it’s better to be aware of this before an order is made , what is never considered is a request from the home owner for the entire driveway to be replaced to avoid a ‘scar’ in the surface ….some surfaces , like block pavers aren’t really a problem as they can be taken up and put back down with no ‘witness marks’  , but concrete or resin bonded surfaces will have a scar where the work took place , so if you don’t want that it’s probably wasting everyone’s time ordering .

[Iceman1]

Thanks for the reply. And yes it is block paving so hopefully not too painful removing it.

Also I'm hoping they can access most of the duct and therefore only dig a small amount find it.

[iniltous]

Generally the push a rod down the duct from a joint box until it hits the stoppage , they know the length of the duct that went in , make an educated guess at the path/route the duct takes underground, so know where roughly the stoppage is , then excavate around that area to expose the stoppage, in your case a spilt duct bend ( so the copper cable doesn’t need cutting ) joins the now exposed duct end and completes the duct to the house wall , this is probably what should have been done years ago at the time of construction.

[Iceman1]

Thanks. As in my case there doesn't appear to be a duct for the final 2m so they will have to dig from the point the duct is blocked to my house? So 2m in total?

[iniltous]

Probably yes , but there is a chance that the duct is blocked (  rather than missing )  , at other places along its route , but no point worrying about that as it’s not particularly likely, you know a section is missing .

TBH , if your address is single stage installation process , the person who turns up will be sent assuming that the duct is fine end to end , you may want to point out you observed the duct falling short when the driveway was installed,  it’s going to be a a waste of time mentioning it to any order taker before the visit  , mention it to the tech that turns up to do the install….I don’t think there is a way for you to get a single stage install changed to KCI2 ( two stage ) in advance of the installation which will likely fail , and the actions to remedy the situation put in place after the failure , where a KCI2 the remedy is in place before a committed appointment date is given , the fact that you know there is going to be an issue should lessen any disappointment if the installation fails ……it’s highly unlikely but not impossible that the installation will actually work .

[Iceman1]

My property is already showing as KCI2.

[36ULW]

That picture is just to highlight to Builders/Developers what kind of Duct should be used on Road Crossings and how deep it should be as a minimum.

On Road Crossings they should only use a Duct54 but then when it goes onto peoples homes they’ll use a Duct56 and connect the two using a Port Reducer.

[iniltous]

Even better then , something must have alerted the survey engineer that your address  potentially had a problem , the survey ethos is better to be cautious , even if it turns out there was never an issue .

An example could be …..say two identical houses ( fairly recently built , within the last 30-35 years ) both should have evidence of the BT/OR duct at the external house wall ( grey plastic duct cover , capping , small grey block  ) one house has had a porch built on the front and this grey plastic can no longer be  seen from the footpath , it’s basically now inside the porch  , that address is marked at survey  as KCI2 because of this , it doesn’t mean it’s definitely got issues , but it’s worth being cautious…whereas the property with the grey plastic still visible isn’t definitely OK , but there is no reason to assume that the duct isn’t serviceable , and its marked as single stage installation, same house type , same age , different survey results….if the grey plastic is missing or covered up on  your address it may be KCI2 for that reason , but it works to your advantage anyway in that someone should visit in advance and after discussion with you , put the remedy in place before you get a ‘proper’ contractual appointment for the install .

[iniltous]

Just realised you have another thread going ( not a great idea to have two threads basically for the same thing , just produces duplication ) on that you state your SNN is ‘built to the curtilage hard ‘ so chances are you don’t have a duct in the accepted sense , some property from the 60’s, 70’s and 1980’s use Duct 100 , it’s barely larger in diameter than the copper cable inside it ,and is considered the same as no duct at all , there is no way to get a new optical cable alongside the existing copper cable , and often D100  doesn’t actually reach end to end ( so 2 metres short of the house in your case ) …..so  it’s not just a missing duct bend , your house has already been provided with the solution to this ‘DIG’ direct in ground problem by fitting a toby box at the curtilage and as stated in your other thread , an excavation from the Toby box to your house wall is needed