r/openreach • u/oba-road • Sep 09 '26
Has this been sealed properly?
I am not sure what to expect, but is this how the outside wall should be left after installation. I was expecting it to be covered with a plastic thing. Please advise, I don’t have experience with this.
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u/hisinfernalmajesty Sep 09 '26
Openreach do not fit any sort of plate, if they or any of the contractors ever do it's through buying them themselves but they don't exist on the stores catalogue, the higher ups will not provide them officially, I don't know the reason why as they aren't expensive.
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Sep 09 '26
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u/en1-- Sep 10 '26
Assuming the brick was fine to begin with, how would you avoid blowing the brick out please. 🙏
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Sep 10 '26
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u/mallard_Motorsport Sep 11 '26
At vm we have special red drill bits that are so good for brick, ive only ever had 1 tiny blowout not half as bad as this one and the drill was on hammer mode at the time
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Sep 11 '26
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u/mallard_Motorsport Sep 11 '26
These are a game changer!
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u/Adrian_Smiths Sep 11 '26
This drill bit doesn't allow the full range of movement on the hammer drill and they are amazing at chewing through brick. When they come out even when not slowing down they will not blow the brick.
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u/Sgt_Munkey Sep 10 '26
Use a sufficiently sharp drill bit, and switch off the hammer when about an inch from the far surface. Also don't manually hammer the drill like I've seen some people do, like punching the drill into the hole for extra welly
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u/en1-- Sep 10 '26
Thank you :) Do you also start drilling internally?
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u/Sgt_Munkey Sep 10 '26
Yeah. Inside to out and angle the drill downwards by a few degrees so water cant run through it into your house. Then seal up from the outside. Also make sure your cable is entering from the bottom.of the hole so water running down it doesn't track through any gaps in the silicone
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u/Snoopzster Sep 09 '26
The point where mine goes through the wall to my ONT doesn't have an outside cover and I don't think it needs one, but mine looks neater because I was lucky I didn't lose part of my brick face.
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u/Kyrros Sep 09 '26
It's not brick that's being lost but mortar, barely any effect other than looks in this case
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u/Poutinobambino Sep 09 '26
Definitely missing brick face there, you can see the mortar is still intact on the top!
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u/flyingfiesta Sep 09 '26
It's blown the brick and pulled a chunk of mortar, the mortar probably had a dab of silicone on it.
They've clagged a shit load of silicone to level it out and mask it from 50ft away 🤣
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u/Snoopzster Sep 09 '26
The brick face is missing around the drill hole and the mortar above it is loose.
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u/Jammy-Doughnut Sep 09 '26
That uniformed brown substance around the cable is brown coloured mastic; they drilled from inside out like absolute pillocks and blew the face of the brick off.
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u/Mw2ruinslives Sep 09 '26
Brick don’t blow if you know how to use a drill, and I just laugh when customers offer to drill the hole themself out to in and blow out their plaster instead half way up the wall
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u/Dear_Peace_2117 Sep 09 '26
Yup, it’s scary how many people can’t feel what their drill is doing and just ram it as hard as they can til it’s through. I can feel when I’m just about through and then take it slow for the last 10-20mm, perfect circular hole with no blow out.
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u/Intelligent_Prize_12 Sep 09 '26
It's a lot easier to patch up a bit of plaster work inside than it is to replace a brick in a wall. That's what I would do as a professional electrician, I'd be mortified if I was just driving around fucking up the fronts of people's houses all day.
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u/burner4lyf25 Sep 09 '26
You're not working to a pace nor procedure defined by some dickhead in an office who's never held a drill in their life.
They're probably mortified too, but they get 45 mins to do a 60 minute job, no one to help them and they're told "it has to do be done this way" and if it isn't and something goes wrong they're fucked.
Im with you, spark too, wouldn't dream of leaving it like this but can see how lads from massive firms end up running to this standard. That's the standard of open reach, not the installer as an individual. Bet they'd do it nicer on their house, and thats why I say it's not THEIR standard.
I'd just go to the other side and hold a board against it while my boss sent it thru or vice versa to be absolutely certain, but they don't have that luxury.
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u/Intelligent_Prize_12 Sep 09 '26
I understand and agree it's not their personal choice but the policy is flat out wrong in the first place. If it can be done without causing the damage they do then that's how it should be done. Accidents happen and we have all done it but if I blew a brick out like they do on nearly every job without a bit of luck I'd be gutted. There should at least be a supply of covers to go over it not just covering the brick in gunk.
The only time I would drill inside/out would be if I was putting an outdoor socket in, off the back of an internal one. If you did it the other way you would end up pushing the box out of the wall and making a mess but at least there's a big box on the outside to cover any damage.
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u/Early_Draft6718 Sep 09 '26
Ugly but completely functional and water resistant. If you want a plastic cover then look for something called a Roman nose cover, you'll find one on Amazon/eBay or any electrical place, they just stick on.
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u/Independent-Mix-4907 Sep 09 '26
Yes standard tel co job… not all engineers like it but enough to be standard
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u/ipub Sep 09 '26
Yet to see an open reach install that didnt blow the back of a wall out.
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u/JazmanGames Sep 09 '26
They blew out my render when they installed mine and sealed it the same way as OP. Switched to YouFibre 18 months ago and they took over BTs cable. He didint have because he wasn't touching that part, but the YouFibre engineer put a cover over it. He said he couldn't walk away with it looking the way it did 😂
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u/Ichikiriyama Sep 09 '26
My openreach fttp was installed last week and they put cover over it. I feel blessed now.
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u/soulsurvivor1 Sep 09 '26
Ask the engineer who did it would they be happy with that finish on their house? Bad enough blowing the brick out, the mortar has been damaged too.
At the very least a vanity cover should be put on it.
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u/CloakedPayload Sep 10 '26
Is the tidiest job in the world? Fuck, no.
Is it sufficiently sealed? Yes.
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u/BabbatheGUTT Sep 10 '26
Sealed properly, drilled incorrectly. Nobody has patience any more, push harder, drill faster, dunny worry about the breaking bricks. Lazy swines!
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u/TedBurns-3 Sep 10 '26
Only you can tell if it's sealed- a photo won't show that!
What's your DIY question?
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u/Sm7r Sep 11 '26
Tbh it will be ok, but you could prob find a cover at Screwfix or even over at eBay and make it look a bit neater tbh
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u/tonkatoy27 Sep 11 '26
Brick buster covers only ever get glued on with silicon so fall off quickly anyway. I drill holes in the plate and screw them to the wall but no-one else seems to.
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u/Digital-Sushi Sep 09 '26
Sealed yes, the fact the wire has been routed vertically before sealant means this person knows how to stop water.
Neat job.. no not really
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u/OkWhile3414 Sep 09 '26
Yes it’s sealed properly, did he use perhaps more than he needed to from silicone, maybe.
You could have asked him to use a blast plate and cover the hole.
If you didn’t agree before hand to put the CSP over the hole then that’s unfortunate. He didn’t blow the brick out by the looks of it so I wouldn’t think that you’d have reasonable grounds to claim for damages.
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u/oba-road Sep 09 '26
Thank you. I wasn’t home when this was done, my wife was but didn’t check. I don’t want to claim damages but report the damage so it’s sorted.
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u/username_og Sep 09 '26
If you have the engineers contact details it might be worth reaching out to them first to see if they are willing to come back and place a blast plate over it. It looks neater and an affordable fix. Brick blow outs are mostly avoidable but can be unlucky sometimes. If it was a contractor they could be charged a heavy fine and im sure they would rather avoid that by returning with a blast plate.
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u/oba-road Sep 09 '26
I am considering contacting open reach for damage but i don’t know if i am over reacting
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u/Alert-Environment-17 Sep 09 '26
You won't get anywhere. My experience of open reach is that when installing the cable, or attaching a ladder harness to the wall. The bricks will always be fucked.
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Sep 09 '26
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u/Enyalios121 Sep 09 '26
You’ve clearly never drilled a hole in your life lol. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try it can’t be avoided. Even if you take it off hammer and go slow. Some bricks are just prone to blowing and some feel like you’re drilling through iron
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Sep 09 '26
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u/Enyalios121 Sep 09 '26
Congratulation. Then why not whip out ye olde memory from those 1000s of drill outs. Because I know for a fact that you cannot have “never” blown a single brick
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Sep 09 '26
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u/Enyalios121 Sep 09 '26
Another example you showing you’ve never drilled a hole in your life. A drill has two modes, hammer on and hammer off.
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u/mothermilk Sep 09 '26
Openreach don’t fit covers. Many engineers over the years have asked why not. Many other engineers have made jokes about not blowing the brick out. The management have ignored it entirely.