What is the propper way to mount dish on roof?

[tvobsessed]

Hi all, I recently moved and want to mount my dish on the tip of my roof since trees surround my house >_<' Is mounting a dish on a roof just a matter of using 4-5 inch screws then sealing them to prevent water leaks? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[JT]

The proper way is to not put any holes through the shingles at all. You see it all the time, but it's a bad idea. Sooner or later, no matter how good you seal it, it will leak if you screw through the shingles. Are you positive there are no other options?

[tvobsessed]

My only other option would be to cut down my neighbor's trees in the middle of the night :-P but yes I am certain that the only place i am able to get decent reception is on the roof.

[JT]

Well then seal it as best you can and you should only need about 3.5 inch screws or so. Don't go any deeper than your roof is thick. Really fasten it down so it flexes as little as possible in the wind. That flexing is what breaks the seal when you mount a dish this way. Also know that you are virtually guaranteeing that your roof will leak around the dish in 10 years or less. You can counter this by checking it every couple years or so and making sure the seal is good, and resealing as necessary. Rule of thumb is you never put holes in the shingles. It will leak sooner or later if not maintained.

[althor123]

as a contractor i agree completely with jt. you are asking for trouble. if you have no other options then you have to do what you can. i personally would try to slide the top half of the mounting bracket under the loose end of the shingle and bolt it down as tight as i could get it on the top. if i could get away without screwing down the bottom of the bracket (through the shingles) i would skip that. also use PLENTY of tar around it. cake it as thick as you can.

[Birdie]

If it's a rental who cares.... Hehehe Just kidding

I use lag screws, Get them started then take them back out, Fill the holes with a good grade silicon caulk and cover the lag screw threads, Then mount it all and silicon over the lag screws again, Should be fine. Make sure the roof is dry when you mount this.

[jeston]

i would also make sure to hit the roof truss on at leats 2 of the lags.. if not a strong wind will tear it out of the 1/2 inch plywood. i use tar patch on bottom of mast then over the lags after its mounted..

[mtmt1us]

Jeston is right. You have to hit the truss or rafter underneath. Make a fist and use the but of your hand to hit the roof until it sounds and feels firm. Use 3 inch lags to get that dish secure. If not you will have problems. Good luck.

[Phottoman]

You know, I assume, that you 'could' also look for any pipe above the roof, and mount to THAT instead. Or maybe have you looked at the eaves to see if you can mount to the fascia board and try that.

Almost ANYTHING but mounting to the roof would be a good idea.

How about a chimney mount, any joy there?

[C H I L L]

Chimney usually has a 2x6 wood around the top side. If you have one best to mount there.
Or you could mount it on plywood on the roof and tie the plywood to something from
slipping(if the roof has a slant) then put alot of bricks on the plywood.
I used plywood on a flat roof once upon a time with alot of bricks.
For directv I used a metal pole mounted to the balcony and secured to the
roof.

[tvobsessed]

Thank you all for all the responses. Here is the follow up: I mounted the dish on the tip top of my roof only to find that a giant pine tree on the right that I was trying to get out of view by mounting on the roof is still an obstruction >_<' So it looks like I'm going to take the screws out and silicone the holes. The sat finder is picking up the 110 and 119 signals but my 510 isn't. Also I mounted it back on the old mount where I at least had some sort of signal, still no luck with the 510. I ordered a Dish 1000 plus to get the HD channels also since I'm planning on trying out some FTA options. Does anyone have a possible idea why the 510 stopped picking up a signal?

[joesnuffy]

My suggestion.

Aiming a dish can be tricky at best. Do a check switch on your 510 without the signal in cable. You should then see no switch detected. Then leave the switch out and line up sat 119 without using a switch going directly to the 119 lnb no switch between dish and rec and find the sat with the actual dish.

Get a compass the 510 will give you the elevation and azmuth in the check switch area. Walk around your yard/roof and look for a clear shot at sky. Most channels are on 119 so you will need it for sure its the only one I get so I only get 3 ppv channels 502,505,509.

My sat finder is adjustable so if you don't know what your doing it will make it look like you have a signal when you don't. I normally dial it down to like 7 and when it jumps to 10 I know I am getting a signal just don't know which one since it doesn't tell me which sat it is only signal strength. Once I am getting a signal I dial it down again to fine tune it to the strongest settings I can get. Then you hook it to your rec and it will tell you what signal your getting.

The guys suggestion about using a board and putting like sand bags on it is a good one. It allows you to find the signal first then mount a dish second. I have a dish with only 1 lnb attached to a tripod for camping but I also use it to find folks signals I can move it all over the place then when I find the signals I need I mount a dish there.

Hope that helps,
Joe

[Wiley-X]

Heck, when I install a house with a lot of trees, I use the compass method, find one or two "possible sites" and pick up a dish hooked to my meter and hold it up to see if I can get anything. Then (if I get some signal) I dig a hole, drive a 6 foot fence pole ($10 at Home Depot) down a foot and pour some quickset cement into the hole. Make sure the pole is absolutely "plumb" (level) while it is drying in the cement.

After about 6 hours, I throw the dish on the pole and site it up and peak it. I hate crawling around on roofs!!! I have yet to find a house (even surrounded by trees) that I could not do a pole install and get at least 50% on 119/110 (on the new scale!).

~Wiley~

[JT]

For future reference, you seal holes in the roof with tar, not silicon. That way it shrinks and expands with the rest of the roof and reseals itself in the heat.

[boobookitty]

I aim through the neighbors brick house and a bunch of big oak trees I get about 110 on 110 and about 101 on 119. it only bothers me with rain fade. I hate when wet snow sticks to dish and have to climb up on roof to clean dish off. I tried the snowball method to clean off but knocks dish out of wack and your neighbors think you carzy out there at 4 am throwing snowballs.