Dug up phone line, what should I expect?

[scutty83]

Before anyone tells me about 1-800-digrite, I know. I forgot and made an idiotic honest mistake and not one I will make again. To my defense the line is buried in an odd path in my opinon. It crosses both my underground service to my house and my shop which could be ran outside of the power line poles closer to the right of way and avoid crossing them at all. Anyway, I just want to get down to brass tax. What should it cost me to repair?
It was a 3 pair phone line and of course it didnt just cut but pulled about 6 feet out of slack. The phone company came out and ran a temporary but said it will have to be excavated to find the break. They also said they think it may have just pulled in splice loose where it was cut previously when they installed underground service to my house in '06 (not by me btw). Any help appreciated.

 

[Teken]

Are they going to charge you for this oh ****?

Teken . . .

 

[D.J.]

May not be a big deal if you could push a tree over before you call it in and tell them the line was in the roots. New one call number in IL is 811.

 

[jethro29]

howdeep was it?the depth may be your saving grace.it should be a minumum of 18 inches.if not,make a stink about it and they won't pursue you.

 

[BillK]

howdeep was it?the depth may be your saving grace.it should be a minumum of 18 inches.if not,make a stink about it and they won't pursue you.

I was going to say the same thing. I cut our cable TV line while digging to plant some flowers next to the driveway. It was only down about 6 inches. The raised a stink about it until I suggested that the find out what the code states about the depth. That was the last I heard about it

 

[jmauld]

Blame it on your neighbor.

Or, If they raise a stink about it, drop the service.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Those stinking scrap thieves, now they're digging up phone lines is nothing sacred.

 

[mrb]

if this is just the line to your house, a call before you dig may not have even located it. No big deal theyll probably charge you a couple hundred to fix it. See if you can get their design specs and take care of the trench for them.

if it had been a line serving customers other than you, or worse a fiber optic line that could get really expensive...

 

[aandpdan]

I did the same thing with a tiller about 10 years ago at my parents house. The line was only about 2" deep and was run right across the front lawn, between two trees, to get to their neighbors house.

Nothing ever came of it.

 

[scutty83]

I wish I could say it was wasnt deep enough but it was probably 18" so I cant use that excuse. Like I said though it really should be ran closer to the right of way to avoid crossing two different buried services on my property. And it is a 3 pair which means it services three neighbors also. The phone company guys said I was lucky it changes to a 16 pair just down the road!

 

[930dreamer]

Your phone probably won't work, I couldn't resist sorry.

 

[scutty83]

dreamer thanks for the heads up

 

[gatchel]

If the bill was outrageous I'd pull the "I've been thinking to going all cellular, anyway..." line. Who knows, maybe they'll fix it no charge. Keep us posted.

You could always fix it yourself. Color for color...

 

[mrb]

usually they run a 3 pair to each house. Look at the wire where it comes into your house, i bet its 3pr

 

[MrMark]

run vs ran, the most misused words on garage journal (other than the advice/advise which no one can get right). It's run, not ran. Run is the past participle.

You dug up a phone line on your own property. Just fix it. It's your responsibility anyway.

 

[Tech Guy]

run vs ran, the most misused words on garage journal (other than the advice/advise which no one can get right). It's run, not ran. Run is the past participle.

You dug up a phone line on your own property. Just fix it. It's your responsibility anyway.

Agreed, fix it yourself. Solder it all back together or use crimp connectors with gel in them and be done with it. If it only feeds your house and craps out down the road you know where to look.

 

[gatchel]

run vs ran, the most misused words on garage journal (other than the advice/advise which no one can get right). It's run, not ran. Run is the past participle.

You dug up a phone line on your own property. Just fix it. It's your responsibility anyway.

Extremely off topic...


Don't forget there, they're and their. Not that I am an English major or anything...

This will make you happy:

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/run.html

 

[MrMark]

Extremely off topic...


Don't forget there, they're and their. Not that I am an English major or anything...

This will make you happy:

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/run.html

Nice.

The thing that seems to be constantly abused here is the "I've ran . . ." It's "I've run."

 

[Grumpy365]

1-800-dig-rite doesn't find phone lines anyway ( at least they didn't when I called). They do find the power and gas, which are the ones you don't want to fix.

Every land scaper in the country has done this. It's no big deal. Wire it back together and move on.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Use 3M UR scotchloks which are gel-filled.

 

[Mattlt]

Doesn't it make a difference which side of the demarc point the break is on? Around here, the "One Call" people won't locate past the demarc point.

 

[RM209]

Scutty: Presumably your phone company is a regulated provider. That said, the lines coming to your house are owned by the phone company and are their responsibility to repair/replace. These kinds of things occur regularly; No big deal.
Do not attempt to repair them, as they are not your property, and any repairs you undertake might not meet the telco standards.
Make the phone call, and they'll come out and repair the lines.

RM209

 

[mpire]

Regardless of the charges or whatever, you can just patch it and its no big deal.

However, it will definitely have a negetive effect on your DSL speeds if done poorly.

You could just twist them together and wrap them in tape.

Street lines have about 40 volts in them, so they will give you a nice shock if you touch them with bare fingers, but its not going to knock you down or anything.

Overall, I wouldn't sweat it, but the correct answer is related to WHERE the line goes and what its used for. You wouldn't believe how poorly connected some phone lines are.

How about a picture so I can get a better idea of the use?

 

[yost69]

And it is a 3 pair which means it services three neighbors also. The phone company guys said I was lucky it changes to a 16 pair just down the road!

So your saying you only have one phone line coming into your house?

What happens if the wire breaks? You wont have another pair to switch off to and they will have to come dig it up and replace the whole line?

I would bet it only feeds your house. Here where I live, which in no means am I saying it is the same as your locality, we put the line in the ground from the house to the pole. The telco comes and hooks it up at the pole and hooks it up at the house. If anything goes wrong underground in the future we can run a new line ourselves and have the telco come and hook it up again. Or of course we can pay the telco to run a new line but that's expensive and a waste of money.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I have 4 pairs from the street to my house...sounds weird to have one drop cable serving multiple houses.

 

[54FordPanel]

Couple of points here, guys.

1) He's already called the phone company. They came out and layed a temp.

2) 6' of it is pulled out. The other of the break isn't exposed. Unless he wants to just start digging in the general direction of the other end (the phone guys didn't want to do this, and they have equipment to locate the missing end) he's not going to be able to locate the original line to fix it anyway.

3) Homeowner repairs on buried usually don't last very long. Unless you seal the splice (and not just with filled Scothloks, the whole splice) with some sort of grease or encapsulant, it'll go bad enventually. And wrapping splices in electrical tape and burying it is the worst thing you can do.
And you don't have 2 ends to put together in this case anyway.

Cutting the line to you own home is billable. They can charge you for the repairs. It's their line, not yours. Even if it takes what you consider to be a goofy route to your house, it doesn't matter. It's your responsibility to not cut it by calling for locates.

Scutty: My advice is to just leave the temp on the ground for awhile. Don't make any more calls about it.
After several months, make a call to the phone company and complain about the line on the ground. If they ask about it, tell them a tech layed a temp after your service went out and they were supposed to bury a new one.

 

[SuperSocket]

People still use land phone lines?

 

[Tarheelgarage]

Telco have been loosing $s big time lately.
You had better lube up really good and take the "ape ******" they give you on the repair bill like a man.

 

[BFBOB]

I ran some wire yesterday, and when I finished I had a run of wire. I also had run a wire.

But, seriously, folks...to fix that cable (yes, it is not a wire; it is a cable.) First, use Direct Burial rated cable. Home Depot has it in Category 5 in bulk, and it's really not expensive. Second, gel filled B connectors are necessary, but not sufficient. Pot the whole splice in epoxy. Ty-rap the cables together, dangle the splices into a paper cup and fill with epoxy. Get at least an inch of the cables' jackets into the epoxy.

 

[mpire]

3) Homeowner repairs on buried usually don't last very long. Unless you seal the splice (and not just with filled Scothloks, the whole splice) with some sort of grease or encapsulant, it'll go bad enventually. And wrapping splices in electrical tape and burying it is the worst thing you can do.

I was thinking of a temporary fix.

I can't tell you how many phone lines I have repaired. I only do enterprise systems, so they are usually having a heart attack to get the phones back up so they can call 911 if necessary. (Don't get me started on how everyone has a cell phone, its a legal thing.) So usually I do whatever it takes to get the phones back up, then deal with the locals later.

Regardless, its not that big of a deal. You can always get the keys from ebay to open up the dmark, and then a shovel and a few minutes of your time to replace the wire. The quality of the local phone guys is piss poor at best.

Just a word of warning, these local phone guys are extremely territorial, so be very careful how you deal with them.

 

[Doug1]

I pulled mine up on purpose a couple of years back since it was running underneath and area that needed excavation for another project. When they came and marked all the lines, the phone and cell cables were in the way so I just cut them. Called the cable company and they came and ran a new one where it was out of the way the next day. I doubt I'll use the phone company again since my phone comes bundled with the cable but if I do, they will come out and run a line to the house for no cost if they want the business.

The guy marking the lines painted on a sandy area so I just wiped it away with my foot. A few days later, the guy doing the excavation ended up pulling both cables up with a backhoe and I ran out and said "My TV JUST QUIT WORKING!" and acted pissed. The look on his face was priceless. He said "They were supposed to mark those!" After a minute or two I gave up the joke because he was getting worried.

 

[gussteve]

I 've had mine held together with three wire nuts and some blue painters tape(quick fix)going on a year and a half,hah!what do you guys think i should run for the replacement,all its used for is my internet, cat5 ?obviously i'm no sparky

 

[6768rogues]

I called and got my stake out. The phone wire was in the way. They said to just go ahead and dig; if I hit the wire I was to give them a call and they would simply run a new wire at no cost to me. Here they plow in phone lines.

 

[scutty83]

Well they came out the other day and fixed the line. They just marked the location of the line, dug right where it was pulled loose, and buried a new line from there directly to the pedestal (about 25'). Took them about 3 hrs. Now I wait nervously for a bill...

 

[Tech Guy]

Maybe you will get lucky and they wont bill you.

 

[z28dad]

If its just a service wire meaning "drop" you should be ok and probably will not see a bill.

Now if it was a main cable meaning 25 pair or more, now we are into some money!

This is the way my provider does it. Hopefully your is the same.

 

[sirsloop]

id just disco the damn service and call it a day. Who uses a home phone anymore anyways? Go cellular or VoIP if you must have something at home. Fax? Use an online fax service and a scanner...

 

[54FordPanel]

id just disco the damn service and call it a day. Who uses a home phone anymore anyways? Go cellular or VoIP if you must have something at home. Fax? Use an online fax service and a scanner...

Uh, his "phone" line might be what carries his internet, which is what he would utilize if he wanted to use VOIP.

 

[6768rogues]

The telephone company here has a device that they put on a wire that does not work and it tells them how many feet out from that point the fault is located.

 

[pop pop]

If it services only you, you likely won't be billed. If it services more than you, it should be buried in a right of way they own. If not, you still won't be billed.