phone cable

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eswets

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I have a customer who wants to have a phone in there garage. There is a raceway with line voltage going to the garage. It goes under a driveway so no way to trench new conduit. He wants me to pull a phone wire with line voltage. I know its against code, is there any way to do this to meet code, or if I did it would I have any interference in the phone. I would use shielded cable. What are you thoughts.
Thanks
 
Re: phone cable

Of course he does. :roll: No way to do this that would meet code. As to interference, it's possible.

How wide is the driveway? You might consider boring under it with a water hose and a piece of pipe with a nozzle on the end. Cheap and effective. I've done it after I got the idea from the water company who used the method to go under a street. Works great unless you hit a large rock. Then just move over and try again.

Make sure that the cable you install is for direct burial otherwise you are wasting your time. Bum some underground service wire off the TELCO. You don't want to run conduit.

-Hal
 
Re: phone cable

hbiss,

Can you explain the hose trick. I have dug a hole at each end of a sidwalk or driveway, and then punded a conduit underneath to get to the other side.

Would be interested in hearing how to do this an easier way.
 
Re: phone cable

I had a similar job...

Where the asphalt butted up against concrete apron at the garage door, I cut a 2in. slot with a rented masonry saw.( use a chalk line to keep it straight) You know, they look like a chain saw with a circular blade. I dug out the gravel, laid in the conduit, and the homeowner was so happy at the lack of destruction to his drive, he filled in the slot with quickcrete himself.
 
Re: phone cable

Just a thought,

I had a driveway i needed to add a post light that was 10 feet wide, I took a drill bit dug enough room so i could drill straight instead of an angel and tied wire to the bit and put the wire through the tip of conduit and pulled them both through the hole.

it took less than an hour and was not a pain at all,

but my circumstance could be different then yours

Jim

Electrical mechanic
Baltimore ,Maryland
 
Re: phone cable

Scott, make a nozzle by drilling a 1/4" hole in a pipe plug. (I think at one time I took a short piece of 1/2" copper tubing, squeezed one end almost flat but not closed and sweated the other end to a male adapter.) Use a coupling to screw this on the end of your pipe or conduit, usually 1/2 or 3/4" works best. Get a MPT to garden hose adapter and screw it onto the other end. You might also want to incorporate a valve here also for easy control. (I have seen kits available commercially with pretty much the same items.)

Now, instead of pounding, turn on the water and let it blast the soil out of the way. Keep working it in and out and move forward a little at a time. When you get the full 10' length in, take the hose off, screw on another and keep going.

I suppose this isn't going to work everywhere in all soils, of course the higher the water pressure the better and it can get messy :D but it beats pounding and munged up threads.

-Hal

[ March 20, 2004, 08:56 PM: Message edited by: hbiss ]
 
Re: phone cable

Buy a line carrier set and in 5 minutes the phone is working. $39 to 49, just plug one set in to any outlet in the garage, and plug the other set near the phone in the house. I have had it here for years, works fine.
 
Re: phone cable

"Buy a line carrier set"

Hehe. Thanks Satcom, don't know why I didn't think of that. :confused: That will work.

Many times when there are wiring problems or the customer just doesn't want to pay for wiring I recommend a cordless phone.

I guess sometimes we get so bogged down with trying to answer the original question that we don't step back and see the big picture.

-Hal

[ March 21, 2004, 05:42 PM: Message edited by: hbiss ]
 
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