topic Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house in Home Phone

Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

bbakker — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 12:46:31 GMT

I was cutting back some bushes, however the external phone line was exposed and I cut it twice, but not severed it. However, I have no phone or internet now. I assume because of this crisis, you are unable to arrange for an Engineer to come out. Are you able to help or do I have to wait until this lockdown is no longer in place? Shame, because I can no longer work from home now. Stupid thing to do, but it is what it is. Can you help? Many thanks, Brian

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

Bogbody — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:06:07 GMT

Terminal block
Self amalgamating tape or silicone goo?

Not that I would suggest for one moment that you should fiddle with the BT cable... no no no not at all........

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

bbakker — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:11:54 GMT

lol... we tried insulation tape, but that didn’t work... I think I damaged it too much. Couldn’t have timed it better... lol

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

Bogbody — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:18:14 GMT

Someone will need to strip back the cable to fix the cut wires by temporalily connecting them with a terminal block.
Follow the wiiring colours, same colour to same colour.
Then it will need sealing to keep the water out hence self-amalgamating tape or silicone goo.

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

bbakker — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:25:18 GMT

Let me have a closer look at the damage... can’t make it any worse... lol.

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

bbakker — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:32:17 GMT

Cut through at least 2 internal wires in two places... what amp terminal block would it require?

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

Bogbody — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 14:50:34 GMT

A 3A ( 3 amp) or 5A ( 5A ) would be fine.
Any small one really that the wires fit in - nip the screws dont overtighten them, squash and cut the wire. Support the wire so that it cant pull ditectly out of the terminal block.
Its important to water proof the connection or it will soon corrode.

Suggest Screwfix 3A terminal block 25545
Connector junction box
8692H or 54936
Self amalgamating tape 2115V
Use their delivery service 🙂

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

MatthewWheeler — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 19:06:47 GMT

Thanks for getting in touch @bbakker

A large amount of engineering work can be completed outside and often problems can be fixed without an engineer having to enter your property. Where this is not the case, we’ll work with you to get you connected as soon as possible.

Our tests are showing an external issue in this case so we've raised this to our suppliers and we'll update you as soon as we know more

Re: Accidentally cut my telephone line outside my house

bbakker — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 12:05:24 GMT

Thank you for coming back to me on this forum Matthew. You will be pleased to know that we have put in a temporary fix and we are back in the game! I did get it done by someone who had the right tools after a call out on social media and a friend’s husband came out and fixed it for us. However, although the cable now has a box around the join to protect it from the weather, it will probably be better to replace the wire at some point in the future, but that can wait until this thing blows over. Thank you for your support... please keep the ticket open with the external supplier, so that they can come in the future for a permanent fix, but we now have temporary relief and the internet is back on 👍🏻