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Posted by Art Todesco on August 21, 2005, 5:05 am
In Illinois it is against the law for a
contractor or home owner, that is digging
on the property, to NOT to call the
Joint Utilities Locating service. They,
then
have all of the individual utilities
come out and mark the area where cables,
pipes,
etc. are buried. If someone cuts a
cable and didn't have the stuff marked, they
are liable and there may be fines imposed.
Jeff Wisnia wrote:
> meirman wrote:
>
>> The neighbor's contractor cut my phone line
>>
>> Is soldering and taping good enough for an outdoor phone line repair?
>>
>> Or should I have the phone company come and do it according to its
>> standards?
>>
>> I don't want to get stuck paying later, when the contractor is long
>> gone and maybe the neighbor too.
>>
>>
>> The neighbor's contractor was working right at the property line and
>> cut my phone line. I found him with the 4 wires stripped from each
>> end, and he was wrapping the wires together, and going to use wire
>> nuts and electrical tape.
>>
>> I stopped him and soldered the connections, used his wire nuts for
>> some reason, and then used stretch tape (I think it is called silicon
>> tape) which normally gives a much better seal, afaict. But I don't
>> really know how long the tape lasts. The splice is two inches above
>> the dirt, and would look better covered with dirt (which I guess they
>> didn't do, because I had complained that just wrapping the wires isn't
>> good enough for an underground connection.)
>>
>> All 4 of my solders were good. No possible cold solders.
>>
>> The neighbor himself suggested I call the phone company, and that he
>> would pay. The woman at the repair office won't tell me how much they
>> charge for this until the repairman comes out. And then I will have
>> to pay for the service call. The woman admitted a lot of people don't
>> call them, of course.
>> I don't want the neighbor or even the contractor to pay if my repair
>> is good enough, but if I don't get him to pay now, when it breaks
>> later, the contractor will be long gone, and maybe my neighbor too.
>> And I'll have to pay.
>>
>>
>> (The contractors didn't cut a buried wire. They knew the wire was
>> there and one was holding it out of the way, while the other used a 4-
>> or 5-foot rod to jab at the cement left in the ground from a fence
>> post. He hit it several times before he cut the wire. :) ) They
>> should have used a rod that they held in place, and hit it with a
>> sledge or something, instead of moving the whole 5 foot pole, right?
>>
>> (FWIW, they also didn't tell me they had cut my line, didn't apologize
>> when I found out (I was 15 feet away and on the ohter side of bushes,
>> but I heard one talk to the other), didn't tell me they were going to
>> "fix" it or when, and I was going to call the phone company when I
>> went outside again to do a temporary repair, and saw that they had
>> started their repair. I don't think they planned to tell me at all
>> that they had cut it.)
>>
>> Thanks.
>
>
> From the way you describe the repair I think it should hold up fine for
> quite a while. as long as it stays above ground.
>
> If it was me, I would have slid an appropriate diameter piece of heat
> shrink tubing about 6" long onto the jacket on one side of the break,
> made the four staggered in line soldered splices each covered with heat
> shrink tubing, and then slid the larger heat shrink tubing back over
> those four joints and over the outer jacket of the wire on the other
> side of the splices and shrunk it in place. That should last as long as
> the original wire itself, particularly if it's not buried.
>
> But then, I'm anal about those kind of things.
>
> Jeff
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