Chased phone line into wall, wet plaster over = interference

Hi all,

suppose I wanted to move BT master socket during a house renovation. If I chased the old, yellowed phone cable into the wall, and plastered over, it would be much, much neater.

But if I were to do this, and ended up with a pronounced crackle on the line, might it be the case that a small, unseen nick in the cable, with wet plaster over, could allow moisture into the cable? Is this likely, and if so, any chance it would improve as the plaster dried out?

Also, HYPOTHETICALLY, how illegal is it to move a BT master socket to another room... asking for a friend

It's far more likely that you have damaged the cable internally, especially if it was as old and brittle as you seem to suggest. For the fault to be caused by moisture, the water would have had to get through the outer sheath and then at least two internal cores to cause any sort of short. Sad to say, it's unlikely that the situation will improve as the plaster dries. If you're sure all connections in the master socket are good then I'm afraid it could be time for a new cable.

AFAIK, there's nothing in 'the law', so to speak, to forbid you from tampering with a BT master outlet. It is generally considered bad practice and will be written into your terms and conditions that you should not fiddle with any of the network operator's equipment, but that never stopped anyone! If your fiddling causes problems for other customers then you could leave yourself open to a fine, and if you call BT in to rectify the problem then they will almost certainly charge you through the nose for the work if they find out you've been DIY'ing.

Anything as serious as prosecution is very unlikely unless you do something like sticking 11kV onto the line and blowing up the exchange, but one would assume it's a possible course of action BT could take if they so decided.

And of course, BT are hardly likely to know exactly where it all was in the first place.
It maybe better to use some plastic piping etc in the wall to run the cable through, that way if there is ever a problem it can be changed easily.

I would suggest it is more likelt to be corroded high resistance terminations at the socket or joint.

Could well be a dodgy cable.

Why was the cable not replaced prior to plastering? Dirt cheap it is! Cheaper than string!

cheap telephone cable is pretty cheap and easilly obtained but BT spec cable (which you wan't to use so BT don't know you have been messing arround) can be a little trickier to obtain.

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I'm going to have to dig it out and re-run. Bu88er. I used 4-pair telecoms cable from DIY store.

Lectrician said:

Why was the cable not replaced prior to plastering? Dirt cheap it is! Cheaper than string!

Click to expand...

Yeah.... hindsight's a wonderful thing.... I thought about replacing it, but that would have involved lifting floor in loft, and trying to locate it through the soffits. Seemed more hassle than it was worth at the time, what with everything else going on. Like I say... hindsight!

I guess I'll have to do that now: one step forward, and 2 steps back.

Update: plaster's almost dry, crackle's almost gone. Must be a nick in the cable somewhere. Thanks for lots of great info though folks, 'preciate it.