Installing Telephone Extension

[sanjayp]

I apologise if this is the incorrect forum but it's unclear to me where else it should be posted.

Anyway, my main telephone socket comes into the house at the side directly into my downstairs landing. On the outside of the relevant wall there is a small grey BT box. I assume this is normal. Now, I wish to also have a telephone socket in an upstairs bedroom which also functions as my office. I don't simply want to run an internal extension from the downstairs socket all the way round door frames etc. I would prefer it if the extension ran from the BT box around the outside of the house, and into the bedroom where there would be another wall mounted telephone socket. I rang BT and they quoted me £110 to put an extension in. Would an electrician be able to do this work (maybe for less since i imagine it's an hours work) or do you have to get a BT person? Is it a simply DIY job?

thanks
sanjay

 

[JohnD]

There will be a certain amount of clambering about on ladders and drilling holes the way you describe it, I'm surprised (if BT realise that) they will do it so cheaply; and the wire will have to start at the existing "Master" socket, not at the grey box.

Would you consider a cordless phone, and save yourself the trouble of running wires?

An extension socket and cable you can run yourself if you want to.

 

[Krayol]

BT tend to quote a fixed price for any work like this. I once had a BT engineer for 5 hours for an extension in a particularly difficult 4-storey house.

This extension sounds much simpler though. Connections from the master socket to a new extension are pretty easy these days - just a 4-wire push fit, and the circuit is protected (so long as you don't alter the master socket itself).

Personally, I'd do it myself: 2 small holes through the wall (one near the master socket, one near the office), a run of 4/6 core telephone cable tacked neatly to the outside wall, a new extension socket screwed inside, and a bit of sealant in the holes to keep the damp out. Total cost maybe £20 depending on the run length + a couple of hours on a ladder).

You might be able to get someone else to do it but I doubt that you would shave too much off the BT price, and IMX BT tend to be pretty neat and tidy. DIY (if you are comfortable with ladders, drills and simple wiring) or BT IMHO!

 

[mo2]

or you could get a wirless telephone socket extender, plug one end in your master socket and the other end in bedroom/office

 

[securespark]

a run of 4/6 core telephone cable tacked neatly to the outside wall

make sure it's external-rated cable, though, in black, not white.

 

[sanjayp]

or you could get a wirless telephone socket extender, plug one end in your master socket and the other end in bedroom/office

The point of the exercise was not to use the current socket because the wife wants to put a bookcase infront of it (so that it is as flush to the wall as I can get it. Also, I have ADSL on the same line (via wireless router) so i'm not sure whether a socket extender would work with that.

One of my current problems is that I have no electricity supply near the current master socket so I can't have a wireless phone unless I run a power extension from a long way which makes the whole thing look ugly. Hence one of my reasons for having an extension in into my upstairs office which I can use as my master socket as there is power nearby. I can then have an wireless handset downstairs as it doesn't need to use the old master socket in the hallway.

sanjay

 

[sanjayp]

Personally, I'd do it myself: 2 small holes through the wall (one near the master socket, one near the office), a run of 4/6 core telephone cable tacked neatly to the outside wall, a new extension socket screwed inside, and a bit of sealant in the holes to keep the damp out. Total cost maybe £20 depending on the run length + a couple of hours on a ladder).

one of the reasons for connecting the new cable via the BT plastic box instead of the internal master socket was that I could remove the old master socket that is no longer in use and use the newly installed upstairs socket as the master. Thanks for all you advice. I think it may be easier to use BT for this one as I want the the job to look neat and tidy! Also if I have problems in the future, BT can't use my alterations as an excuse!

sanjay

 

[Dippy]

If you can't or won't do it yourself, then go for BT. I have a lot of experience with BT, and although I can fault their management - BT is one of the worst managed companies in existence - I cannot fault their engineers and I have met a lot.

Yes they operate on a fixed price basis. On a lot of jobs you pay 110 quid for someone to make a simple patch at the exchange. But if they have to dig up the road and run hundreds of metres of cable you still pay the same. It's something you accept.

I was one of the first adopters of ADSL, so my installation took a lot of time and effort and I was glad of this. Then when I needed a second line and I had run all my own cable, I was annoyed to pay the charge. However I have moved again recently and to reinstall the second line the engineer needed to do a lot of work outside the house and along the road, so again I was glad of the fixed charge. Over a long period of time it seems to be a fair charge.