Hi Tom,

A friend of mine bought a house and one of the things that the home
inspector noted was some wear or damage to the insulation on the
service entrance cable on the outside of the house that runs down
to the meter.

If the only issue is some minor cracking or wear in the service
entrance cable insulation, is there a way to just repair the
insulation? ...

Here are the photos of the two damaged areas on the Service Entrance
Cable:
http://tinypic.com/r/t7jpd5/8
http://tinypic.com/r/wr10eg/8

Just looking at those two photos, it looks like the outer insulation has
deteriorated due to sun exposure. There's no way to tell if the interior
cables have deteriorated also.

In any case, what you have now seems dangerous. You have no physical
protection from weed whackers, mowers, or a stray kid whacking at the house
with something sharp. That exposed cable should really be run inside a
rigid conduit, such as grey PVC.

No matter what tape or other patch you apply to the cable, it's still
vulnerable to physical damage.

The best, and safest, option is to install rigid conduit and replace that
damaged cable.

Do it once. Do it right.

Anthony Watson
www.watsondiy.com
www.mountainsoftware.com