DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:

After we closed on our new house, we noticed that several phone jacks were very
shoddily installed -- the previous owners had essentially cut a ragged circular
hole in the drywall, pulled wire through (without a junction box), connected it
to the jack, and tried to screw the jack plate back into the drywall with the
normal screws. Needless to say, one good slam of the door and they fall off the
wall.

In addition, there are a couple that don't work at all.

My questions:

1) I did pay for inside wire service from Verizon to start out with, under the
logic that I want the phone company to fix anything that I find in the first
couple of months in the new house. Will they generally fix botched installations
for free under this kind of plan?

2) If not, any suggestions for fixing these jacks, preferably without butchering
the drywall around them (since the painters are there starting today)?

No clue about #1...never had an inside wiring contract. "Call and ask" is the
best advice I can give ya.

As to #2, you should be able to pick up "old work" junction boxes at any
hardware store, and at least clean up that aspect of the installation. Fixing
the "dead" drops will be a bit harder. If they're truly dead (no voltage on
any of the wires), then a "hound and fox" kit (a little RF transmitter that
attaches to the wire, and a matching receiver) can be used to trace the wires.
A bit spendy, 'tho. Probably easier to just abandon the wires in place and
just run some CAT5 back to the service entrance. Depends on the layout of the
house, of course.