Telecom lines

[sheph]

Hi, 

 

Got a job on three trees where a couple of telephone lines are impeding the work required to reduce the trees.

 

Anyone got any ideas on what I can do with the lines?  Spoke to Openreach and they say I most likely need a survey as well as the charge to take down the line then replace which seem really expensive. 

 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated.

[Marc Lewis]

It used to be about £120 to put lines back up, if brought down, which is alot cheaper than them coming out to take down and put back up. I supose you are doing half the job for them[emoji849]

[htb]

2 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Easiest just to wipe them out with a big limb early doors, saves the bother later on.

Been there and done that, at end of job, splice a new length  in over the break with the Jelly crimps, jobs a good. by the time there is a prob, a couple of years,you will be long gone

[benedmonds]

38 minutes ago, oldwoodcutter said:

Openreach are almost impossible to deal with, and are unreliable at best in dropping lines, which as said, will charge to take down and charge again to put back up. 

Over the last 15 years we have broken lines maybe 5 or 6 times an yet to be charged for them to be repaired. Always told the customer we would pay but yet to get a bill.  The one time I went to great lengths to get a line down they turned up 4hrs later then promised and we had cleared the line by the time they turned up.

 

The incident last week however left a VERY cross neighbour, who is charging me £35 per hour for his time to get it sorted...

[htb]

2 minutes ago, Marc Lewis said:

It used to be about £120 to put lines back up, if brought down, which is alot cheaper than them coming out to take down and put back up. I supose you are doing half the job for them

Now about £350

[Stubby]

We were felling near some lines and we did not touch them . All of a sudden the line went slack !  Thought bloody hell how did that happen ? Went back along the line to find a big old beach on a dodgy bank had just fallen onto the line about a couple of hundred yards from were we were working .  We got the blame to start with but showed them what happened and all was sorted FOC .  It was out in the sticks . Just village stuff .

[htb]

Bet you all looked at each other accusingly

[Stubby]

2 minutes ago, htb said:

Bet you all looked at each other accusingly

Only 3 of us . but it did seem a bit weird to start with . 

[oldwoodcutter]

Over the last 15 years we have broken lines maybe 5 or 6 times an yet to be charged for them to be repaired. Always told the customer we would pay but yet to get a bill.  The one time I went to great lengths to get a line down they turned up 4hrs later then promised and we had cleared the line by the time they turned up.
 
The incident last week however left a VERY cross neighbour, who is charging me £35 per hour for his time to get it sorted...

I meant they will charge you if you prearrange them to come out on a certain day to drop them , then come back later to put up again.
On the rare occasion we’ve busted a line, we ask the householder to call them after we’ve swept up and say innocently my lines gone dead, to which of course they come out free of charge.

[openspaceman]

11 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

Not so sure about newer lines, but it used to be that there's only a couple of wires that actually connect within the house junction box. These sometimes connect with a little gel filled crimp type connector (which are also dead handy to mend a broken line temporarily). Or so I'm told 

Similarly it's a long time since I replaced a wire, 30 years so it may have changed.

 

Firstly there is generally no connection at the pole, the wire is held with spiral wraps each side of the pole. undo a few poles worth and you can lay the wire on the ground, I've never done this but seen it done.

 

If the line goes to a house then again there are spiral wraps that take the tension and the "jellies" that join the wire to the house are a loose loop. In the days of fax machines it was important to connect the wires the same way/polarity. Of course it will cause an ADSL modem to drop out and I don't know if they re connect automatically.

 

If the phone rings when you are holding a bare wire you could get a 70V shock.

[JonnyRFT]

This was a job I really hated. 15 lines from one pole right in the tree. I ended up being pretty brutal to this Whitebeam but it was necessary.