anyone cut through a BT cable underground?

[Matthew Storrs]

Seriously?

If they can't be bothered to bury it properly and mark its presence it is their lookout. I wouldn't pay that's for sure.

TBH in remote places they must be used to it, happens regularly to my line. (not due to me I hasten to add) and never heard of anybody having to pay.

Not much chance of fibre optic on a remote moor either.

 

I know I would say this being faced with having to pay out for it but I couldn't agree more, everyone knows that all sorts of things happen in fields so why bury it so shallow, even a drag harrow might have pulled it up or if it was very wet tractor tyre ruts could have churned at it.

[codlasher]

I broke one. It was quite a thickie too. I was pushing up some brash, from a dangerous tree that we had felled, into a field and thought it was a root. The old county tractor put on a bit of power and I carried on.......It turned out to be a BT cable that was just laid in the dirt of the gateway.

 

This was well before digital cameras so no pictures but I had the farmer on my side and the engineer saw just how shallow the thing was and we never had to pay the £160 charge that MAY have been levied if the contractors had done a proper job.

 

So; Take some clear pictures of just how shallow this cable was and remember the magic figure of 450mm which is the usual minimum required depth for most 'services'. You may be lucky......I hope so!

 

Five years after my root incident BT closed this section of road and buried the cable in a proper chain-trenchered trench.

 

I still have a CAT scanner 'just in case'!! Worth its weight in £'s

 

codlasher.

[Peasgood]

If they threaten to charge you just refuse to say which post hole it was

[hedgesparrow]

if they do it to utlitie spec which they do not it should be 18inches in a tube down on sand and covered in sand so if digging you see the sand. if its 6inches get a tape out and measure it. stick to your guns and refuse to pay. let the insurance fight them. its not to the proper spec so they are at fault for putting it in wrong.

had this with BT digging out a ditch they had just laid it along side of ditch not even buried pulled it up. and buried it under the spoil. left them to sort out if it did get damaged. there all the same have all these specs which they want you to adhere to and do what they want.

[Matthew Storrs]

Yes a CAT scanner is something I'd like to have. Just been doing research on line, it isn't a fibre optic cable just a small copper one, still i'l try the 450mm tact!

Good call on the pictures. Open reach are meant to be coming tomorrow, I will ask them to detect the rest of the line before I go knocking the rest of the stakes in I think!

[mrstumpy]

I recently popped a BT cable in a clients property. I was asked to do a surface level grind on stumps. Scanned the area (as always) found the cable thought no more of it.... until those tell tail pieces of shredded armoured cable appeared The cable had been repaired in the past and not sufficiently buried.

 

During many conversations the response from the minimum depth requirements was 'It should be a minimum depth of 4 inches!' As I was at surface level I refused to pay the £120 they required for applying a few connectors.

[bigdave]

i have dug through a `couple` (cough 20 ish? cough) over the years all have been very shallow & i have always stuck to my guns!

i have always taken lots of photos & photographed the tape from surface to the cable!

and i have never parted with a penny

 

its not a fibre optic cable but if you do ever dig through a fiber-optic cable never look down the end of the cable as it can affect your eye sight & has the possibility of making you blind!

 

the engineers can also repair fiber optic cables & dont have to re run the whole lenght!

 

a few years ago i cut off a whole village by digging through a large bundle of fiber optic cables in my defence i was digging in a friends field & the cables should not have been there at all they were not on any plans or deeds for the land! and they should have been more than 6 inches below ground! i did not have to pay this time either!

[Peasgood]

If it is only 6" deep it is more than likely that it never was buried.

BT armoured cable is very often referred to as "self burying".

[AlexB]

Doesn't look like fibre optic to me, its 8 bits of copper wire . Ah well, these things happen, when working around houses I'd check for services, but this was such a random spot down near a river I didn't give it a thought.

 

If its copper try n splice it yourself, you never know....

[j warwick]

Not to sure there is a specified depth of cover on private property. Doubt very much it will be a fibre cable more than likely just a simple couple of pair cable. Can you not joint it yourself using decent connecters. I did mole plough a lot of BT cables in rural areas years ago we only put it 10 inches down even shallower on a Friday afternoon or weekend!!