anyone cut through a BT cable underground?

[dan494]

ntl (virgin now) were the worst for not burying cables, hit one with a saw that was just threaded through a conifer hedge I was taking out a few years back, luckily only nicked it and managed to repair myself with some electrical tape from the tool box

[Jesse]

Putting up a stock fence today at a remote houseon the moors in a field about 100m from the house, put the post auger down with the digger and went straight through an armoured bt cable- bliming typical. Anyone know roughly what open reach charge to put it back together? Various people on the web have suggested figures anywhere between 60 to a grand.

The cable was only 6 inches down, personally think if they must lay cables in a field they could at least put it deep enough so you could actually plough if you wanted if not put it overhead:confused1:

 

OK, worth doing a bit of research, look up BS 6701:2010 I am thinking that if the cable was not installed to the requirements or specifications of the standard then you can not be held accountable, BS 6701:1994 Code of practice, puts it at 450mm in cultivated ground, 350mm om paths and driveways, and with suitably armored cable , the new standard is BS 7671:2010 (i think) well worth looking up or even buying, also try BSen 50174 series, hope this helps, your first letter or email should reference the standards which apply s. good luck.

[Matthew Storrs]

Cheers for all the replies chaps,

Good call on the BS. I'm not sure if this would be defined as cultivated land, but its a moorland field enclosure and could be ploughed is so desired.

I did think about joining myself it looked simple enough, but knowing my luck I'll end up shorting something so I'all leave this one to the pros. Plus it gave me little electric shock every time I touched the wire:laugh1:

Last year I was doing a bit of augering and I went through a water pipe which I fixed myself but right next to it was a massive mains electrics which the auger must have been pretty much brushing:blushing: hindsight tells me I was a bit gungho on that job, but this ones was just bad luck.

[Goaty]

Let us know how it goes Matt, I did water electric and sewage in one with a 6inch auger earlier in the year. It cost me a few quid for collars and water joint. Then £60 for electrician to do armoured cable repair.

[Woodcrafter]

I hit one with a stump grinder once it was a street tree I was grinding out and it wasn't clear who the cable belonged to I thought I'll just bury it and pretend that I knew nothing about it and then I thought nah it'll come back on us so I went and bought some telecom connecting blocks from a b&q and fixed it, gave it a mega wrap of electrical tape buried it as deep as possible.

Never heard a thing. Ta daaa

[Jesse]

Let us know how it goes Matt, I did water electric and sewage in one with a 6inch auger earlier in the year. It cost me a few quid for collars and water joint. Then £60 for electrician to do armoured cable repair.

 

BS Standards are your best protection together with a camera and tape measure for a back ground scale of any photos, thats the great thing about this country, British Standards, if you are hitting under ground services a reference to the relevant document clearly specifying any measurements of actual depth and BS specified depth should get you out of the poo if the tolerances are in your favor.

[david wood]

bt are a nightmare, after an event at work we hired in somebody with a solid corer on back of tractor to decompact lawns. day or two after that phones went a lil loopy, turns out bt cable was barely an inch down so corer hit it like 100 plus times.

 

much to and fro and from memory we didnt pay for repair, seems should have been a tad deeper than below turf

[forestgough]

Had a double bad blow at my sons house by hitting a gas pipe with a spade whilst digging post hole,panicked and phoned gas board.Lads arrived and told me it was going to ruin me,turned out to be an uncharted dead end and I never got a bill.Sad thing was we could have tapped it off and had free gas for life if I had stopped and thought.

[likeitorlumpit]

We went through a ductile iron gas main on a fencing job. It was buried 3 feet deep- don't know what the BS was but we got the bill:001_smile:. You could smell it 20 yards away

[DannyCane]

They don't have to be dug into the ground because if you was to cut through them they arnt harmful enough to kill you , just a small shock even when stood in a puddle , will be expensive fix and they won't be in a hurry to fix it .

 

 

 

Ohhh but they take your money quick enough

 

 

Dan Cane