Underground cabling?

[Mojooo]

Wonder if anyone can help

I am currently digging up my front lawn to relay it - the height of it will have to go down a few cms.

We have hit some cabling which I think might be NTL/Virgin Media cabling as it goes to the front of the house sort of near the cable entry point - equally it could be electricity??????

It is light green plastic (presuably the actual cable is inside)

Any thoughts?

[johna]

Pretty sure its virgin, we got the same thing, but be carefull tho!

[sherman]

Cut it.

If your TV/Internet goes off its the Virgin line.
If you fly half way across the garden then its the mains power.

(It is most likely the virgin line as its never that far below the ground. )

Edited by sherman on Monday 3rd May 01:27

[tegwin]

If the cable IS as you say, only a few cm below the surface across the lawn... cut it..... then get whichever retarded moron who laid it back in to do a proper job and bury it properly at atleast a foot!

[kazste]

Hope this isn't too late. DO NOT CUT IT I cannot stress enough how expensive repairs can be and if you just cut it then ask for a repair you will almost certainly be charged, whereas if you ask for it to be moved it will almost certainly be free.
I work in the electricity field and this is how we deal with it. Plus don't forget whilst it doesn't sound like an electric cable if it is an unusual heathing bein used you could get badly injured. Call up the likely source and get them out.

[sneijder]

Woosh indeed.

[FamilyGuy]

Buy a cheap "wire and pipe finder", preferably one that makes a different sound when the cable is live, and check it out. If it's live then it'll be power, if it doesn't register or doesn't show as live then it's probably Virgin. I'm pretty sure there's a minimum depth for power cables. (18"?)

[TomE]

You need to contact virgin and ask for the plant protection team. Whatever you do don't touch the thing as if there are any issues in the future, you will be landed with a hefty bill as fibre optic isn't cheap!!

Did you come across any tape buried in the ground just above the duct? If so this may give you somemore info as to who it belongs to if not virgin.

Edited by TomE on Monday 3rd May 08:25

[TomE]

I've just had a quick check and green is definitely virgin plant so you will need to speak directly with them, moving it can end up being a long process though in my experience.

Edited by TomE on Monday 3rd May 08:26

[normalbloke]

TomE said:

I've just had a quick check and green is definitely virgin plant so you will need to speak directly with them, moving it can end up being a long process though in my experience.

Edited by TomE on Monday 3rd May 08:26

Green is the industry standard for a comms duct.I am 99% sure it is the green convoluted micro ducts that were originally laid but by C+W,who then were NTL and then Virgin.
They often used to bury them a few cm down.They were almost always installed sub standard.
You can verify this in a few ways( if you don't have any RD equipment or GPR) Outside your boundary there is usually a small metal cover with CATV written on it( good clue),open it and the same green duct should be visible coming into it.Somehwere on the side of your house will be the point that your CATV cable comes up.Have a little grub around under it with your fingers or a trowel and again you should see the end of the green micro-duct.Then,get an assistant to tap the micro duct(where it is exposed in your lawn) with something like a screwdriver and put your ear to the duct under where it comes up to the house, or if not practical, put your ear to the CATV cover in the street.The noise will travel very well along the duct.Utility surveying is what I do.
Failing that just rip it out and call Virgin, blaming the pikeys......

Good luck

[kazste]

There s no real minimum depth, there are guidelines but due to soil movement no minimum depth would be guarunteed. Easiest way to deal with it is as said before call virgin ask for them to come out with plans. Not worth the risk of assuming it's dead after tracing as could be q very costly mistake

[southendpier]

0870 888 3117. virgin media call them, based in basildon. cable location is what i do too.

[SJobson]

TomE said:

You need to contact virgin and ask for the plant protection team. Whatever you do don't touch the thing as if there are any issues in the future, you will be landed with a hefty bill as fibre optic isn't cheap!!

So Virgin run fibre optic cables to the house, do they?

[TomE]

SJobson said:

So Virgin run fibre optic cables to the house, do they?

I'm on my iPhone so I can't do a get my coat smiley sadly!

[andy43]

Doesn't look like this does it?

[Mojooo]

It does seem to be a Virgin media cable

It was put in by Cable and Wireless and must have been around 1994ish.

3 pictures show

1) The cable connecting to the box at the front of the house

2) The cable in the middle of the area that will be grassed

3) How far we have lowered the turf to discover it.

I suppose the burning questions are

a) if I remove the rest of my turf can I just bury the cable deeper myself? I wonder if it will have the slack?

b) We are no longer Virgin customers, will they still attend. I have a feeling that part of the cable will go over an area I need to dig down deeper to lay a patio style path.

c) How long will this take to resolve? I need the area ready to work on ASAP.

edit, here are the pics
http://img263.imageshack.us/g/img1760z.jpg/

Edited by Mojooo on Monday 3rd May 15:05

Edited by Mojooo on Monday 3rd May 15:36

[Gareth79]

If you don't get any luck with Virgin and you aren't currently a subscriber then I would say disconnect it in the wall box and lay the free cable back whatever depth you want it, and seal the plug end with silicone to stop water getting in. If you (or anybody) needs to subscribe in the future it can probably be extended to the wall box, as long as you remmeber where the cable is!

I'm not sure about the legalities of doing this, I doubt Virgin will care as long as you don't short-circuit the connection or connect it to the mains. I think there might be issues re. having an open-ended cable on the network, I think it needs a terminator on the end to prevent interference. If you can leave a small hole with the free end of the cable that would help if they want to send somebody to seal it up, or add an extra couple of feet to take it to the wall box.

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 3rd May 15:36

[bimsb6]

normalbloke said:

TomE said:

I've just had a quick check and green is definitely virgin plant so you will need to speak directly with them, moving it can end up being a long process though in my experience.

Edited by TomE on Monday 3rd May 08:26

Green is the industry standard for a comms duct.I am 99% sure it is the green convoluted micro ducts that were originally laid but by C+W,who then were NTL and then Virgin.
They often used to bury them a few cm down.They were almost always installed sub standard.
You can verify this in a few ways( if you don't have any RD equipment or GPR) Outside your boundary there is usually a small metal cover with CATV written on it( good clue),open it and the same green duct should be visible coming into it.Somehwere on the side of your house will be the point that your CATV cable comes up.Have a little grub around under it with your fingers or a trowel and again you should see the end of the green micro-duct.Then,get an assistant to tap the micro duct(where it is exposed in your lawn) with something like a screwdriver and put your ear to the duct under where it comes up to the house, or if not practical, put your ear to the CATV cover in the street.The noise will travel very well along the duct.Utility surveying is what I do.
Failing that just rip it out and call Virgin, blaming the pikeys......

Good luck

green is standard for virgin/ntl /cabletel NOT industry standard, BT duct is grey

[bimsb6]

the grey box on the house end looks to be a BT box so you may have both cables using the same route (unusual) if you are not on virgin ,cut it away there is no problem with doing this duct does not need sealing neither does the cable end .tbh it's unusual for ntl to use ducting on the entire route usually they put a bit either end incase the job gets audited .

[Mojooo]

right

there are 2 green plastic things going under ground.

they both start from the same place

1 of them goes to that box i mentioned, which is the phone entry point in our house

the other one seemed to go to where the entry point for our old Ntl/Virgin cable TV aerial thingy came in but it seems to be cut off at both end swith no wiring.

I THINK that there might be a wire going around the house from the first wire where it goes to the telephone inside the house and then goes around the utside of the house to the TV entry point.

I thought BT wires came in from the poles on the street which branch off to every house?