No Land Line

[H D]

Just read itybitybob's thread about security cameras and while I can't help there at all, it reminded there is good advice to be had here and he also mentioned not having a land line.



We're looking to build a house Spring '14. We don't have a land line now and can't say that we miss it. We have discussed whether we would have a land line when we build but haven't really come to a resolution and it's not a priority discussion this early. I am leaning toward no land line. Running the line would be expensive and difficult because of our distance from the road and the meandering driveway through the woods. Anybody got some ideas to throw at me? Am I crazy to think we should just rely on cellular?

 

[Robert Thomas]

No problem not having or running a hard line. but if you are building new, I would still wire the house for it.

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

Redfish is correct, definitely prewire if you are starting from scratch. I wire houses for anything from security, stereo, IT, or phones. Get the wires in beforehand because sometimes it's too late. BTW, a friend has Panasonic 2 line house phone with bluetooth and he programmed his and his wife's cell phone to it Whenever his cell rings, he answers it with his house phone.

 

[Richard L]

I agree with everyone else...If you are building a new house, always prewire everything possible.



I bought my new house just over 3 years ago and it was pre-wired for phone, cable TV, and a security system on every door and window along with an internal motion detector. I always wanted a house with CAT5 network installed, but with so many high-speed wireless devices I don't think that is necessary anymore.



The thing that most people overlook is the number and location of electrical outlets, and the location of TV connections. Like my garage has only one electrical outlet on the back wall and two in the ceiling??? One is where the garage door open plugs in, but the other is in the ceiling right above the garage door opening ?? I have no idea what that's for, but I would have preferred to have it in the wall where I could use it.



The construction on my house was completed when I purchased it and it was not until I moved in that I noticed that the TV connection in the living room was on the wrong wall for the way I needed to arrange furniture. I had to pay over $100 to have a TV outlet installed on the opposite wall.



...Rich

 

[H D]

I keep thinking the same thing but I'm just not sure we'll actually use it. I don't know how I'll justify a phone bill, really. I'm pretty cheap. The only thing that really keeps me thinking I should wire in a phone line is for 911 emergencies. For the price, I'd probably rather buy a spare cell phone and keep it plugged in at a central location, lol.



We'll probably wire CAT5 into the office as everything is wireless. My parents wired their whole house with CAT5 when they built and aren't even using it.



We have mapped out electrical outlets all over the place. I am waffling over whether USB outlets at the nightstands are worthwhile.

 

[Bill V]

Not sure from the original post or the responses--are you asking whether you should have a line from the phone company run up to your house? Or are you asking whether you should have the walls of your house wired for phone lines? Or both?



If you're asking whether you should have the line run to your house--if you won't be using it, and if it will cost you significant money to put it in, I'd be tempted to skip it. If at some point in the future, you want to add it (to switch to DSL, for example), the phone company can always come out and bury a line relatively easily (presuming that there's a non-paved route from their access point to your home.



If you're asking whether you should wire the walls of your house for it--If you already are planning to install CAT5/e/6, it will be worth it to add a few more wires to locations where you might like to have a wired phone at some point. This includes running one to the location on your house where the phone company would have their line come into the house should you decide to ever connect with them. My understanding is that you can always take any of those ethernet wires, and connect RJ11 ends to them to make them compatible with phones. Then, as long as you only connect the ethernet cables together and the phone wires together, you'll be set.



That's what we have right now, in a way--we have some of our Cat6 wires connected for wired computer connections, while others are connected for wired phone lines. (Technically, we don't have a landline--but we like to use our home phone handsets, so we have an AT&T Wireless Home Phone unit connected to our Cat6, so all of our home phone handsets are actually using our AT&T cellular plan.) Works great.

 

[H D]

Yeah, sorry, I'm asking whether we should have a line from the phone company run to the house. We are well off the road and even from the road it is a very indirect route to the location of the house and would likely be pretty expensive.



Wiring the house itself is just a matter of how I want it wired considering my father and grandfather are both experienced (although unlicensed) electricians. My father has made a career of wiring F22s, C130s and P3s and wired his own house in 2003 (hasn't burned to the ground yet). My grandfather (maternal) built two of his last three houses but worked his career at Jessup Steel in PA. Men just aren't built like that anymore.



We will probably run cable from my in-laws' house. Not sure how, but we'll probably just splice it. Charter cable wouldn't run the cable to their house until we dug the trench and laid the cable from the road ourselves. Of course, then they were somehow able to find a way to charge for their cable "service" after the work was done.



Perhaps we could do the same with the phone line. I'm not really sure how that works with individual phone lines, though.

 

[Richard L]

Hugh,

Digging trenches for TV and Phone cables is fairly easy. You can even rent small trenching machines and cut a shallow trench to put the cable in. Depending on the distance, you can even do it by hand....the cable only needs to be buried and inch or two below ground level.



All of the utilities are underground here at my new house and I have a Cable TV and phone connection box at the front corner border of my lot near my neighbor's driveway box. When I originally had Time Warner cable installed, they just laid the cable on top of the lawn from the cable box to the connection at the house, and hooked up my TV's. A few days later someone came by with a thin spade and just cut a slot in the sod and poked the cable under the grass roots...of course the distance is only about 40 ft from the cable box by the street to the house. It did not even leave a mark on the grass.



...Rich

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

If you put any wires in the ground, make sure you use 'direct burial' grade. If not, put it in pipe. There are codes that require certain depths for electrical wire, for low voltage, just put it deep enough so it doesn't get cut with a shovel some day.

 

[H D]

Our driveway snakes through trees about 3/4 mi. We have all the implements for the tractors including a trencher. Use it all the time to keep the trenches on the sides of the driveway and paths. Running the trench would take less than a half hour. That's not really the trouble. It's really just the cost of the wire, monthly bill and uncertainty about necessity. I'd usually rather have something than not, but for some reason I can't make my mind up about the phone line.

 

[Bill V]

We will probably run cable from my in-laws' house.

You mean, such that you and they are all on the same cable account together? I wouldn't think that's legal. Or am I completely misunderstanding?



If the trench isn't an issue, and the only question is the cost of the wire, I'd say to go ahead and do it. You never know when you may decide you want some service from the phone company (DSL, phone, or something else that doesn't even exist yet). And although it sounds like you have no plans to move out of the new home anytime soon, I would think that the lack of that wire could be seen as a significant negative if/when you try to sell the place. Don't count the monthly bill in your decision, either way--you can always choose to not have the service, and therefore not have the bill, regardless of whether the wire is present or not.



The trencher on your tractor--is it digging a wide trench that then needs to be filled in? If so, it sounds like drastic overkill. The phone/cable/etc companies just use a slitter which buries the wire a few inches down, with the slit being virtually invisible after the fact. If you're at a point where digging up a bigger trench is still no big deal, then go ahead and do it--but otherwise, I'd find a way to slit it in. Either way, I wouldn't go just an inch or two down--at least try to go far enough down that if you install a sprinkler system (now or in the future), this wire will be below that.

 

[H D]

You mean, such that you and they are all on the same cable account together? I wouldn't think that's legal. Or am I completely misunderstanding?

That is correct, but they won't run a line to us, not even for a big charge. They simply won't do it. Satellite sucks and isn't really an option.

The trencher on your tractor--is it digging a wide trench that then needs to be filled in?

Could do it any size, any depth. We ran cable to the barn from their house at a few inches deep and about 400 yards in distance.



We don't intend to ever sell this house and designed our dream home. I can see the utility in just having it there. I am starting to lean back toward just doing it. Thanks.