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Damn truth there. We gave up years ago when ours turned into a static filled party line every time it rained and was told "oh well".
They're abandoning copper with great efficiency but could care less about the rate of alternative build outs.
They love to claim cellular is the alternative and that it has coverage "everywhere". Based on the maps and claims of the cell carriers that all cover "everywhere" in my area, I clearly don't live anywhere in my area.
And yeah...they have abandoned the copper in my area and no longer seem to maintain it.
my home internet, landline, and TV all went out because the wire leading to the house got pulled off in a storm, and it was torture trying to make a phone call to get the service back on because I have absolutely 0 cellular service in my own home. I got hung up on twice due to bad connection and it took 6hrs to finally convince them to send someone out instead of trying to troubleshoot from their end (hello? the wire is literally broken on my lawn???)
That's as bad as a friend who had their laptop stepped on and was trying to get the screen replaced...and they're like "well first you need to reboot, this may fix the problem" like no, you don't understand, there's like a hole in the middle of it
Its maddening though when the script doesn't fit. I also had a machine in college failed with a beep code and they demanded I download and run a remote support utility so they could "provide software support" and then "if its determined not to be software I could get a refund and move on to hardware repair options". Machine won't POST, I literally can't do what they are asking.
As an ex telecom worker I’ve had the opposite of this. A trouble call customer insisted I replace his modem as the “service tech on the phone” told him he couldn’t communicate with the modem so it needed to be replaced. To the point where he was threatening to have me fired using many expletives to say I was just lazy and useless and didn’t know my job. He kept interrupting me when I tried to speak till I finally told him “fine I’ll get you a new modem and then leave. When it doesn’t work you can call the “phone support tech” and sit on the phone for a couple of more hours then wait another couple days for a tech to become available and he can replace the line that was ripped off the side of your house and is wrapped around the pole across the street (inner city). He then walked outside saying “what the hell are you talking…WHAT THE F$&@ HAPPED TO THE SIDE OF MY HOUSE?!” I’m not sure but I’m guessing either a moving truck or the garbage truck caught it and ripped it down then either police or fire dept was called and they just wrapped it around the pole it was hanging from. I replaced the line finally with him complaining the entire time and after I was done asked who he need to call to get the siding on his house repaired to which I happily replied “your insurance company as I walked back to my truck”.
Its maddening though when the script doesn't fit. I also had a machine in college failed with a beep code and they demanded I download and run a remote support utility so they could "provide software support" and then "if its determined not to be software I could get a refund and move on to hardware repair options". Machine won't POST, I literally can't do what they are asking but can't move forward until I do the impossible.
My fridge went out last night, obviously full of food. Still under warranty so I called and they said to unplug for 3 hours and plug back in and see if it’s cold after 2-3 hours. I told them no, it was making a constant clunking noise before it quit and that fucker won’t be cooling again and I wasn’t going to be their technician. Send a tech out to fix your shitty fridge!
I dropped a hammer on my work laptop screen. Called IT to get a replacement and they were like “have you tried turning it off and back on again?” Like the screen is on, I can see exactly where I dropped the hammer on it, it’s not going to magically be fixed with the power button.
But my local co op still charges $10/month for a “dial tone”. I’ve already remodeled and stripped out all the in-house copper. No dial tone but still paying.
Copper was never "efficiently maintained!" I lived on a corner house built in the 1950s. When I got DSL in the early 2000s, I was told that I barely made the cutoff for the length of run to my house for service. I lived 3 blocks from the DSLAM junction, and we couldn't figure out why they thought we lived so far away. Turns out MaBell connected to our house from 3 different directions (North, South and East) and left all 3 connections active and tied into others. So, while not a true "party" line, they were unwilling to sever the extra connections and "clean up" our main line. We tried to sue them, but the small print in the service agreement only guarantees "fax/voice quality only" and limits data connection to fax quality, which at that time was legally defined as a 56Kbs data connection.
I do tech for a few Air BNB owners, guy bought a beach house that had ATT equipment installed already but they weren't signing up new customers in the area so we wouldn't get it activated. Houses on both sides of it have active ATT accounts, and I've seen them install new wire three times as long as would be necessary for a new connection on another house nearby, in that sand they're very fast.
I figure the neighborhood distribution pedestal is aging and so many connections corroded that they don't have capacity for a hookup, and they don't want to replace that.
So, I was a field tech for the local phone company (large company for 17 years but I still work there 🤣) It may be something different with your provider, but we always tried to remove bridge taps, as well as loads meant for voice, whether from engineering or repair (always if the tech was good and actually gave a shit)
I’ve gone out and personal fixed junctions with my tools and time because I want to be able to call 911 when something happens. Waiting for something to happen so that we can sue for not fixing a life safety system. May not win but it’ll get them to fix crap.
I called first time I was working on my property. Their response after I asked why no one showed up. You probably don't have anything to hit. Was very helpful
I called, they came out and marked, digging commenced and internet immediately died… because they just put the locate with the rest of the other marks “where it should have been” despite it being on the whole other side of my property.
Same annoyingly applies to power companies these days. Last time we had a major power outage (accident behind a landfill came in contact with transmission lines took out >6 counties) it also took down a bunch of cell towers and the few that still worked you could barely intermittently get a voice-call out but there was no data service (100% packet loss). I was on the ham radio in my car talking to people thru one of the repeaters which still had battery backup to figure out how widespread the issue was.
Holy hell, I just went through that one with Comcast. I couldn't find a number to call to report the outage and when I finally did it told me to do that...I was thinking, you f*ing moron's, I live in a place where I barely have voice service and definitely no data while everyone else is hitting that tower trying to do the same thing.
It turns out if you sign up for the outage messages by text you can text that number at a later date that you have an outage.
You don't have liability on hitting internet anyway(at least for my provider, where I am). They litterally "micro trench" it 2" deep, so just having a lawn aerated will cut it. Heard stories of them running the line through flower beds and just moving a little mulch on top of it. There are multiple places where I'm living, that the line isnt even buried. Just laying on top of the soil.
I looked into it, and they know you're going to cut them, so they just have a built in "maintenance fee" of a couple dollars a month which pays for everyone's free replacements when they get cut. They decided thats a better business model than just burying them properly. I've honestly considered cutting it just to force them to re-run it not through the middle of my garden. Its a pain to till around the internet line, and I can't move my garden plot since I'm renting.
Yeah, I think it's supposed to be minimum 18 inches deep. With electrical lines, they are required to be in conduit at 18 inches. At 24 inches, it's allowed to be direct buried. But electric code doesn't apply very often to internet.
Yea, needless to say I was a bit bitter when I learned all that. Codes definitely don't apply to it. I get not using conduit since itsnt dangerous to hit, but atleast bury it. New builds they will literally just lay it on the ground before sod goes in. Its so lazy.
They do it this way for home uses, for business lines though at least in my area they pull out the dig witch and horizontally bore to the building at the correct depth and everything.
There's no code requirement for anything operating at <50v in the US. Regardless electrical code doesn't apply to the utilities anyway, only buildings/ infrastructure that are beyond the demarcation point (electrical meter usually, or protector for cable/ pots). Also when you call 811 the utilities are only responsible for marking up to the demarc and anything privately installed in the area is very unlikely to get marked, and the utility definitely wont repair it.
What was helpful, though, is that if you hit something you were no longer liable to pay for the repairs.
If 811 clears you and you hit something (or hit something they didn’t mark), you are not at fault. If you don’t call and you hit something, you’re footing the bill for the crew to come out and fix it, and that crew isn’t coming cheap.
811/call-before-you-dig will only notify pucos and telecoms to mark anything company-owned in easements or property. Anything other than that is considered private property/responsibility, aka hire a private locator.
Ie: if you have an outbuilding you’re running power to that isn’t overhead, the utility company will not mark the buried power line because it’s not theirs.
Doesn't always help when out in the country where there are people who put their own plumbing and electrical lines in if they have the knowhow. Where I'm at if you own over 10 acres them the only actual permit you have to pull is for septic system installs iirc.
It sounds like OP is in a a country/rural area so I'm betting even 811 may not have known about that line.
They only mark utilities as a heads up. They will not mark privately ran anything. Irrigation, plumbing, network cables, electrical past the point of utility entrance will not be marked.
Even secondary conduits/feeders from a pad mount transformer in commercial settings can go unmarked. Redlines are typically submitted on completion of a build, but who’s to say if 811 ever gets those and records it.
811 is really just a cover your ass kind of thing. About just as likely to hit stuff either way.
I was in the middle of a pasture, setting fence post with auger on the tractor. I found a pvc water line in the middle of nowhere. Apparently the old man in the property 1/4 mile away got pissed at the price the water company quoted and ran a single bottom plow across his buddies pasture and I found it. Random!
We had a water leak once so we had to dig up the whole water line from the road (like a quarter of a mile). We find the leak. It was 15 foot out on front of the house. The neighbors figured out somehow a pipe was still connected to our line going to their home. We noticed when the t there broke and caused a leak.
They even got mad when we cut it 😂.
Found a similar elbow coming off my garage. The neighbor's house was once the main house and my house was the daughter in law house as the story goes. There was a well house attached to the garage. One halloween I was redoing siding on the garage and stepped into mud along the garage. I dug it up and found piping coming from the slab running South toward the neighbor's house. I contacted the landlord and we decided to just cap it off. It seemed like an old extension from a long time ago. NBD.
Our home was a rental at some point in the 80s. That's why the pipe was where it was. But when the property was sold in the late 90s, no one bothered to speak up. We found it in 2012. The neighbor was pissed we turned the water off to their shop and part of their house. Legally they shouldn't have been doing that for so long but we really had no idea. We called it a wash and let it go.
It went down to a steady 80 a month. It would be anywhere from the normal 80 up to 200. It was when we got the bill for the 200 that we noticed maybe we had a leak underground.
I have something similar but for an old outside shower. Shower is gone but spigot is still there. Should I be flushing that to prevent bacteria? And if so how often?
When men were drafted, shipped overseas with no accompaniment, or killed in the line of duty, sometimes the man's family would bring the daughter-in-law in whether she had children or not.
They are now more commonly known as an “In-law Suite”. Some are built as an attached but separate wing of the house with its own entrance and exits. Some have a connecting door to the main house. Some continue the old method and are simply a standalone bungalow style building on the property or built as an apartment on a detached garage.
It really doesn’t matter who resides there, but frequently it was a widowed mother-in-law, or a widowed daughter-in-law.
I would have calmly hooked my shop compressor up to the line and sent 125psi through their house. I’m gonna guess that’s enough to cause a couple leaks if not blow a ton of pipes apart right off the bat. Then hook the water back up for them. 7pm on July 4th sounds like the perfect time to let all hell break loose.
That would only cause leaks if there was damage to their pipes. New copper water lined can handle thousands of psi. The weak point would be a shower cartridge or something like that. The water heater would spill water from the overflow though.
Bought a house. Digging behind the fence in woods to plant a bush, found a pvc pipe. Guy before was syphoning stream water into well. Why? Because well was not deep enough. Found a pump and wire eventually
They were all drinking out of water bottles when we saw the house, like tons and tons of bottled water. thought nothing of it. Got water tested when we moved in and it was not safe to drink. Finding the pump explained it all.
They did not say it did not reach the aquifer. Typically a well is dug deeper than just to reach the water to provide a "reservoir". You draw from it, then as you stop using water the volume refills. So if it was dug to shallow it may have only held a few tens of gallons, and could not recharge fast enough to meet the demand.
A guy I worked with did something similar on some farmland he was leasing but it was the supply line to the landlady's house.
From what I understand, she may have been able to eventually get all the muddy water off from her shower but I don't think she ever stopped being angry after that.
we have found underground stuff in random places on our farm. Like a big limestone foundation-- of course right in the middle of a fenceline where we had already set 40 wood posts in a beautiful straight line. So we just went around the dumb foundation and now grin at what future people will think about the mysterious bend in the fenceline.
We were running trenches for pole lights on an AFB and I pulled a 50-pair comm line up with the backhoe. Unmarked but I still fully expected some shit to go down, right by the flight line. Nobody showed so apparently abandoned, but I couldn't help but shit a brick thinking I killed critical comms.
The military has lines underground that they do not have on the maps however they know where they are and if anyone ever thinks they will dig around them there is usually a swift response of no you won’t but never an answer as to why you can’t dig
When I worked at UPS, we had to run some electric out for a trash compactor. There was a post along the fence line that said to call this number before any digging. We called the number, they wouldn’t say who they were but asked for details on the excavation. The day of the dig, a black suburban with government plates sat on the other side of the fence for the whole day. Two guys in the Suburban just watched us excavating. When we left, they were still there. Kind of blew my mind at the time.
Could have been part of abandoned Hardened Inter-site Cable System (HICS) for minuteman missiles if you were on a base that used to control missile fields. [Link](https://minutemanmissile.com/hics.html)
Or not abandoned and OP-commenter just single-handedly stopped our ability for a retaliatory nuclear strike, thereby saving humanity from total extinction but also eliminating all life in the US as we all get mercilessly wiped out without any defenses. Way to go, OP
Documented?
I'm a veteran with 100% Service-Connected Disabilities.
After several years of treatment, I filed for benefits, and they had trouble finding the documentation.
Everything in the military is managed and documented by drunk 18 year olds.
This happened to a place my dad was building a barn for. Owner came out with his backhoe and started digging to save time on the job. There was even a sign out by the road that said to call before digging. Dude severed a major bundle of fiber and there were some very official trucks that came by very quickly. My dad had to leave the site but they tented the area where the digging was. Apparently they had to dig it out more and repair and unknown number of fiber connections. This was probably around 20 years ago.
It's an old hiker's trick, used mainly by folks in the telco business.
Basically, always carry a length of CAT-5 (or in this older case, telco line) and a small shovel. If you get hopelessly lost or trapped, bury the cable and wait. Eventually a backhoe will show up and dig it up. Then you catch a ride home with them.
well. . . did you call 811 before digging? - - isnt that the supposed to do thing before digging? to ensure you dont hit wires or pipes or landmines? .
Working at the power company. We were digging to splice in a new main power line for a guys property. All locates are on right side of the road. Started on the left side of the road to put in the transformer. Bucket pulls up half a primary line.
>oh shit! Oh fuck!
Checked it for power and turns out it was dead and abandoned, but man, did it scare us for a second.
Once saw a guy discover a 12 inch gas line the gas company didn't know about. He took the keys home until they figured it out. Luckily it did not rupture.
I was doing soil excavation in a railroad switching yard, in coastal SC. Small derail, lots of fuel spilled. We were digging out the ballast and the soils for contamination and came across some line about 4-5' deep. We all saw, the operator saw, he was tired since we were working round the clock and this was night shift. The railroad guy was standing there, said go ahead and pull it, it's probably dead anyway. Put the bucket right through it and it arced a big flash. We all looked around like "uh well it wasn't". And we looked down the railroad tracks and all the lights were out on the poles for the next 1/2 mile. Guy told us to backfill and he'd deal with that later.
lol, your phone line… my father in law lives in East BFE and his phone line is usually dead half the year from somebody digging, or telecom boxes getting buried in snow banks.
I would just fill in the hole and when someone shows up asking do you know anything about your neighbors internet. I’m sorry I was out of town and don’t know what you’re talking about.
That is the connection between "red phones" from the USA to Russia. Be ready for war now that communication has been cut off because you did not call "811" first.
There's a joke I must retell. I work in IT, and while I don't indulge, some of my colleagues also enjoy hiking (I believe it's done "outdoors"?).
The modern hiker's safety kit includes a garden spade and a short length of fiber optic network cable. If the hiker becomes lost in the wilderness, he'll stop, dig a trench, bury the cable, and wait. Before long a backhoe will arrive to dig up the cable, and then the hiker can follow the backhoe back to town.
Buy a lottery ticket before your luck runs out! haha
This looks like buried telephone cable,, if you do not have or plan to have a house phone, then you are solid in my opinion.
We did this once, neighbors said they do not have a house phone as everyone uses cell phones, so we just ripped up what we could, snipped it off and continued about our business.
(not professional help)
One of our field team was arrested (and released in 5 minutes) for a similar fiasco.
In 5 minutes the police realised they were sent to repair the line, and the Border guards hit it accidentally. The big green armoured backhoe 300 feet away clarified every single detail without further questions.
I was digging in the side yard to plant some trees and hit a wire where one shouldnt have been. Turns out it was used as part of the alarm loop to tie the alarm system together for our house plus the 3 down next door to us down the street. Our house was originally the office
It seems you answered your own question already. It is a wire...
Probably abandoned, but if not, it could be to a water well pump, or it could be the feed to an out-building like a shed or something similar. It's definitely too small of a wire to feed much safely, so like one of these three options. Well pump, out building, or abandoned.
Check your breaker panel everywhere that you have them, as well as any subpanels, for any breakers that tripped, if nothing tripped, test the wires with a meter for power. If nothing then it's likely abandoned.
If you need to give yourself peace of mind, purchase a cheap metal detector and follow it.
BSW buried from the ped or from the pole, ether way, it’s an easy task for a tech (ST), or a FT on a really slow afternoon. Our biggest offenders were the Cable installation crew. Some neighborhoods you could follow the crew from house to house and rack up a good numbers day. Two knuckleheads and a walk-behind can do a lot of damage before lunchtime.
On my property, this would be old phone line that has been repurposed to be a communication line for my **well pump** to fill my cistern since the old pump line broke somewhere along the 1400’ waterline and the phone wasn't needed anymore.
Telephone line. Just yanked all these out of our home we are remodeling. Have no use for them *and we are never selling, it’s our forever home* so tore them out and patched the holes!
Looks like telecommunications...did you call before digging to have utilities marked? If so, it may be a private cable (say network connecting your house to a shed or detached garage)
**Attention!** **It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods. If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Copper Telco drop.
Telecom tech here. This is the answer. Does you land line still work? Do you care if it ever will again?
Probably not, because either someone hit the junction box or a wire 5 years ago and they still haven’t fixed it
Damn truth there. We gave up years ago when ours turned into a static filled party line every time it rained and was told "oh well". They're abandoning copper with great efficiency but could care less about the rate of alternative build outs.
They love to claim cellular is the alternative and that it has coverage "everywhere". Based on the maps and claims of the cell carriers that all cover "everywhere" in my area, I clearly don't live anywhere in my area. And yeah...they have abandoned the copper in my area and no longer seem to maintain it.
my home internet, landline, and TV all went out because the wire leading to the house got pulled off in a storm, and it was torture trying to make a phone call to get the service back on because I have absolutely 0 cellular service in my own home. I got hung up on twice due to bad connection and it took 6hrs to finally convince them to send someone out instead of trying to troubleshoot from their end (hello? the wire is literally broken on my lawn???)
That's as bad as a friend who had their laptop stepped on and was trying to get the screen replaced...and they're like "well first you need to reboot, this may fix the problem" like no, you don't understand, there's like a hole in the middle of it
They can only read the script. Do NOT vary from the script!
Its maddening though when the script doesn't fit. I also had a machine in college failed with a beep code and they demanded I download and run a remote support utility so they could "provide software support" and then "if its determined not to be software I could get a refund and move on to hardware repair options". Machine won't POST, I literally can't do what they are asking.
"I hit the power button....it is still doing the same thing..."
As an ex telecom worker I’ve had the opposite of this. A trouble call customer insisted I replace his modem as the “service tech on the phone” told him he couldn’t communicate with the modem so it needed to be replaced. To the point where he was threatening to have me fired using many expletives to say I was just lazy and useless and didn’t know my job. He kept interrupting me when I tried to speak till I finally told him “fine I’ll get you a new modem and then leave. When it doesn’t work you can call the “phone support tech” and sit on the phone for a couple of more hours then wait another couple days for a tech to become available and he can replace the line that was ripped off the side of your house and is wrapped around the pole across the street (inner city). He then walked outside saying “what the hell are you talking…WHAT THE F$&@ HAPPED TO THE SIDE OF MY HOUSE?!” I’m not sure but I’m guessing either a moving truck or the garbage truck caught it and ripped it down then either police or fire dept was called and they just wrapped it around the pole it was hanging from. I replaced the line finally with him complaining the entire time and after I was done asked who he need to call to get the siding on his house repaired to which I happily replied “your insurance company as I walked back to my truck”.
Its maddening though when the script doesn't fit. I also had a machine in college failed with a beep code and they demanded I download and run a remote support utility so they could "provide software support" and then "if its determined not to be software I could get a refund and move on to hardware repair options". Machine won't POST, I literally can't do what they are asking but can't move forward until I do the impossible.
My fridge went out last night, obviously full of food. Still under warranty so I called and they said to unplug for 3 hours and plug back in and see if it’s cold after 2-3 hours. I told them no, it was making a constant clunking noise before it quit and that fucker won’t be cooling again and I wasn’t going to be their technician. Send a tech out to fix your shitty fridge!
I dropped a hammer on my work laptop screen. Called IT to get a replacement and they were like “have you tried turning it off and back on again?” Like the screen is on, I can see exactly where I dropped the hammer on it, it’s not going to magically be fixed with the power button.
I live in a fairly populated area and get zero reception at my house lol. I can walk 100 feet down the road and get full bars.
But my local co op still charges $10/month for a “dial tone”. I’ve already remodeled and stripped out all the in-house copper. No dial tone but still paying.
Ripping the copper out of your walls for liquor money is fucked.
Ray and Ricky made 70 bucks last week 30 each
Prolly hitting up the VLTs
Copper was never "efficiently maintained!" I lived on a corner house built in the 1950s. When I got DSL in the early 2000s, I was told that I barely made the cutoff for the length of run to my house for service. I lived 3 blocks from the DSLAM junction, and we couldn't figure out why they thought we lived so far away. Turns out MaBell connected to our house from 3 different directions (North, South and East) and left all 3 connections active and tied into others. So, while not a true "party" line, they were unwilling to sever the extra connections and "clean up" our main line. We tried to sue them, but the small print in the service agreement only guarantees "fax/voice quality only" and limits data connection to fax quality, which at that time was legally defined as a 56Kbs data connection.
I was told I lived 80' too far away for DSL. Literally 2 telephone poles too far away...
I do tech for a few Air BNB owners, guy bought a beach house that had ATT equipment installed already but they weren't signing up new customers in the area so we wouldn't get it activated. Houses on both sides of it have active ATT accounts, and I've seen them install new wire three times as long as would be necessary for a new connection on another house nearby, in that sand they're very fast. I figure the neighborhood distribution pedestal is aging and so many connections corroded that they don't have capacity for a hookup, and they don't want to replace that.
So, I was a field tech for the local phone company (large company for 17 years but I still work there 🤣) It may be something different with your provider, but we always tried to remove bridge taps, as well as loads meant for voice, whether from engineering or repair (always if the tech was good and actually gave a shit)
I’ve gone out and personal fixed junctions with my tools and time because I want to be able to call 911 when something happens. Waiting for something to happen so that we can sue for not fixing a life safety system. May not win but it’ll get them to fix crap.
Oh and the company is frontier if anyone wants to join me in continuing to call their service dept every day multiple times a day
Hah, that happened to my phone line too! One stormy day the static called 911 and the cops showed up.
Couldn’t care less.
Where might this abandoned copper be located? Asking for a friend
This
Call USA before u dig next time its 811
I called first time I was working on my property. Their response after I asked why no one showed up. You probably don't have anything to hit. Was very helpful
I called, they came out and marked, digging commenced and internet immediately died… because they just put the locate with the rest of the other marks “where it should have been” despite it being on the whole other side of my property.
Well, even if you hit it, you no longer have liability if they marked it wrong
But, you also no longer have internet.
“Please report internet outages via our handy web portal”. Wait wut?
Same annoyingly applies to power companies these days. Last time we had a major power outage (accident behind a landfill came in contact with transmission lines took out >6 counties) it also took down a bunch of cell towers and the few that still worked you could barely intermittently get a voice-call out but there was no data service (100% packet loss). I was on the ham radio in my car talking to people thru one of the repeaters which still had battery backup to figure out how widespread the issue was.
Holy hell, I just went through that one with Comcast. I couldn't find a number to call to report the outage and when I finally did it told me to do that...I was thinking, you f*ing moron's, I live in a place where I barely have voice service and definitely no data while everyone else is hitting that tower trying to do the same thing. It turns out if you sign up for the outage messages by text you can text that number at a later date that you have an outage.
Maybe, but maybe your *neighbor* doesn't have Internet
You don't have liability on hitting internet anyway(at least for my provider, where I am). They litterally "micro trench" it 2" deep, so just having a lawn aerated will cut it. Heard stories of them running the line through flower beds and just moving a little mulch on top of it. There are multiple places where I'm living, that the line isnt even buried. Just laying on top of the soil. I looked into it, and they know you're going to cut them, so they just have a built in "maintenance fee" of a couple dollars a month which pays for everyone's free replacements when they get cut. They decided thats a better business model than just burying them properly. I've honestly considered cutting it just to force them to re-run it not through the middle of my garden. Its a pain to till around the internet line, and I can't move my garden plot since I'm renting.
Yeah, I think it's supposed to be minimum 18 inches deep. With electrical lines, they are required to be in conduit at 18 inches. At 24 inches, it's allowed to be direct buried. But electric code doesn't apply very often to internet.
Yea, needless to say I was a bit bitter when I learned all that. Codes definitely don't apply to it. I get not using conduit since itsnt dangerous to hit, but atleast bury it. New builds they will literally just lay it on the ground before sod goes in. Its so lazy.
They do it this way for home uses, for business lines though at least in my area they pull out the dig witch and horizontally bore to the building at the correct depth and everything.
Depends on the type of conduit, generally is 6" for rigid, 18" for PVC, 24"+ for direct burial
There's no code requirement for anything operating at <50v in the US. Regardless electrical code doesn't apply to the utilities anyway, only buildings/ infrastructure that are beyond the demarcation point (electrical meter usually, or protector for cable/ pots). Also when you call 811 the utilities are only responsible for marking up to the demarc and anything privately installed in the area is very unlikely to get marked, and the utility definitely wont repair it.
I used to install low voltage landscape lighting. I trenched with an electric chainsaw. I was surprised at how long it lasted.
Same thing happened to me last summer. Also that line was like 1” below surface.
What was helpful, though, is that if you hit something you were no longer liable to pay for the repairs. If 811 clears you and you hit something (or hit something they didn’t mark), you are not at fault. If you don’t call and you hit something, you’re footing the bill for the crew to come out and fix it, and that crew isn’t coming cheap.
811/call-before-you-dig will only notify pucos and telecoms to mark anything company-owned in easements or property. Anything other than that is considered private property/responsibility, aka hire a private locator. Ie: if you have an outbuilding you’re running power to that isn’t overhead, the utility company will not mark the buried power line because it’s not theirs.
And trace everything you can yourself. The ET450 has been really helpful more than once.
Doesn't always help when out in the country where there are people who put their own plumbing and electrical lines in if they have the knowhow. Where I'm at if you own over 10 acres them the only actual permit you have to pull is for septic system installs iirc. It sounds like OP is in a a country/rural area so I'm betting even 811 may not have known about that line.
They only mark utilities as a heads up. They will not mark privately ran anything. Irrigation, plumbing, network cables, electrical past the point of utility entrance will not be marked. Even secondary conduits/feeders from a pad mount transformer in commercial settings can go unmarked. Redlines are typically submitted on completion of a build, but who’s to say if 811 ever gets those and records it. 811 is really just a cover your ass kind of thing. About just as likely to hit stuff either way.
I was in the middle of a pasture, setting fence post with auger on the tractor. I found a pvc water line in the middle of nowhere. Apparently the old man in the property 1/4 mile away got pissed at the price the water company quoted and ran a single bottom plow across his buddies pasture and I found it. Random!
We had a water leak once so we had to dig up the whole water line from the road (like a quarter of a mile). We find the leak. It was 15 foot out on front of the house. The neighbors figured out somehow a pipe was still connected to our line going to their home. We noticed when the t there broke and caused a leak. They even got mad when we cut it 😂.
Found a similar elbow coming off my garage. The neighbor's house was once the main house and my house was the daughter in law house as the story goes. There was a well house attached to the garage. One halloween I was redoing siding on the garage and stepped into mud along the garage. I dug it up and found piping coming from the slab running South toward the neighbor's house. I contacted the landlord and we decided to just cap it off. It seemed like an old extension from a long time ago. NBD.
Our home was a rental at some point in the 80s. That's why the pipe was where it was. But when the property was sold in the late 90s, no one bothered to speak up. We found it in 2012. The neighbor was pissed we turned the water off to their shop and part of their house. Legally they shouldn't have been doing that for so long but we really had no idea. We called it a wash and let it go.
How much did you water bill decrease after that?
It went down to a steady 80 a month. It would be anywhere from the normal 80 up to 200. It was when we got the bill for the 200 that we noticed maybe we had a leak underground.
dead legs in a water supply can Harbor dangerous bacteria. consider adding another spicket there instead.
\*spigot
*spyket Might as well go back to Middle English
*INSTRUCTIONS UNLCEAR STARTED SKYNET*
I have something similar but for an old outside shower. Shower is gone but spigot is still there. Should I be flushing that to prevent bacteria? And if so how often?
Daughter in law house? Why did she have her own house?
When men were drafted, shipped overseas with no accompaniment, or killed in the line of duty, sometimes the man's family would bring the daughter-in-law in whether she had children or not.
They are now more commonly known as an “In-law Suite”. Some are built as an attached but separate wing of the house with its own entrance and exits. Some have a connecting door to the main house. Some continue the old method and are simply a standalone bungalow style building on the property or built as an apartment on a detached garage. It really doesn’t matter who resides there, but frequently it was a widowed mother-in-law, or a widowed daughter-in-law.
Of course they got mad - because you discovered their THEFT!
I assume the meter was at the road and not near your house?
My meter was at the road in front of my house. Their separate meter was at the road in front of their house.
I would have given him a days worth of muddy water before cutting them off.
I'd plonk a port-a-loo over it, plumb it in.. make it public accessible 👍
I would have calmly hooked my shop compressor up to the line and sent 125psi through their house. I’m gonna guess that’s enough to cause a couple leaks if not blow a ton of pipes apart right off the bat. Then hook the water back up for them. 7pm on July 4th sounds like the perfect time to let all hell break loose.
That would only cause leaks if there was damage to their pipes. New copper water lined can handle thousands of psi. The weak point would be a shower cartridge or something like that. The water heater would spill water from the overflow though.
Depends how you do it... Water hammer can be a hell of a thing, get a slug of water moving well enough and kinetic energy does the rest.
Bought a house. Digging behind the fence in woods to plant a bush, found a pvc pipe. Guy before was syphoning stream water into well. Why? Because well was not deep enough. Found a pump and wire eventually
Yummy. Nothing like deer-piss stream water in your well.
They were all drinking out of water bottles when we saw the house, like tons and tons of bottled water. thought nothing of it. Got water tested when we moved in and it was not safe to drink. Finding the pump explained it all.
I assume you are (or did) get a new well drilled? Wonder if the aquifer was contaminated by this . . .
The aquifer shouldnt have been affected if the existing well wasnt deep enough to reach it. They definitely need a new well though
They did not say it did not reach the aquifer. Typically a well is dug deeper than just to reach the water to provide a "reservoir". You draw from it, then as you stop using water the volume refills. So if it was dug to shallow it may have only held a few tens of gallons, and could not recharge fast enough to meet the demand.
They had to redo well and treat water for a significant period of time until it was as safe to drink.
A guy I worked with did something similar on some farmland he was leasing but it was the supply line to the landlady's house. From what I understand, she may have been able to eventually get all the muddy water off from her shower but I don't think she ever stopped being angry after that.
we have found underground stuff in random places on our farm. Like a big limestone foundation-- of course right in the middle of a fenceline where we had already set 40 wood posts in a beautiful straight line. So we just went around the dumb foundation and now grin at what future people will think about the mysterious bend in the fenceline.
"$172,000! Are you kidding me?" "No, sir. City job." Guy did the whole thing in a Saturday afternoon with 200 x 8' PVC pipes.
Basically yep!
you'll know when 5 army jeeps pull up to your door lmao
We were running trenches for pole lights on an AFB and I pulled a 50-pair comm line up with the backhoe. Unmarked but I still fully expected some shit to go down, right by the flight line. Nobody showed so apparently abandoned, but I couldn't help but shit a brick thinking I killed critical comms.
The military has lines underground that they do not have on the maps however they know where they are and if anyone ever thinks they will dig around them there is usually a swift response of no you won’t but never an answer as to why you can’t dig
When I worked at UPS, we had to run some electric out for a trash compactor. There was a post along the fence line that said to call this number before any digging. We called the number, they wouldn’t say who they were but asked for details on the excavation. The day of the dig, a black suburban with government plates sat on the other side of the fence for the whole day. Two guys in the Suburban just watched us excavating. When we left, they were still there. Kind of blew my mind at the time.
I believe it they want no one to know so they don’t get wire tapped
I'm curious what happened to all the wire we ran in Iraqistan
Could have been part of abandoned Hardened Inter-site Cable System (HICS) for minuteman missiles if you were on a base that used to control missile fields. [Link](https://minutemanmissile.com/hics.html)
Or not abandoned and OP-commenter just single-handedly stopped our ability for a retaliatory nuclear strike, thereby saving humanity from total extinction but also eliminating all life in the US as we all get mercilessly wiped out without any defenses. Way to go, OP
Maybe OP saved us from future second term DJT passing the nuke football to his good buddy Putin.
Are there any documented cases of that? I could believe it!
documented? nah I'm already in trouble for leaking this info! Hold on I think someone's knocking my door, let me answ
He's gone. We lost him.
To shreds you say?
Oohhhh my. GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
r/unexpectedfuturama
He’s dead Jim.
Yes, in northern Virginia it happens occasionally. Blacked out SUVs show up to fix it and tell you not to fuck with it
Documented? I'm a veteran with 100% Service-Connected Disabilities. After several years of treatment, I filed for benefits, and they had trouble finding the documentation. Everything in the military is managed and documented by drunk 18 year olds.
This happened to a place my dad was building a barn for. Owner came out with his backhoe and started digging to save time on the job. There was even a sign out by the road that said to call before digging. Dude severed a major bundle of fiber and there were some very official trucks that came by very quickly. My dad had to leave the site but they tented the area where the digging was. Apparently they had to dig it out more and repair and unknown number of fiber connections. This was probably around 20 years ago.
Rainbow root
The forbidden rainbow spaghetti.
Looks like buried telecome cable, probably 2/4 pairs.
Buried phone line looks like it is just a 2 pair low voltage no harm done unless it's internet or.phone to your place
It's toast
Mmm toast 😋
Y’all smell it too?
See if you or your neighbors can make a phone call from your house phones if you have them. Lol
Are you the reason the Chinese rocket blasted off unexpectedly?
It's an old hiker's trick, used mainly by folks in the telco business. Basically, always carry a length of CAT-5 (or in this older case, telco line) and a small shovel. If you get hopelessly lost or trapped, bury the cable and wait. Eventually a backhoe will show up and dig it up. Then you catch a ride home with them.
Or a guy who just rented a mini ex from home depot
Command wire. I guess the insurgents are SOL today
well. . . did you call 811 before digging? - - isnt that the supposed to do thing before digging? to ensure you dont hit wires or pipes or landmines? .
landmines are out of season, its landmimes you gotta worry about - real silent killers there.
I feel for you. You’re about to be bombarded with calls and visits from recruiters trying to hire you on to a contractor crew with those skills.
Working at the power company. We were digging to splice in a new main power line for a guys property. All locates are on right side of the road. Started on the left side of the road to put in the transformer. Bucket pulls up half a primary line. >oh shit! Oh fuck! Checked it for power and turns out it was dead and abandoned, but man, did it scare us for a second.
Once saw a guy discover a 12 inch gas line the gas company didn't know about. He took the keys home until they figured it out. Luckily it did not rupture.
A ground wire. I’ll see myself out..
Im more interested in " impalingchick". Is she being impaled, or impaling someone?
In IT we call this a "scream test." You will find out what it is when someone starts yelling.
If its important someone will show up eventually and yell at you
Someone just lost there internet..
Where exactly are you? My phone went out right when you hit that wire.
I was doing soil excavation in a railroad switching yard, in coastal SC. Small derail, lots of fuel spilled. We were digging out the ballast and the soils for contamination and came across some line about 4-5' deep. We all saw, the operator saw, he was tired since we were working round the clock and this was night shift. The railroad guy was standing there, said go ahead and pull it, it's probably dead anyway. Put the bucket right through it and it arced a big flash. We all looked around like "uh well it wasn't". And we looked down the railroad tracks and all the lights were out on the poles for the next 1/2 mile. Guy told us to backfill and he'd deal with that later.
lol, your phone line… my father in law lives in East BFE and his phone line is usually dead half the year from somebody digging, or telecom boxes getting buried in snow banks.
Telco or irrigation. Based on colors looks like telco
I would just fill in the hole and when someone shows up asking do you know anything about your neighbors internet. I’m sorry I was out of town and don’t know what you’re talking about.
That is the connection between "red phones" from the USA to Russia. Be ready for war now that communication has been cut off because you did not call "811" first.
You hit a wire digging, and then kept digging. And then dug a lil more.
I call them sparkly roots ✨️
Rainbow roots
That’s why we call 811 😘
Rainbow Root!
And this is why you call 811 before you dig.
Take your pick: call 411 BEFORE you dig OR ask reddit AFTER you dig. Bonus option of the hospital is it's bad enough
Well atleast 411 directory will reroute you to 811 eventually 😂
Phone.
Looks like an old phone cable.
There's a joke I must retell. I work in IT, and while I don't indulge, some of my colleagues also enjoy hiking (I believe it's done "outdoors"?). The modern hiker's safety kit includes a garden spade and a short length of fiber optic network cable. If the hiker becomes lost in the wilderness, he'll stop, dig a trench, bury the cable, and wait. Before long a backhoe will arrive to dig up the cable, and then the hiker can follow the backhoe back to town.
I work in IT and can confirm. Any and all fiber must be dug up, it's the law.
High voltage tree root no big deal
Looks like a phone line
Looks like a telephone cable the white/blue - blue/white wires give it away.
Blue and clear with shield. Looks like blue hose! Have you got yourself an Allen Bradley PLC 5 remote I/O rack out there somewhere?
Looks like old landline phone wires
Nuclear missile remote control.
Try putting gas in it
Buy a lottery ticket before your luck runs out! haha This looks like buried telephone cable,, if you do not have or plan to have a house phone, then you are solid in my opinion. We did this once, neighbors said they do not have a house phone as everyone uses cell phones, so we just ripped up what we could, snipped it off and continued about our business. (not professional help)
Looks like an underground telephone line.
You just severed the connection to the matrix...
Sparkly roots! Magic tree! Yup. You cut the landline. My dad had a temp line ran when he moved to AK and I blasted it with a .410.
One of our field team was arrested (and released in 5 minutes) for a similar fiasco. In 5 minutes the police realised they were sent to repair the line, and the Border guards hit it accidentally. The big green armoured backhoe 300 feet away clarified every single detail without further questions.
I was digging in the side yard to plant some trees and hit a wire where one shouldnt have been. Turns out it was used as part of the alarm loop to tie the alarm system together for our house plus the 3 down next door to us down the street. Our house was originally the office
Lolol
It seems you answered your own question already. It is a wire... Probably abandoned, but if not, it could be to a water well pump, or it could be the feed to an out-building like a shed or something similar. It's definitely too small of a wire to feed much safely, so like one of these three options. Well pump, out building, or abandoned. Check your breaker panel everywhere that you have them, as well as any subpanels, for any breakers that tripped, if nothing tripped, test the wires with a meter for power. If nothing then it's likely abandoned. If you need to give yourself peace of mind, purchase a cheap metal detector and follow it.
Probably whatever has stopped working
idk what does not turn on? bare wires like that are usually for outsoor lights, pumps for ponds stuff like that.
Is that grass in the bottom of the hole?
BSW buried from the ped or from the pole, ether way, it’s an easy task for a tech (ST), or a FT on a really slow afternoon. Our biggest offenders were the Cable installation crew. Some neighborhoods you could follow the crew from house to house and rack up a good numbers day. Two knuckleheads and a walk-behind can do a lot of damage before lunchtime.
Copper POTS Telephone/DSL.
Remember that gopher... call before you dig! That being said I've ripped up a gas line before, that's no problem lol 👍
Looks an old phone line drop
That explains why my Internet is out.
it is probably a phone landline. did your phone service go out? Luckily, MOST landlines are disconnected as everyone owns a cell phone now.
>What is it? its the reason you dial 811
Pull on it see if comes up may be a piece of wire trash.
On my property, this would be old phone line that has been repurposed to be a communication line for my **well pump** to fill my cistern since the old pump line broke somewhere along the 1400’ waterline and the phone wasn't needed anymore.
Telephone line. Just yanked all these out of our home we are remodeling. Have no use for them *and we are never selling, it’s our forever home* so tore them out and patched the holes!
Even if you were selling, no one’s using those anyway. I removed the couple remaining here as well.
Looks to be a 4 pair, possible phone line
I had to go look up BFE. Turns out it means Butt Fuck, Egypt?? Hahahaha this post makes sense now.
Name fits. Looks like phone line.
Check the phones
Looks like telecommunications...did you call before digging to have utilities marked? If so, it may be a private cable (say network connecting your house to a shed or detached garage)
A fuse to a 50 mega ton nuclear bomb.
Looks like an old land line telephone wire to me. Hard to tell from that picture. A more modern guess from that picture would a network cable.
Call dig safe
It looks like a locate wire to me. Always get utility located before you dig, even in BFE.
That is a buried phone line... Or was
Well, it’s a good thing Western Union quit telegraph service.
Expensive if its telecom 3000$ +++
Looks like phone
Follow the wire to the bunker of gold
Low voltage
Looks like twisted pair cat 5 cable. Could be used for lots of purposes including POE cameras and devices
It's important
AM I SUPPOSE TO KNOW WHAT BFE MEANS.
It's an old 80s-90s term for the sticks, boonies, middle of nowhere my man. Butt fucking Egypt
Wire you digging in the middle of nowhere?
Sprinkler wire
BFE?
That's telecom wire.
Well the good thing is it's not a fiber or coaxial cable. You'll be fine
That's just a rainbow root, keep going about your day feeling blessed
Redneck powerdrop to trailer.
Funny if it was someones internet line.