How to Install a New Phone Line

In new house construction or after a remodelling job, it can be necessary to install a new phone line. The phone company will take care of bringing their line to your house. You may have to pay a fee for this. It is your responsibility to run a line from the phone company’s box to the desired location in the house. This is a job that you could hire out for completion. If you choose to do it yourself, you will be surprised at how easy it is to install a phone line.

Like any job, it is important to decide several of the details ahead of time. Things like where you want your phone to be located inside the house need to be in place before you start. Plan out the best route for the wire to travel from the phone box to your phone or phones. You may want several phones on the one line. Most of the time, this is the case.

You do not need too much to do this job. It requires a flat and a Phillips screwdriver or these bits for your drill. Really, it is a good idea to have both the hand drivers and the bits. You need a good cordless drill with about a 3/8 bit that is long enough to penetrate the side of your house. Grab a decent hammer, too. You could need it. This job may require pliers. Go for both a standard pair and some needle nosed. Finally, some type of wire stripper is required. Get a tape measure, too. A final tool would be a piece of stiff wire like a wire clothes hanger.

Measure the distance from the phone company box to your inside phone. Head to the hardware store or home center to buy supplies and any tools that you lack. You will need enough phone wire to reach from the box to your phone or phones. Acquire 20 or so more feet of wire than your measurements unless you only needed 5 feet. Buying two-pair or 4 wire is a minimum. This gives you stronger wire and an extra wire or two in case one fails at some point in the future.

Buy one phone jack for each phone your plan to install on this line. If you will be running this line in a basement, under a house, or along an exterior wall, buy appropriate fasteners to stabilize the wire along the run. Plan on one about every two feet. These fasteners can be either screws or nails. You will also need some form of wire staples for interior runs. Buy some clear silicon sealant to close the area around the wire where it enters your house.

Drill you hole at the point where you want the wire to enter the house. This should be as near as possible to where the first phone jack will be installed. Push the stiff wire or unfolded clothes hanger through the hole while leaving about as much inside as outside. Use the pliers and make small hook on one end that will be able to pass through the hole. If needed, just bend the wire all of the way back on itself. This should be perhaps an inch long.

Remove a couple of inches of the outer coating from the 4 wire phone wire. Twist the wires around the hanger above the hook. Keep this nice and smooth so that it will fit through the opening. Go inside the house and pull the hanger with the wire attached through the hole. Pull in as much wire as you need to do the job inside. Leave enough outside to reach the phone company box but very little more.

Stretch the wire along the base board to the location of the first phone jack. Open the jack so that the screws inside are exposed. Cut the wire to the right length. Strip the insulation from the red and green wires and loop them around the red and green screws, respectively. The wire will be fed through the back of the jack. Cut off the other two wires flush with exterior coating or just wrap them around the wire on the outside. When the jack is wired, screw it to the wall.

To extend the wire to another jack, strip the end of the cut off portion and attach it with the first set of red and green wires. Using wire staples, anchor the wire to the wall or the baseboard from the point where it entered the house to the first jack. Using the simplest route possible, run the wire from room to room until all of the jacks are installed. You may find it more convenient to buy extra wire and make multiple runs from the phone company box instead of having all of that wire running all through the house.

Once all of the jacks are installed. Go outside and use the fasteners to anchor the wire to your exterior wall right up to the phone box. Open the phone box. Thread the wire into the box. Attach the red and green wires to the matching screws. Close the box and attach any additional fasteners that may be required to make a clean looking job.

Use the silicon to seal around all of the wires passing through the walls of your house. You can use this on the inside of the house if you want and need to do so. You should be able to plug in your phones. If you have your service turned on, your phones should be ready for use.