Moving a BT socket

[Shabbychic]

Does anyone know how much it would cost to have my main BT socket moved? I tried phoning BT but as usual they have a queue.

[Jeemag_USA]

Knowing BT or any other phone company they will charge an arm and a leg. I am a telecom engineer and its pretty easy to do providing you don't have a difficult house. Is your existing jack wired on the the outside of the wall or inside the wall, by that I mean does a wire from it run around the house tacked to the skirting board, or does it run inside the drywall. Are you in a modern council house or newly built house or are you in an old house?

Your telephone only uses two wires, or one pair of wires as they say. One wire is for 'tip' and one for 'ring', the tip is always first and ring second. If the original instaler used old JK wire the tip will likely be red and the ring green. If they used more modern Cat5 wire it will depend on their standard or preference, Cat 5 has four pairs of colored wire, and the first pair in sequence is White/Blue and Blue, the one with white is always the tip wire. Some people use the White/Orange and Orange though, there is also a green and a brown sequence with white too. Most companies will use four pair wire now because you can use each pair to add extra lines or two line phones for example.

Telcom wiring is really easy to do, if you can find some wire or have enough existing wire you might consider moving it yourself and saving a heck of a lot of money. If you have any questions I can help.

[Shabbychic]

Thanks Jeemag.

I live in an old house. The main wire enters the house in the lounge where there is a little box thing. Then a wire from that goes into the wall and comes out in the hall where the socket is. All I want to do is bring the socket back into the lounge.

[ashaw1]

I too used to work for BT and i agree they will charge you a fortune that's if you can actually persuade them to come out. Have you considered a d.i.y extention kit it is a lot less messing about ? You can buy them in Homebase, Argos and other d.i.y shops. If you start messing about with the main BT line coming into your house and damage it they will charge you to repair it. An extention kit just plugs into your main socket then you tack the cable to the wall, it still looks quite professional.

[hails4]

think it costs 90 quid if i remember correctly!

[Jeemag_USA]

Thanks Jeemag.

I live in an old house. The main wire enters the house in the lounge where there is a little box thing. Then a wire from that goes into the wall and comes out in the hall where the socket is. All I want to do is bring the socket back into the lounge.

All you should have to do is clip the wire at the jack in the hall and pull it back through the wall. Open the jack in the ahll and see how it is wired. Put the jack back in the lounge where you want it and use the wire you pulled back from the hallway and take it to the new position and wire it back up. You can get U-nails and just tack the wire along the skirting board and paint to make it look less obvious. U-Nails are like a small nail with a U shaped plastic clip on each one to hold the wire down.

Alternatively you can leave the jack in the hall and just run a new extension off the junction box in the longe. When you open it up your existing wires shoudl be held down by screw nuts, just loosen the screw nuts and put your new extension wire down on top and then put the new jack close to that and wire it up, you should be able to buy extension kits at Woolies or any good electrical store like Bain and Gibson or something (if it still exisits, I been out of Caithness for quite a while)

[_Ju_]

Does anyone know how much it would cost to have my main BT socket moved? I tried phoning BT but as usual they have a queue.

Or get an extension....?

opss...should have read the thread before posting

[engiebenjy]

If I remember rightly, it would be at least £115 plus vat. Best to call though and check. That's also what you would be charged, minimum, if you put an extension in yourself and made a mistake and broke something.

[Bobinovich]

I have to agree that, while it would be neater just to shorten the cable from the wee box to the socket, it's probably safer to simply run an extension kit back into your sitting room.

However shop around for an extension kit - I'm sure the 99p shop opposite Woolies in Thurso does a cheap kit, but you can pay upwards of £10 - £15 in Woolies & Alacam for a similar one!

[Ricco]

Thanks Jeemag.

I live in an old house. The main wire enters the house in the lounge where there is a little box thing. Then a wire from that goes into the wall and comes out in the hall where the socket is. All I want to do is bring the socket back into the lounge.

Hi, Shabbychic. You cannot do anything to the wire from outside and that first socket it connects to - BT will go ballistic if you do. However, my understanding is that you can do anything from that point on. Get yourself and extension kit from any good DIY store - there will be a connector that goes into your hall socket... take your cable through to the lounge and that is where you can fix the new telephone point.

[bothyman]

Hi, Shabbychic. You cannot do anything to the wire from outside and that first socket it connects to - BT will go ballistic if you do. .

I changed the box that the outside wire comes into myself, I never touched it at all but everytime BT came to sort a fault they opened the box and eventually all the screws broke so they crimped the wires together they would not change the box (It was that old it had GPO on it) .
I asked why they did not change it and they said it was my responsibility even though it was BT that broke it.
It seems anything that is in the house is your responsibility they only bring in the bare wire they do not supply the connection box so its up to you to sort the rest of it out.

[Tristan]

One thing to remember is the first box is a master box and it is different than the others which are slaves.

[Moonboots]

Theres a few ways it can be done but the best way is what jeemag said.

I suggest!!!!

Remove the Master Socket from the hallway and replace it with a slave.
Add on a new wire from the junction box and put this into the master socket.
The other wire which is the one from the hallway. Just wire it into the master socket by using the faceplate connection.

I know its a long way round but then you will have the master in the lounge and an extension in the hallway if you ever need it.

[Kirdon]

Theres a few ways it can be done but the best way is what jeemag said.

I suggest!!!!

Remove the Master Socket from the hallway and replace it with a slave.
Add on a new wire from the junction box and put this into the master socket.
The other wire which is the one from the hallway. Just wire it into the master socket by using the faceplate connection.

I know its a long way round but then you will have the master in the lounge and an extension in the hallway if you ever need it.

Not trying to pick fault but if you do it this way you will need a third wire from the master connected throught to the slave on terminal 3 to get the slave to ring correctly. Also if you have Broadband this way of "star" wiring can cause problems Hope this helps.

[Chris Cormack]

Hi

I spoke to BT 2 weeks ago about moving a socket and they said it would £165 to move my socket about 1ft what a price.

[JAWS]

Shabbychic, just get a long plug-in extension and run the wire back into the lounge. That's the simplest method and there's very little to go wrong doing it that way. All you have to do then is secure the wire out of the way so you don't fall over it. That's if you don't feel too confident about DIY and connecting the wires up the right way.
If you do decide to do a bit of DIY then the kits usually have easy to follow instructions and a small suitable tool for connecting the wires easily.

[darkman]

How about not moving the master socket yourself as it is illegal and if you make a mistake, (I doubt they would take legal action) but they would charge you a fortune to put it right.
Maybe if you could get a qualified bt engineer to shift it as a homer that would be a better option.

[Moonboots]

Not trying to pick fault but if you do it this way you will need a third wire from the master connected throught to the slave on terminal 3 to get the slave to ring correctly. Also if you have Broadband this way of "star" wiring can cause problems Hope this helps.

Im sorry but you must have misunderstood me.

I did not say to set it up by a star but as a daisy chain off the master.

SOCKET WIRING

BT LINE ------ MASTER SOCKET ------- SECONDARY SOCKET

--------------- 1 ----- GREEN/WHITE ---------- 1 -------

A ------------- 2 ------ BLUE/WHITE ---------- 2 -------

--------------- 3 ----- ORANGE/WHITE --------- 3 -------

--------------- 4 ----- WHITE/ORANGE --------- 4 -------

B ------------- 5 ------ WHITE/BLUE ---------- 5 -------

--------------- 6 ----- WHITE/GREEN ---------- 6 -------

Hope this helps.

This will not have any problems with ADSL.

Regards
Paul

[angela5]

I too used to work for BT and i agree they will charge you a fortune that's if you can actually persuade them to come out. Have you considered a d.i.y extention kit it is a lot less messing about ? You can buy them in Homebase, Argos and other d.i.y shops. If you start messing about with the main BT line coming into your house and damage it they will charge you to repair it. An extention kit just plugs into your main socket then you tack the cable to the wall, it still looks quite professional.

After BT saying it would cost £169.00 to move my phone socket i opted for the d.i.y extension kit from argos for £13. I ran the cable up the wall into the attic then down to my sons room and fitted the phone point onto the bedroom wall, looks professional enough.