How to Add a Telephone Extension | |
Since the telephone business has been deregulated by the government, you have many more choices of telephone services. One is to own your own phone. Hardware stores and home centers devote walls of merchandising space to display phones, along with every conceivable part and tool required for their successful installation. You're encouraged to do it yourself; if you don't your local phone company charges you to do the work. It's not like it used to be. Before all the changes in the communication business, installation and repair work was inexpensive because it was subsidized by the other company revenue, but not today. The going rate is at least $50 to $100 to have an extension phone installed. Installing an extension phone isn't difficult and there is little danger from electrical shock working with phone lines. All the necessary, adapters, wire, and tools are inexpensive and readily available. Rather that give specific instructions on how to run an extension phone wire from point A to point B we'll focus on what tools, adapters, connectors and wire to use. Then we'll suggest ideas about how to run and conceal the wire so it's a professional-looking job. Armed with this information, you can be your own telephone man (or woman). Telephones last a long time, so unless you live in a new house or have had your phone system completely upgraded in the last 10 years chances are at least part of your phone system is old. Older systems do not accept modern modular wiring devices, but it is a simple task to convert one because the basic 2 wires needed to run a phone haven't changed much in the last 75 years. Most hardware stores and home centers carry everything you need to wire up an extension phone. But before you can go shopping for the right adapters, wire, and tools you have to do some preliminary scouting of your phone system. What follows is how to determine the type of adapters you need and ways to run the extension wires. Job one is to decide where you want the new extension phone and where the nearest working phone is to that location. There is really no best location for an extension phone, it's wherever the phone works best for you. Find the nearest existing phone that doesn't have to be in the same room. It might be a phone on the other side of the wall in an adjoining room. Since phone wire does not carry high voltage or heavy electrical currents, it can be safely hidden behind door, window or floor moldings, under carpet, fished through walls, run under the house or though the attic. You might find it easier to fish phone wire through a wall into a closet from another room rather than run the wire completely around the perimeter of a room. Next figure out how to tap into the nearest telephone line. If the phone is hooked up to a newer type modular phone jack, then your job is an easy one. Modular jacks have a small square socket with a small notch at the bottom. The phone line is connected with a modular plug. To remove the plug, all you have to do is push in on the small tab potruding from the bottom of the modular plug and pull the plug straight out of its socket. To tap into a modular jack, just remove the modular plug and insert a duplex modular jack. This adapter snaps into the single socket and provides an extra socket to plug the new extension line into. If there is a wall plate or square box with four holes in it, or your phone is wired directly to a small square box on the wall, you have an older phone system. This isn't difficult to tap into but you will need a screwdriver. If the plate or box has 4 holes in it, then purchase a cord adapter to convert the 4-prong jack into a modular jack. Then connect the new extension line to one of the modular sockets on the adapter. If your phone is wired directly to a small box, you should purchase a quick connect modular surface mount modular jack. Its installation is easy. First, remove the cover of the old wall box by loosening the screw in the center. You will see colored wires connected to 4 screw terminals. Push the snap-on clips of the new junction box on the screw heads of the old box with the same colored wires. Replace the cover of the old box and mount the new box next to the old one with the screw provided. Then plug your extension line into the modular socket in the side of the new jack. Making up the extension line is next. Purchase a spool of 4 conductor modular phone cord, a package of 4 conductor modular plugs and a crimping tool. Crimping a modular plug to the end of the line is a 2-step process. Insert the end of the wire into the stripping slot in the side of the tool, squeeze the tool and remove the correct amount of outer insulation. Then push the modular plug on the end of the wire, insert the plug into the tool, and squeeze the handles to permanently attach the plug to the end of the wire. When you're hooked up at one end of the line, string the cord to the new location. You can hide the cord or tack it to the baseboard. At the other end of the line, you can install a surface-mounted modular wall jack or fish the cord up through the wall and use a modular wall jack. The wires are attached to color-coded screw terminals in the jack. These are the materials and tools you'll need: modular phone plug crimping tool, 4 conductor modular plugs, surface or wall mount modular wall jack, 4 conductor modular cord, and other adapters as necessary. You'll also need a screwdriver. written by the editors of HouseNet Copyright HouseNet, Inc. |