Telephone Cable/Wire Installation Tips
Separate Holes
Avoid the temptation of running your telephone wires in the same holes as high voltage wiring. This is the first mistake I often see. This practice places the telephone wire parallel and in close proximity with the high voltage wiring. This in turn can lead to interference on the telephone wire. When electricity flows through the higher voltage wire, it can sometimes induce an electromagnetic field in the telephone wire.
Try to stay at least 16 to 24 inches away, if possible from high voltage wires. This can often only be accomplished by drilling a separate set of holes for the phone wires. Don't drill less than a 3/8 inch hole.
Wire Type / Size
Use UL approved twisted pair solid conductor wire. 22 or 24 gauge is preferred. I highly recommend that you use 6 conductor wire instead of 4 conductor. This means that 6 wires are bundled together inside the outer insulation. Why the need for the extra two? I like to have at least two separate phone possibilities available at each outlet with a spare pair in case of a wire failure. This can only be accomplished with 6 conductor wire.
Home Runs..... No, not like Baseball...!
A home run in wiring refers to a single cable that leads from a central junction point to an individual outlet location. It does this without stopping at any other outlet location on the way. Your phone cables should all be home runs. Most electricians run the cable in a series. In other words, they wire from the central phone location to and through each outlet location. This practice limits your ability to isolate trouble. It also doesn't let you turn off a phone in a separate room without penalizing other downstream phones.
Stripping Insulation
You should purchase the inexpensive special wire strippers for low voltage wiring. They do a great job. However, the hardest insulation to remove is the outer cable insulation which surrounds all the inner wires. You MUST carefully remove this without scoring or removing insulation from the inner wires. This can be tough to do. I remove the outer insulation by gently using only partial pressure on the wire stripper's largest setting. This allows you to partially cut through the insulation. While applying this pressure, I pull the stripper towards the end of the wire. The insulation then rips apart without scoring any of the inner wires.
Attaching Wires to Screws
Did you know there is a right and a wrong way to attach wires around screws? If you do it incorrectly, the wire will unwind as you tighten the screw. As you look at the screw head, always wrap the wire around the screw in a clockwise fashion. Do not wrap the wire around the shaft of the screw several turns. In fact, the wire only needs to wrap around the screw just a little less then one turn. Try to minimize the amount of insulation you remove from each individual wire as well. Exposed wires can touch one another when you jam them into the box when you screw the outlet to the box. If the wires touch, it can short out the connection.
Column B155