Neighbor cut through our cable line while cutting the grass

[DeaverTex]

We have high clay content soil around here -- high as in it's nearly pottery. That makes it high shrink-swell (expands when wet, shrinks when dry) and things that are buried tend not to stay that way. I've reburied our cable more times than I care to remember, but it will work its way out of the ground in a few months if there is rain.

Of course, since we don't get rain any more, maybe it will stay buried now.

 

[scrapquitler]

I'm soooo confused about this. Here in CT, the cable runs on the poles near the telephone wires. The cable goes from the pole to the hosue, just like the electrical wires and then attaches to the house on the edge of the roof and there's a hook there, then a loop of wire hangs down maybe 9" and the wire goes into the house from the soffit board. There's no place that the wires go anywhere near the ground at all. Why would the wire be laying on the ground?

 

[torinsmom]

I'm soooo confused about this. Here in CT, the cable runs on the poles near the telephone wires. The cable goes from the pole to the hosue, just like the electrical wires and then attaches to the house on the edge of the roof and there's a hook there, then a loop of wire hangs down maybe 9" and the wire goes into the house from the soffit board. There's no place that the wires go anywhere near the ground at all. Why would the wire be laying on the ground?

The wires are more likely to be damaged in the air, especially when there are high winds with thunderstorms or an ice storm. Our electric goes out a lot more than the cable, probably because it's so easy for one of those lines to be damaged. Cable lines around here are buried, but the portion close to the pole it runs down is unburied, maybe 1 foot of it. If you're "lucky" enough to have the pole in your yard, you just have to be careful around it. The cable on that one pole runs 4-6 houses' cable.

 

[golfgal]

I'm soooo confused about this. Here in CT, the cable runs on the poles near the telephone wires. The cable goes from the pole to the hosue, just like the electrical wires and then attaches to the house on the edge of the roof and there's a hook there, then a loop of wire hangs down maybe 9" and the wire goes into the house from the soffit board. There's no place that the wires go anywhere near the ground at all. Why would the wire be laying on the ground?

Most of the electrical lines in neighborhoods around here are buried in the ground here along with all of the cable lines. We don't have any exposed parts of the cable lines though.

My GUESS is that in the OP's neighborhood that the cable was put in after everything else and they had to trench the cable and couldn't get close enough to the phone pole for some reason so part of the line is exposed.

Even if this was the reason, why wouldn't they at least put it through some PVC pipe or something to protect the cable??

Torinsmom--that might be an idea-put some PVC piping over the cable line to protect it from the mower.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I'm soooo confused about this. Here in CT, the cable runs on the poles near the telephone wires. The cable goes from the pole to the hosue, just like the electrical wires and then attaches to the house on the edge of the roof and there's a hook there, then a loop of wire hangs down maybe 9" and the wire goes into the house from the soffit board. There's no place that the wires go anywhere near the ground at all. Why would the wire be laying on the ground?

Because ours are buried. Buried in TX and buried in MO.

We do not have telephone poles near our home. They are on the main road which is then buried throughout the subdivision. We have "boxes" or access points.

 

[scrapquitler]

Because ours are buried. Buried in TX and buried in MO.

We do not have telephone poles near our home. They are on the main road which is then buried throughout the subdivision. We have "boxes" or access points.

Ah...that explains it! I never even thought of that because the buried wires are unusual around here. In the center of the more urban areas some wires are buried, but rarely.

 

[brerrabbit]

If her set up (OP) is like ours then the cable and electrical comes off poles in the backyard down the pole. There is a box for electric and a box for cable. The lines from the pole go into the boxes. Then the electrical is put in conduit that is buried in the ground to a minimum required depth by code. It's more dangerous so they are subject to code and inspection. When you get cable installed the technician comes out, rolls out the coax cable and hooks you up, but does not bury the cable. He tells you a cable contractor will be out in a few days to bury it. They show up with a tool that is a big metal plate welded to a handle and pick it up and drop it to make a vey shallow trench. Then the second worker kicks the wire in the trench and steps on it from both sides to close the trench. Whole thing takes about 30 minutes or less depending on how far they have to go. Usually there is one cable box for every two houses so one house will always have their cable connection in the next yard. The trenchers are not authorized and told not to disconnect the cable for any reason so when they get to the box usually the last 2 to 3 feet cannot be buried properly so they leave it above ground. That's where the problems start. That exposed line is subject to mowers, weed eaters and clumsy people tripping over it.

Cable may work differently in different parts of the country but that's the way Comcast does it around here.

 

[ZachnElli]

We did this one time, cut the cable cord while mowing and it cut off the neighbors. We didn't know it at the time, we knew something was cut, but everything of ours worked. When the cable company came out (the neighbor called them) we had to let them in our fenced in yard. So it was definitely our property. They didn't charge us at all because they should have buried it to begin with. We didn't tell the neighbors because we didn't know! she didn't do it on purpose, at least she is taking care of her yard!

 

[torinsmom]

I know she didn't mean to do it, but it was still a pain. I actually think it might have been her daughter, b/c I didn't see my neighbor's car home that afternoon and it wasn't there when we came home. It's just hard to believe she didn't hear the lines being cut, and that if she did, she didn't think it might be my cable, since there's was working. We are on good terms I am so glad they came out yesterday, because I would have had to come home from school early today to meet them.