Installing a New Bedroom Phone Jacks
Long gone are the days when a house get get by with one telephone
jack. Today, nearly everybody in the house wants their own
phone. Or if not, they need a phone jack for a computer modem,
or perhaps a fax line. If you need to install a new phone
jack in one of your rooms, you'll be glad to know this is
a project that you can accomplish easily and quickly. Here
are some tips to keep in mind that will guide you through
the process.
1)
Keep in mind that most houses today have something called
"four-wire phone wire." This simply refers to
wire that has a sheath with four colors: black, red, yellow
and green. The red and green wires are for your primary
telephone circuit, while the other two are mostly for adding
extra telephone lines. If you look at the back of a telephone
jack, you should notice red and green wires going into the
box. Inside of the jack, these wires are connected to the
appropriate color. Whenever you decide to connect a line
in your new jack, there are a few different ways to do this:
A) You can go down into the wall, beneath the floor, and
inside of the crawl-space or basement. B) You can go into
the wall, then up through the ceiling joists or attic. C)
or you can go behind the top of the base-board.
2)
Probably the simplest way to install your new phone wire
is to use the screws located on the back of your present
telephone jack. To install the jack itself, find the edges
of where a stud is inside your wall, then mark this spot.
This will be the best place for your jack. At the edge of
that stud, trace the outline of the box. Now get a dry-wall
saw, and carefully cut out an opening for the box. Now you
should be able to run the wire as described earlier using
one of those three methods.
3)
If you choose the option of running the telephone wire through
the wall, remember you'll have to pull it from the new jack's
location and then take it to the most convenient jack available;
you'll need to do this before you install the box. Also,
make things easy on yourself by allowing 10 or 12 inches
of wire, running out of one of the box knock-outs.
4)
If, however, you choose the option of running the phone
wire through the base-board, you should be able to go into
the box from the front. Just make sure that you allow enough
wire length to gain access to them.
5)
Once you've run the wire, you need to screw the wall box
onto the stud's side. Once you've accomplished this, strip
about three-eighths inch of the coating off of each wire.
Then find screws inside the new jack plate and attach the
wire to them. As you do this, be sure to connect each line
to the right line: red to red, yellow to yellow, etc. Once
you've done this, reattach the jack plate to the box using
the screws that came with the plate.
You're
almost finished with your project now, but you still need
to take care of the final touches. Strip off another three-eighths
inch of covering from the unattached end of each wire. Then
connect the wires of the new line from the existing jack.
Now you're ready to plug in your phone (or computer or fax
line) into the new telephone jack. If you've done everything
right, you should have a working telephone jack, ready for
service.