How to Cut a Phone Jack Hole

Installing a new phone jack in your home or office can be costly if performed by the phone company. You can install the new jack yourself if you are willing to do a bit of simple carpentry yourself. You only need a few tools and parts to have a new phone jack. One task is the cutting of the hole in the wallboard to mount the jack.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tape measure
• Keyhole saw
• Wall plate
• Pencil

1. Decide which wall the new jack will be on. Mark the placement of the jack with a pencil.

2. Measure the height from the floor of the other jacks in the room. Now measure up from the floor the same distance and draw the outline of the wall plate that will be the new jack.

3. Take the keyhole saw and place the tip at a corner of the outline. Using the palm of your hand hit the end of the saw and force it through the wallboard. Make sure you don't overshoot the drawn outline.

4. Carefully saw down the outline to the next corner. Pull the saw blade out of the wall and align the point of the saw with the corner of the opposite side of the plate. Repeat step 3.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the other two sides of the hole and carefully remove the rectangular piece of wallboard from the new jack hole.

Tips & Warnings

• Be extremely careful not to overshoot any lines and to make sure that the wall plate will cover the hole you have just made, cut on the inside of the outline.