How to Do Home Phone Wiring

A person can really save a lot of money by doing their own labor in many areas, but residential phone wiring is where many homeowners feel more confident and at ease because of the low voltage wiring in modern phone systems.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• cat5 cable
• wire strippers
• phone jacks
• phone hub
• screwdriver

1. 
    
   phone wiring

   Phone systems are different than house electrical wiring systems in the fact that the electricity for phones comes from the phone company. Phones use their own power, not house power.
   
   It’s a lot easier to wire a house that still has the ceilings and walls exposed during the new construction.

2. 
    
   cat5 cable

   The newer kind of cable used for phone and network systems is called Cat5 cable. It has eight different colored wires inside. This is the cable that is most often used for phone systems and networks in new homes.

3. 
    
   daisy chain

   There are two ways of running a phone line. The older way is called a “daisy chain” and the more modern method is called a “hub”. Daisy chain wiring methods start at the box outside installed by the phone company. It runs in to the first phone jack and then on to the next phone jack in a chain type manner. This uses much less cable than the hub method, but is less reliable.

4. 
    
   hub wiring method

   The hub method has a line that runs from the box outside to a junction box that connects to each phone jack with a separate Cat5 cable. This uses a lot more cable, but is more reliable over time.

5. 
    
   phone cable runs

   The next step is to make circuit runs of cable from the hub to each phone jack in every room. Almost every room in the house should have a phone jack with the exception of storage areas. Phone jacks fit into regular electric outlet boxes. These boxes should be the same height as electric outlets according to local codes.

6. 
    

   Be sure to secure all the cables using a cable staple gun. This will ensure that the cable won’t move or be cut with nails or staples while doing finish work. Remember to run the phone cable where it won’t get hit with nails. Put protective metal plates over the cable where they could get cut.
   
   It’s also a good idea to keep all Cat5 cables apart from power cables to avoid interference.
   
   Next, run a cable from the phone hub to the outside phone box installed by the phone company.
   
   Once the cable runs are done we can wire the cable to the hub and then on to each jack in every room. We will wire all the individual phone jacks first.
   
   We will use only two of the wires inside the Cat5 cable for each phone line. The first two will be blue/white(blue wire with white stripes) and white/blue wires(white wire with blue stripes). The phone jack or mod jack will have four, six, or eight screws. We only need to worry about the two screws with the red and green wires under them. The blue wire with white stripes will connect to the red screw. The white wire with blue stripes will connect to the green screw. Once this is completed, the jack can be secured into the electrical box and a phone jack cover can be put on it.

7. 
    

   The other ends of the Cat5 cables will need to be wired to the phone hub using the same color coding. If there aren’t enough red or green screws for each phone jack, you can always attach two or more of the blue/white wires to one red screw. You can do the same thing with the white\blue wires and a green screw.

8. 
    
   telco box

   Finally, the Cat5 cable that runs from the phone hub to the box outside will need to be connected. The telco box from the phone company will be coded using the blue\ white and white\blue wires. Just attach each wire to the corresponding color and the job is completed.

9. Be sure to test each phone jack with a phone and cable for a dial tone. Make sure all phone jack covers are put back on to all the electric boxes and mod jacks.

Resources

• http://www.make-my-own-house.com/basic-house-wiring-diagram

[jull14]

on 6/28/2009 Wonderful article and the steps are very easy to follow. I really enjoy your article, thanks for writing so interesting and helpful for many of us.