Telephone Wiring Basics and Troubleshooting Techniques

Many people believe that telephone wiring is a task that should be left to the professionals. They hold this belief that telephone wiring is very complex and should never be tackled by someone that is not experienced in the field. While it may seem complex to the untrained eye, it is actually not as bad as it looks. With a few simple rules and tips in mind, anyone can tackle a basic telephone wiring job. Paying the telephone company to do it for you, will usually result in a big bill. Now that you know you can avoid that big bill by doing it yourself, here are a few tips to getting the job done. 

Assess the Job

The first thing that you need to do is assess the job at hand. See what the previous owner and telephone company has left you to deal with. Look at how the wires run and are laid out in the house. Think about what you are trying to accomplish and plan out the best way to tackle it. Coming up with a plan before you undertake the project can save you a lot of headaches in the future. If you do it right the first time, you will not have to come back and fix mistakes later on. 

There are two basic ways to wire a phone system. You can use the star method or the series method. With the star method, you are going to run an individual wire from the phone system to each individual outlet. If you decide to go with the series method, you are going to run one outlet off of the other. Therefore, if you have a problem with one, you will have a problem with all of them. While this might save you some time, it can help you avoid problems in the future. 

Telephone Wire

When you are ready to start wiring, you will want to make sure that you have the right kind of wire. If you do not use the proper telephone wire, you could have to redo the whole job after you are done. The most prevalent type of phone wire out there is the 4-strand type of wiring. This will consist of two twisted strands of red and green wires. For each phone line that you plan on putting in, you need two of those wires. With a 4-strand wire, you can actually run two different phone lines off of it. You will also want to make sure that you have the right gauge of wiring. The standard that most people use today is 24 gauge. You will also see 22 gauge out there in the market, but it is best to stick with 24 gauge. 

Wiring

Once you have the proper wire and decide on an installation method, you need to simply run the wires where they need to go and install a phone jack. For more complex systems, it may take some more work, but the basic phone wiring process is pretty standard.