Not sure if this is the right place to post: Phone Jack replacement.

[Clarence Martinn]

Not sure if this is the right section of the forum to post this question:...

Had the heating system replaced on the upper unit. Went from gas forced hot air furnace, to a Gas Boiler with the metal baseboards. Everything went fine, and the Boiler is working great. But, then I noticed a potential future problem, and I don't know the way to work around it !!

When they installed the Baseboards, the one and only phone jack for the upper unit, is attached to the wood baseboard molding. One of The Hot water baseboards was installed in front of the phone jack, with the phone line that connects to the phone, coming out from under the Baseboard. The phone works fine. No issues with the phone working. My question is this:

If that phone jack ever needed to be replaced , or if I wanted to install a new phone line, how would I be able to get to that phone jack, with the hot water Baseboard placed in front of it ?

[Art Mann]

The phone line will either be in the basement/crawl space or it will be in the attic. You can easily access it from there. Trace it from the entrance to the house if necessary. I just built a new house and it does not include any phone lines. If I wanted a house phone, I would get it through the internet cable. Back when I had a stationary phone, I converted from the old Bell system and saved maybe 50%.

[Jim Koepke]

If that phone jack ever needed to be replaced , or if I wanted to install a new phone line, how would I be able to get to that phone jack, with the hot water Baseboard placed in front of it ?

This can depend on when and how your phone lines were installed. If they were installed after the build then it is likely as Art said.

If you have wiring put in before the sheet rock was put in, it may be a different story. If your phone line entry point has the inside wiring with multiple jacketed wires running out of it it is likely installed after the build. If it has a cluster of wires with blue, orange, green and maybe a brown and a slate (grey) paired up with white wire you likely have wiring installed before the sheet rock was put in place.

The phone outlet should have been moved upward before the installation of the baseboard units. This is something the installers for the baseboard heaters should have addressed. They likely were not trained to handle such a situation. Maybe a call to the company that installed your system is in order.

jtk