How To Install A Telephone Extension In Your Home

Cordless phones are easy and convenient, but there are still situations when you need an extra telephone extension. The base of your cordless phone system may need an extension or you may need an extension for a dial-up modem, fax machine or satellite connection. It's not necessary to pay a high fee for an extra extension. While wiring an extension is not as easy as hanging wall mount wine rack, it's not rocket science either. You can do it yourself!

The Difference between Four-Wire and Two-Wire Systems

Open the junction box to determine which type of system is installed in your home. You will typically find two-wire systems in older homes, with a total of four colored wires - usually green, red, black and yellow. Red is paired with green for the first phone line and yellow is paired with black for a second extension.

Many newer residences have four-wire systems with eight wires. You will find four white wires and four colored wires, which allows for more extensions. Each white wire is paired with a colored wire to create an extension.

How to Add an Extension

1. Take phones off the cradles to keep them from ringing while wiring. Find the junction box, which joins a standard network interface where the inside phone wiring joins with the exterior phone wiring. Remove the cover and secure a new cable next to the junction box using a cable staple. Leave enough excess cable to be used for connecting the wires.

2. Choose the desired interior location for your extension, and make a cutout in the wall of the appropriate size to accommodate the extension module. All table art sculptures near the proximity of your work zone should be removed.

3. Run the cable to the interior area where you wish to install the new extension. Avoid running the cable through or near flammable materials, and keep the cable at least six to eight inches from circuit wiring to avoid electrical interference. The cable can be affixed using cable staples along trim or baseboards, inside walls, closets, or wherever it can be disguised from view. Feed around three to four inches of wiring into the hole created earlier and loop and secure with black electrical tape so that it does not end up falling back through the wall.

4. Get the wire ready using a wire stripper (the wire stripper should have an insulated handle) to remove about two inches of the cable covering and one inch of wire insulation.

5. Do not attempt to connect wiring during a storm. Connect the wires at the extension in a similar fashion as those at the junction box, connecting similarly colored wires using the junction wiring as a guide. Use electrical tape on the leftover stripped wire, and tape the wires to the back of the extension to keep them from pulling away. Mount the extension box inside the wall cutout.

6. Connect the wires at the telephone junction box, coordinating colored wires with the colored screw terminals. Wrap and tuck extra wires into the box and reattach the cover.

Troubleshooting: Telephone and Wiring Problems

Telephone service and utility companies offer monthly service protection plans that cover services to repair faulty or damaged wiring. If you have lived in the home for some time and you are certain that there are no problems with the telephone wiring, it's not necessary to pay for this monthly coverage. Common problems with the telephone service can often be resolved by the homeowner.

In situations where the phone simply stop working, your initial step is to find out if one particular phone is the root of the problem. You should next unplug all of the phones and then test each phone separately. If one is not working, that is the source of the problem; either the phone or the modular cord is defective. Switch the cord on the problem phone; this will help you find out if the problem is in the cable or the phone. If the telephone still does not work, the phone is likely the problem, not the cable.

If the telephone works at a particular extension but not another, check the screw terminals at the extension and at the junction box; sometimes a loose screw is the culprit. If after checking and tightening screws the phone still does not work, the cable could be defective, and replacing the cable as described above should resolve the problem.