I finally finished a 3 year old cable cleanup nightmare job today

This one house in the suburbs had cables running every which way from like 4 different ISPs over the years. The owner called me last month after a squirrel chewed through something and the whole thing went down. I kept putting it off because the crawlspace was a mess, but today I got down there with a headlamp and some zip ties. Three years of bad installs all tangled together, had to trace every single line by hand. Found a live 240v extension cord just buried in insulation, scary stuff. Ended up pulling out 200 feet of dead coax nobody needed anymore. Customer actually came down to see it and said it looked like art compared to before. Has anyone else walked into a job that was basically a time capsule of bad decisions?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryang771mo ago

Blame the homeowner for letting it get that bad in the first place.

blake3021mo ago

You really have to feel for the guy though. Most homeowners just call whoever's cheapest and don't think about what happens when four different crews all leave their mistakes behind. That 240v extension cord could have killed someone, that's no joke. I've seen attics where old phone lines from the 80s are still tangled up with modern cable drops, it's like archaeological layers of bad installs. The homeowner probably had no idea what was really in that crawlspace until somebody competent finally looked. Good on you for cleaning it all up and making it safe. That's the kind of work that doesn't get appreciated until something goes wrong.