Yikes - XFinity has to bury new cable line to my house
 

So XFinity came out today since I could not get the modem to connect. After doing troubleshooting, the technician determined the main line from their cable box located in my neighbors yard to my house has gone bad and needs to be replaced and buried underground. This sounds super scary to me. Do they essentially dig up my yard? What about the fact that the line needs to go across my driveway as the house connection is on the opposite side from their cable box? I hope they can go underneath my driveway without destroying it. Has anyone experienced this - the burying of a cable line? What about replacing a line where a buried line existed before? Appreciate any knowledge or help.

Thanks,

Cindy

They can tunnel under your driveway with no problem. They may need to dig a short trench (about 3 to 4 feet long) and place some sod, which will eventually blend into your grass. Not a big problem.

I hade it done up north before we left. Essentially, when they come into a community (like for a new fiber company) they run the infrastructure down the street along the side walk to the box you see (like a water or sprinkler control box) and often times they will not run the service to the house until you become a subscriber. In my case they offered two options, they drill it under the ground or in my case they simply took a shovel and cut a slot into the grass about the depth of a shovel and tucked the cable in under the slice of grass. The latter was done because I had sprinkler lines in the yard. I had to water the disturbed area for a few weeks with garden hose because the grass got shocked and was a little brown for a while. Not sure how they do it down here but is suspect the same. As far as your drive way they most likely would go under not disturbing the concrete. They have been doing this for a while so you should not have major concerns.

Xfinity
 

Not an issue. They do it all the time.

They laid mine into a narrow channel cut into the grass - around 6" down to avoid hitting the irrigation pipe. I had hoped they would run it round the roof but they didn't have the U-pins that would have fastened it to the woodwork. Now when I'm digging out back (I no longer have any grass) I have to be careful not to slice the cable. Luckily they did not need to run it under the driveway.

They’ve been doing this a long time. Don’t worry.

They may go the long way around your house and just tuck it into a slit

Make sure they bury it deep enough or your landscaper might cut it. And make sure they don't cut other lines when digging the trench.

Xfinity simply lays the cable on the ground using the shortest run possible. They then hire a subcontractor to “bury” the cable. The sub simply cut a slit in the grass and tucked the cable into the slit and stomped it down with their feet. Where the cable ran through our landscaping, they just rolled a few of the landscaping rocks over the cable. Where the cable had to cross the edging barrier between the landscaping and lawn, they left it exposed going over the edging, where it would have gotten hit by our lawn company while weed whacking along the edging. It was the absolute laziest, minimum effort, job I have ever witnessed. I had to pull up our edging, run the cable underneath it, and carefully reinstall the edging. I then had to buy several bags of landscape rocks to actually cover the cable in our garden areas. I also had to buy some concrete anchors and cable sleeves to attach and protect the cable where it ran up the side of the house.

You actually accepted that shoddy work? I cannot fathom the cable was run over the metal edge to your flower beds. Just NO!

You don't say what Village you are in, but is Quantum fiber or another provider an option? It might already be at your house and they just need to connect it.

On Linden Isle so no Quantum Fiber available :(

I imagine xfinity contracts out burning cable like others with usually do poor job?, just be glad you don’t live on corner lot, they tore up my irrigation couple time running neighbors cables so bad I had to re run irrigation main up close to my Villa wall.

If the existing cable is already underground may be in conduit. All they need to do is feed the new cable through the conduit. That’s what they do here in south Florida.

Good grief…did you ask the technician about that??? This is not the forum to give you correct info. That said, they’ll almost certainly not tear up you concrete or disturb your landscaping much.

This is very common. I’ve had cable companies have to do this at other homes I’ve owned.


Just make sure they bury it deep enough. For example: Massey services includes aeration every year at no additional cost if they are your fertilization company. If the cable isn’t buried far enough, there’s a good chance it will get cut.

XFinity needed to troubleshoot my neighbor’s Internet. They left 2 lines across my front yard. They refused to come back and bury it saying it’s my responsibility.

Not in my area the contractors use hole boring machine digs hole about 6 inches down, works good till hits rock or something hard underground. The developers contractors burning lot to construction trash in Villa yards, about every time I dig hole I fine trash.

All three wireless companies offer wireless
 

I have cut the cable and now use wireless internet.
It’s not as fast as wired but much cheaper.
Check with your wireless company for a rate.

I forgot about wireless internet. Both T-Mobile and Verizon will let you try their system and I'll bet based on your location it will be cheaper and work just as good as your cable.

They trench the yard, lay the cable, then put the dirt back. At my house they didn't go under the driveway, instead they put a new box on the other side of my house and ran the cable thru my attic and down. Worked out great. No worries.

It happened on my property. The dug up sod needs to be watered more to survive. No biggie.

They won’t tell you when they are coming, and I certainly wasn’t going to cancel my daily swimming and golfing plans to hang around and wait. When I returned home and discovered they had been there and inspected the shoddy work, I was obviously disappointed. At that point, it was easier for me to simply finish the job correctly myself rather than trying to deal with Xfinity again.

The last time they needed to dig in my yard, they decided that I no longer needed that invisible fence and dug right through it. Even after I told them where it was. No recourse. I now have starlink and LOVE it.

Here is a suggestion that you may be glad that you took some time in the future. You should draw a diagram of your house and driveway to approximate scale (on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper) as it is situated on your lot. Also show any trees, sidewalks, and driveways.

Then on this paper show the route that the buried TV cable is located by drawing it in and giving measured distances from nearby features such as a tree, shrub, sidewalk, driveway, corner of house, etc.

This way, if you ever need to do any digging or have any digging or trenching done in the future, you can refer to your site map for the location of the buried TV cable.

Keep this map in a folder where you can find it in the future since you may need it if you plan to plant a tree, shrub, or do any digging to repair a sprinkler or whatever. Believe me, you won't be sorry that you took the time to do this now while it is still fresh in your mind. It also comes in handy when you sell the house to give the map/drawing to the new owner.

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Easy to Do
 

Yes, they unscrew the old cable connection, then attach it to the new one, then go to the other end and just pull the new cable on through. It’s quick and painless.

Only some areas have the cable runing in conduit. Most areas of the Villages the cable is direct burried.