Service Entrance Cable -- Repair Insulation?

[TomR]

A friend of mine bought a house and one of the things that the home inspector noted was some wear or damage to the insulation on the service entrance cable on the outside of the house that runs down to the meter. She was buying the house as-is anyway, and at a discounted price, so she didn't ask the sellers to do anything about that before closing the deal. Now she is just trying to figure out what, if anything, needs to or should be done regarding repairing or replacing the service entrance cable.

I have not had a chance to look at it yet, but I will, so that I can observe what the home inspector saw and maybe take a photo or two. If the service entrance cable does need to be replaced, I do know of an electrician that I can suggest to her to do the replacement.

But, my question is..., If the only issue is some minor cracking or wear in the service entrance cable insulation, is there a way to just repair the insulation? I assume that it is gray in color, so is there some type of insulation repair product that can be applied that is made for this type of situation -- possibly gray in color so it doesn't look bad?

Thanks.

[Bill]

Water can wick it's way in thru a crack in the cable and corrode the connections inside of the meter box and/or your main panel.

If your cable repair fails down the road, you might be looking at $2000-$3000 for breaker panel and/or service entrance replacement.

How lucky do you feel?

[gfretwell]

I would seriously think about just sealing that jacket with a coat of paint or two. There is a layer of wire and insulation between the jacket and the ungrounded conductors.

This SE cable should be entering the bottom of the box with a drip loop so water intrusion is mitigated

[trader_4]

Range of from wear to damage is wide. OP hasn't even seen it, so who knows. It it's wear, some simple step probably would work. If it's been damaging by something falling on it, crushing it, that's another story.

[FrozenNorth]

Not sure how it works there, but here anything before the meter is the problem for the electrical utility to fix, give them a call.

[gfretwell]

The cable from the "service point" toward your house belongs to you and typically the service point is the crimp at the service head where the overhead drop connects to the SE cable. In an underground lateral, the service point is usually at the street. You own the wire underground in your yard. The only thing the utility owns is the meter itself.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Where is there? Not here. From the main wires at the street is your responsibility.

[Jerry.Tan]

I'm wondering how that "Flex-Seal" would work? Of course that is only to coat some cracks oe wear spots on the outer insulation. If there are exposed live wires, it needs to be replaced.

You could probably have the power shut off and slide it thru some PVC conduit (the gray stuff), too. But if you're going that far, you may want to just replace the wires you put into the conduit, and upsize them for future upgrades.

[Jack Lapin]

Here in the midwest, it is the customers responsibility to maintain the weatherhead, insulator, riser, meter base and service entrance conductor. And there ain't no DIY allowed on any of it, licensed electricians only.

[FrozenNorth]

Toronto Canada, Everything before the meter is their problem, including the feed to the street, but it is overhead, no buried. I had a suspected floating neutral a couple years ago, gave the Electric Company a call, somebody came for an inspection and actually came inside my house looked at the panel, then he called out the crew and they repaired a loose connection. The flood lights were bright at 2AM when they showed up.

[micky]

Somewhat off topic, about sewer lines with no electricity. A friend had a clogged sewer, and the plumber came and reamed and then he was going to dig up the front lawn and replace the clogged pipe for hundreds or thousands of dollars,, and another friend of my friend told him to call the city, and it turned out the city owned the drain pipe not just under the street (and sidewalk?) but also a wider area in case they some day wanted to widen the street. The city came out and cleaned their part, and everything was fine again. No added cost to my friend.

[micky]

I'm a big fan of silicon tape, I think it's called. One stretches it to

2 or 3 times its length before wrapping it around something. Overlap it. Then in a couple days, it turns into one piece of "rubber". It certainly won't leak between the layers, and probably not between the bottom layer and they cable. It's expensive** and one roll doesn't go very far (it's thicker than most tapes) and she might need more than one roll. **Although last year they had some sort of cheaper stretchable tape at home depot. I used it but I don't think I checked it later. The expensive one is wrapped on a white plastic spool, not a cardboard spool.

And if the cable is right up against the wall, it might be impossible to get the tape behind it.

[clare]

Around here it is ALL in conduit - from the attachment of the overhead to the stack, or from at leat 1 1/2 feet underground to the meter base.

[philo]

The sure is not true here.

The power company is responsible /only/ for their own wiring.

The run from the power company wiring...down to the meter is the owner's responsibility and I'd never seen that be a cable. It should be a heavy-wall conduit. I'd replace it and not try to somehow re-insulate.

[Stormin Mormon]

If this were me, I'd go see in person. And then open the yellow pages under electrical parts and supplies. Call a couple places, see what they reccomend. The available parts, legal trips and local advice will vary from place to place. A northern cloudy area might (for example) say to use repair tape. Where a bright sunny area like southern AZ might require to replace sun cracked cable. We can't see it from here.

Western NY, USA, I do know of two residences which had cracked cables from the pole to the house, which required to be replace. And the power was off, for a couple days at each of them.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[trader_4]

That's how the overhead service works here in NJ too.

[Ed Pawlowski]

.

You should look around more. I can show you thousands of houses with cable. When I lived in Philadelphia, I never saw a conduit entrance unless it was from an underground entrance, a rarity. .

I'd replace it and not try to somehow re-insulate.

I'd inspect if first, then decide what to do.

[Vic Smith]

It's common here in northern Illinois. Maybe code. Some wires are strung to fascia, and some to a pipe sticking out of the roof. Mine's a 3 1/2" pipe going 4' above the roof. That goose-necked pipe goes to the meter. I had a new 200 amp service put in when I bought the house, and that pipe was on my dime.

[clare]

The service stack is part of your house.. The service feed wire across your property is yours. All the way from the main distribution line, generally at the street.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I recall seeing a rehab in Chicago and they mentioned Romex was not allowed and they ran conduit in the walls. Codes varey around the country and the NEC is only a minimum.