BT Line

iniltous

Underground cable feeds on properties from that era were direct in the ground, not in duct, a large cable feeding the area was jointed to smaller cables that go to the individual properties and buried direct in the ground so if the cable goes faulty, an excavation is required to expose the cable or buried joint, in your case they probably excavated where a joint was buried and dropped a joint box on top of that joints location,they then have easy access if it's required in the future.
if they then ran a duct from this new jointbox to your house they would normally abandon the direct in ground cable and install a new cable in the new duct from the new joint box to the outside wall and then run internal type cable to the location of your existing master socket or relocate the master socket nearer to where the new duct attaches to the house, I've no idea what they have done in your case,
if the master socket is in the same place does it have a new ducted cable or the original non ducted cable or both ?
I assume your house doesn't have a basement, so the outside ground level is also your houses foundation level, So how did they get a duct to the middle of the house if there wasn't a duct there before ? Even if there is a crawl space beneath the ground floor would they install a duct into this space, especially as the ground work is done by contractors who usually do the minimum amount of work they can get away with...BT's duct is grey in colour and about 2 inches wide, is this what comes up in the middle of your house and is leaking water,
Was the work BT did because of a fault report and it's since then you have had this problem of water leaking or was the water leaking the reason they dug up the footpath and put in some duct ?

iandv

That's correct I think the new box in the pavement where the larger cable joins the smaller cable which runs to the master socket

That's all I think they have done as they have not run any new ducts to the property as far as we are aware, the master socket is in the same place it's the same as before same ducted cable which is a black colour and is about an inch wide

House has no basement but the void is large enough to crawl around

iandv

The reason that they dug the footpath was because of the water in the ducting

iniltous

Ok, so new joint box but no new duct, I think what's happened is they have dropped a jointbox on the existing cable to repair or remake the original joint, this joint is now in a box that can fill up with water when it rains, where previously the joint was in the ground and and water would just drain into the surrounding soil,
if the joint is now submerged in water, it could be capillary action that is drawing moisture along the cable and making the area where the cable enters the house wet, however as the cable is still direct in the ground it difficult to see how this could happen , when you say a ducted cable , black and an inch wide, is that just the cable sheath or is the cable in a separate duct/trunking ? As in that period they wouldn't normally put the cable into any sort of duct or trunking, but if they did, then water may well be running through it, especially if the joint box is higher than the ground floor level of your house,

iandv

The black ducting ( the sheath?) contains a smaller black cable which goes into the master socket

Yes the joint box is higher than the ground floor level of the house

iniltous

The cable sheath is just the outer protective covering of the cable, so it does seem that the cable is inside a small duct/ trunking, Installed when the house was built
It's odd that if the original problem was water coming out of this 'duct' rather than a fault report like noisy line, or no dial tone, why would they excavate and build a new jointbox to get at the cable as this was never likely to fix the problem, if anything it would make it worse..all I can suggest is you keep on at Openreach , but unless they can make an effective seal between the cable and the duct/ trunking it's inside then I don't see how this problem can be easily fixed, because even if they did install a new ducted feed that terminates on the outside wall, the original cable would still be there, collecting water and delivering it to your house

iandv

I agree and the other matter is what sort of damage could this be doing to the property as it looks as though this must have been happening for years

So what should I ask openreach to do now to resolve?

iandv

I agree and the other matter is what sort of damage could this be doing to the property as it looks as though this must have been happening for years

So what should I ask openreach to do now to resolve?

iniltous

It's not that easy to suggest a solution that OR would agree to as it will cost them money, but if they run a new ducted feed (proper 2inch grey plastic pipe) from the new jointbox to the outside of your house, then make a conventional entry into the property, thru the wall, about 12 inches about the ground, and either provide a new master socket at this new entry point, or terminate the new cable and run internal cable from this new entry point to your existing master socket, so you still can use the existing socket, then locate the 'old' cable in the thin black trunking, as it enters the property and chop it at that point, then any water that could collect and run down the trunking would get no further than the point where it's chopped outside the property, this wouldn't stop any water collecting in the trunking that would still exist under the floor of the house, but I'm assuming the water is from outside, and not a water leak inside the property that is some how getting into the trunking,
The other thing they could try would be to seal the cable in the trunking as it comes up through the floor under the stairs, this wouldn't stop the trunking filling up with water, just stop it coming out of the end of the trunking,
Does this water leak get worse when it's raining, or is it wet even when it's dry outside ?, if it's very wet even if it's not been raining, it could be a water leak inside the property that's getting into the cable trunking and this could even result in OR charging you for getting their cable wet , not that likely though.
How wet is it getting the floor, is it just moisture or proper running water like a water pipe or tap leaking ?

iandv

It gets worse when raining