NTL Plastic door on outside of house broken - where to get new one?

zaphodbeeb

Hi,

The white plastic door on the outside of my house (where NTL / Phone cable comes in) has broken off (Actually the screw mechanism has stopped working - it's locking and not turning the clock hand type bit).

I went to an electrical supplier to see if I could get a new one, but the guy said that as my house is over 10 years old NTL changed the door type and the new ones they have won't fit it. He showed me the new type and it's quite different.

Anyone know where I might get the old type door? (Or even the screw lock mechanism).

Thanks in advance.

Alun

I had the same problem. I cut a nice piece of 6mm plywood to size, and screwed it directly into the plastic surround with two self-tapping screws. A lick or two of white gloss, and bob's your uncle.

zaphodbeeb

Thanks for the suggestion Alun, I may well end up doing that. How did you cut the rounded corners though?

Alun

zaphodbeeb wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion Alun, I may well end up doing that. How did you cut the rounded corners though?

The radius on the corners is quite small (on mine anyway), so I just cut it as a rectangle and rounded the corners off with a sander.

zaphodbeeb

Right - ok, well I'll give it a few days to see if anyone knows where I might get one then if I get nowhere I'll definately make one as you've described. Thanks for the tip.

Freddie59

Why not give them a ring? They'll surely have spares.

Alun

Freddie59 wrote: »

Why not give them a ring? They'll surely have spares.

I don't think ntl: supplied them. In our house at least, both the eircom and ntl:/UPC cable comes in via the same box. I think it's probably some kind of generic box bought from a building suppliers once upon a time, but when I tried to get a new door for it, I was also told they weren't made any more.

DingDong

AFAIK the new ETU's are the same size as the old one its just a case of pulling the whole frame out and pushing the new style one in. You can also give ntl a ring they may have some left .

Alun

At the time, I did look at the possibility of removing the whole box and replacing it as well, but it didn't look to me as if it would come out in a hurry .. not without creating quite a mess anyway.

DingDong

Some builders only push the ETU into place while others secure it with screws. Its usually removed handy enough.

zaphodbeeb

Folks,

Thanks for all the replies - particularly to Alun. I realised that he had given me the solution without my initially getting it! [DOH]

The door I have is still fine - it's just that the screw / turnkey open close thing was not working. So, I got a self threading screw (dunno what you call them) and my trusty cheap as chips Tesco power screwdriver (9 euros!) and drove the screw through the door and through to the box on the wall. It's now as secure as it's ever been.

Maybe NTL could've provided a new door. Didn't really want to call them as they removed half my channels in error recently telling me I owed them money (recently moved house, they billed me incorrectly for the same period in two addresses) and I had to phone up four times, being told by three different people that everything was fine, before they removed channels anyway. Muppets. And I was goign to go with their bb cos my Eircom 1MB is shocking. Not now....

But, thanks again Alun (and everyone else).

M5

your neighbours house? :P