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I have an unknown wire coming from the interior of my crawlspace to outside, and I'm trying to figure out what it is. I'd like to remove it possible so that the crawlspace door will shut nicely.

I recently had a radon mitigation system installed in the crawlspace, and the entire area is covered with plastic, so it it's not really possible to trace the wire back to the source.

The exterior portion of the wire doesn't connect to anything, and is just loosely coiled (about 4 ft).

Any ideas what this is?

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AwoeDace
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  • It's hard to say from the photos, wondering if it's the cable for water pipe heat tape? Is there water pipe in the crawlspace/underneath the house? the portion in the second photo looks pretty rough, no longer usable anyway. – PhilippNagel Oct 06 '21 at 00:50
  • It looks like electrical so need to consider it to be live till confirmed it is dead/not connected. – crip659 Oct 06 '21 at 01:02
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    @crip659 I notice that in at least one place shown in the second photo, the insulation is broken and the two interior copper stranded wires are twisted together. It also look like very small gauge wire. Doesn't look like mains voltage. – DoxyLover Oct 06 '21 at 05:29
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    Why have you included pictures of two different cables in your question? The first picture is of a 3-wire cable with black insulation. The second picture is of a 2-wire cable with white insulation (which is clearly cut and shorted out). Do these two wires connect at some point and in some way? If so, please include a pic of the junction between them. Is one of the pictures posted in error? – FreeMan Oct 06 '21 at 12:59
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    @FreeMan I believe it is the same cable. It was painted white probably along with whatever is in the background in the second photo. You can sort of see the paint flaking off in some spots. The first picture looks like 3, but I think what looks like a center conductor is actually just a flat piece of rubber connecting the 2 outer parts. – PhilippNagel Oct 06 '21 at 13:11
  • You could be right, @PhilippNagel. I hope we get clarity from the OP soon. – FreeMan Oct 06 '21 at 13:26
  • Not sure about the heat tape, but I guess it's possible. And yes, it's one continuous wire that has been painted – AwoeDace Oct 07 '21 at 03:40

1 Answers1

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If you have a clipped end, then it shouldn’t do any harm to clip it a little more to get it out of the way.

That said, it’s possible that it’s got current. Best case would be to positively determine that it’s dead with a multimeter. Next best would be to clip the individual thirds separately and slightly staggered. When I’m scared cutting wire, I put one hand behind my back.

My gut is that it’s tv-related, but that’s just a guess.

Aloysius Defenestrate
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    Agreed. Looks like it was for an old VHF/UHF TV aerial. It would have run from the living room location of the (at the time one and only) TV, under the floor to near the chimney or gable or tallest part of the outside wall, then up the outside wall to the mast that was usually strapped to the chimney with metal ribbon. You might find the other end sticking up through a hole in the living room floor. Does any of that check out? Agreed you can clip or shove it back in the crawl space til you next have a chance to go down there and clean up. – jay613 Oct 06 '21 at 12:48
  • I'd agree that's what this is for the shorted, white, 2-wire cable in the 2nd picture. However, that wire is different than the black, 3-wire cable in the 1st picture. – FreeMan Oct 06 '21 at 12:58
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    Definitely looks like an outdoor rated version of this antenna wire. @FreeMan, the first pic looks like 3 wires, but its actually a wide flat spot in the middle with two round wires on either side. Cross section would look like: O--O – JPhi1618 Oct 06 '21 at 14:15
  • @JPhi1618 now that it's been pointed out, I can see that, but I can still see it being round. I'll bow out to the community consensus until/unless the OP says otherwise. – FreeMan Oct 06 '21 at 14:22
  • @JPhi1618 - sometimes with holes in the webbing between the leads, aka 'ladder wire'. Still used for some ham radio antennas. – Jon Custer Oct 06 '21 at 19:12
  • @jay613 the crawlspace door is pretty close to the chimney, which is in the room where i imagine a TV used to be, so that sounds spot on. – AwoeDace Oct 07 '21 at 03:43