fix severed outdoor Time Warner cable coax line?

Earlier this evening I used my SUV to pull a large boulder out of the ground.  Unfortunately it completely severed the Time Warner coax cable that we get our internet and telephone service over.  Naturally, my family only cared about their lost internet, not about the boulder.
 
I was able to restore internet service by doing a horrible, ugly patch.  I'm amazed it even worked.  So, the question I have is: should I redo it using  waterproof connectors (assuming they exist), or should I just let Time Warner handle the problem?    I don't want to get hit with some large repair fee.  Time Warner had buried the coax wire only about 3 inches below the surface, and so it was inevitable that it would eventually get severed by something.  I mean, how can I even  aerate my lawn with such a shallow cable install?

sounds like a typical cable install if your house was there before the cable company came into town. 
 
technically the cable between the street and house is their responsibility, but you cut it, but they did a crappy job installing it.
have no idea if they would stick you for it.
 
if you let them fix it, they may want or be required to do it correctly, which might mean a lot of digging.   and more money.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Tyco-Connector-Cable-Splice-Resistant/dp/B0012GRHBG
 
this sounds like its only the splice box, you'd need compression connectors and a barrel and the tools.

The outdoor cable used by Time Warner has a layer of clear sticky slime coated over the braided conductor.  It looks and feels like the sticky secretion seen in the movie Alien.    I presume it's there as a waterproofing agent, but it makes splicing it tricky.  I can only hope it's non-toxic!  I used some screw-on RG6 connectors because it was all I had handy, and I bridged the gap with an RG59 cable (stupid, I know, but again it's all I could scrounge rather late at night).  Home Depot had splice connectors that can connect both RG6 and RG59.  It's easily the ugliest hack I've ever done, and it's a miracle that it works at all.  However, the family was happy to get the internet back so quickly, so as a temporary fix it was worth it.  However, I'm not sure it will survive even one instance of rain, so thanks for the link..
 
The irony is that if TW wanted to lay cable, there would never be a better time than now.  I've already dug most of a 12-18" deep ditch (as part of a drainage project to construct a swale) to lay it in.  Hence, the reason I was pulling ginormous boulders out of the ground.  However, feeding that notion into TW's bureaucracy probably has no hope of success.
 
The easiest thing might be to change internet providers, as usually the hookup is free.  I rather like TW's internet, though.....  Jeesh, it's a dilemma.
 
Natural Gas and Electric were buried much deeper.  I ran across the yellow Hazard warning tapes for them while digging, but not the actual lines themselves.  You can see part of the hazard tape in the photo.  The telephone cable is about 6 inches deep in some parts and a lot deeper in other parts.
 
There are two TimeWarner cables in the photo.  One is from a prior installation and no longer in use.  Unfortunately, the one that got severed is the one currently in use.  Neither cable had any marking on the cable jacket, not even a date.   :angry:   That makes removing obsolete cables very hard to do whenever you chance across them, as there's no telling if it's live or not.

Oddest occurance here about 3 weeks ago.  I had been modding my PFSense firewall and went off line one day for a few hours.
 
Next day I saw a Comcast truck in front of my home.
 
I walked out there as the tech was in the local box (closest to my home) checking the cables and asked what he was doing.
 
He said a trouble ticket had been opened for me automatically (didn't know that they did that) to check my cable. 
 
While looking at it; he told me the cable was old (well it is 12 years old maybe?) and replaced it with some new type of cable.  I don't recall what he said it was but it doesn't appear to be RG-6.  It's much thicker and looks almost to be same type used between the boxes between the houses here. 
 
I did help a bit checking the signals on his meter while he was in the box (~200 feet away ?) and later did reroute the cable.
 
I had good signals here with the old cable anyways. 
 
I was impressed with the service and the speed in which he changed the cable.
 
The old cable is still there and historically have thought about building a little berm in front of the box and now I can bring LV LED lights to the area.
 
AT&T is now in our little subdivision offering their services using the coaxial cables rather than laying new infrastructure (well fiber / catXX to homes).  I wanted to get it as a secondary ISP connection until I noticed it would be using the coaxial infrastructure in our subdivision.  Personally in FL the cable was never upgraded such that I went to FIOS as soon as it was available; well even helping with the installation as I sort of picky where the dmark was located and stuff.  Used to use DSL there for internet for many years.  Verizon did put new infrastructure in but its only 50 houses on three blocks. (thinking it took them only a few days).
 
Unrelated to your OP I have not seen the movie Tomorrowland but did my kids to Disney's Tomorrowland for many many years (it was their favorite).

By the way, assuming I do make a permanent patch myself, what kind of outdoor coax cable should I use, and where can I get it?  The silly RG59 patch cable I used on the temporary fix is for indoor use, as would other RG6 cables I might use.

Old stuff here was direct burial RG-6.  I will take a picture of the new cable and connector and post it here shortly.  Googling found it.  It is direct burial RG-11 (that isn't though between the boxes)
 
The reason I mentioned that it looked like the between boxes cable is that electric company severed the line between boxes last year in the winter and I did a quick connect for a few hours until the cable company cable and fixed it.  They wouldn't fix it until the electric company left such that it was already dusk by the time it got repaired.
 
I just basically twisted the center wire and some of the shielding.
 
It was a blizzardy windy cold day and I didn't look when it got repaired (took him about an hour and it was buried with the electric lines some 4 / 5 feet down in a big hole).
 
He did cover the patch with some sort of tubing making the spliced area very thick.
 
I do not have the tools today to terminate this type of cable.  The service guy called it RG something or another.  Maybe its just thick direct burial RG-6.  I've never seen it at any of the local big box stores though.

I would call T-W and ask them if they will charge you to repair or replace the cable.  There might be no charge at all, and they might have a better repair method than the Home Depot kit.  I'll bet they run into this sort of thing all the time and can easily deal with it.
 
If you decide to repair it yourself, you definitely need to use RG6 direct burial cable.  Regular RG6 will not hold up to moisture.
 
Every state has a "Call before you dig" 800 number, or in many places, you just call 811.   They will send someone out to mark the cable locations, and that gets you off they hook for being responsible for damage.

Around here, we're regularly reminded to "Call before you dig".  There is a free service to come and locate buried infrastructure (http://www.on1call.com/).  Their website says prominently:
 

Remember, you are liable for any damage or injury caused by interfering with any buried infrastructure.

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I thought this was a pretty common thing through North America, no?  
 
Craig

Theoretically, the cable is their property, even though it runs under your lawn.  You really need to call them in on this one.  I would bet that they won't charge you.  I have had Comcast replace the cable from the pole to my house twice because of squirrels eating through the cable at the connectors.  They have never even mentioned charges.  I realize that you did it, but I still think they will replace it.

Phone and cable are sometimes very shallow and actually come out of the surface sometimes.  They should be deeper but often aren't.  I think I would tell them you hit it when doing yard work and how shallow it was and leave off the boulder part.  If they want to charge you then you can tell them you will just drop them instead.  I am guessing they probably will just fix it. 
 
About 6 years ago I wanted to regrade an area that the the phone line went through and reroute the phone line.  Major excavation about 400 feet across.  I was doing some trenching for other things.  The phone guy just gave me a roll of direct burial cable and said to let him know when I was done so he could put in some permanent splices.  But over time the utilities have started charging for more of this type thing.

Yup; here CC guy just dropped it on the lawn and told me another crew would come and bury the line this month (June).
 
Well the way it was dropped was crossing over many sprinkler lines which I would prefer not to deal with should an accident occur. 
 
That said I asked about running it the same way as the old cable.  Shortest path was under the deck. 
 
He stated that would be an extra charge.  The next day I disconnected it end to end and reran the cable myself. 
 
It still needs to be buried but its only crossing two sprinkler lines and it is much less grass / less trenching will occur to bury it.

Just call the cable company to replace the drop. The last thing you want is to replace the connector and bury it and then the fitting becomes oxidized. Your MSO shouldn't charge you for a drop since that is their property.

Have them fix it. If they want to charge you (which I don't think they would do anyway) say you are going to cancel service. They will fix it for free. If you don't have service you won't pay your bill and if you don't pay your bill, they don't get money.
 
By the way, the four simple words "please cancel my service" can get you many cable or Internet services for free.

RAL said:

Every state has a "Call before you dig" 800 number, or in many places, you just call 811.   They will send someone out to mark the cable locations, and that gets you off they hook for being responsible for damage.

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Before doing any of this work, I did call the call-before-you-dig number, and they marked out the utility lines, including the TW cable.  From what I can tell, they even did a pretty good job of tracing the paths and marking them on the ground with spray paint.  They were color coded no less.  They did great work--even better than what I had hoped for.  Are you saying my having done that actually gives me immunity if I subsequently sever the cable anyway?  Anyone know?  Is that how it works?  As you can probably tell, I haven't really done this before.    When this mishap occured I could clearly see where the TW cables were, as by then they were largely very exposed in the trench.   It required a lot of gingerly digging not to cut them with a shovel when I was digging the trench.   I just got unlucky in that the boulder snagged one of the cables (the live one) when I was pulling the boulder out of the trench with my SUV.  It's just an inherently crude extraction process.  The other, obsolete cable was fairly close to it, but the bolder didn't snag it, and it didn't sever.
 
The cable looks very much like this one:
 

 
So, I guess that means it's double shielded.  Apparently the sticky stuff I encountered is a gel.
 
I checked the pricing on direct burial RG6, and it's fairly cheap, maybe 10 cents a foot....
 
Since a lot of the cable pathway is currently laid open because of the open trench, I'm sorely tempted to install a conduit so any future cables can be run through it and I hopefully won't accumulate a spiderweb of obsolete cables under my lawn, leading to future confusion as to which is live and which isn't.  Anyone here done that?  What material should I use?  PVC, electrical conduit, smurf, pex, or other?  What diameter?  What would I use to cover each end of it so that it doesn't fill up with rainwater?  If I provide it, will the cable company even use it, or will they just robotically bury any new cable 3 inches under the turf because that's their standard practice?  Anyone here have experiences that might indicate which way the chips will fall?
 
So, yes, I should call TW and ask.  My earlier attempt at that yielded a baffling result, so I'm not sure how useful it will be this time.  The earlier time, before calling the call-before-you-dig number, I actually called up Time Warner cable because I was under the mistaken belief they weren't covered by the call-before-you-dig number, and I was trying to ask them to come mark their cable.  The first tech had no idea what I was talking about, and so he transfered me to another.  I kid you not, the answer given me by their tech support was: "We don't mark cables.  You should just pull up the cable yourself, starting at where it connects to your house, if you want to see where it goes so that you don't dig through it."  WTF?  I thought I might actually have to do that.  Luckily, the call-before-you-dig marking crew did mark where the TW cable was buried, even though when  I called it in they never mentioned it as one of the utilities they'd be marking.  Despite that, the tech at TW never even suggested calling the call-before-you-dig number.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that the TW tech's don't seem very knowledgable about these types of burial questions.  It doesn't seem to be in their purview.

pete_c said:

The next day I disconnected it end to end and reran the cable myself. 

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So, did you connect the cable into their little utility box on the edge of the street?  Cable is so cheap I'm sorely tempted to just do that and move on.  As long as I did it right, it would be a win-win for both me and TW.  Is their junction box technically their sovereign territory, even though if it's on my property?   To date I've been assuming it's a bit like the Klingon homeworld in Star Trek Into Darkness:  it's "the one place we just cannot go."   B)
 
Regarding Tomrrowland the movie, my family and I liked it.  It wasn't outstanding, but it raised an interesting philosophical point about how self-fulfilling prophecies in the present might be shaping humanity's collective destiny.