Fine advice about the electrician. My house was built in 1934, and uses the original wiring from the street. The earth is taken from the protection screen of the the street cable. Our water pipes in the road, if original, are lead ( hard water area! ), therefore well earthed outside the house anyway. Some of the houses in the road have had their mains supply reinstalled as `PME' supply, which is now the norm for new work. My own internal wiring is PME as is a requirement anyway, although my feed has not changed.
Reference Weaver broadband lines, anything he connects to his phone line is likely to wreck is broadband, and I think BT try to avoid fitting surge protectors for this reason. But, maybe, Weaver's problem could be also due to what get induced onto his mains supply feed, with an earth which is all over the place, making mains surge protectors ineffective. Bear in mind if the BT lines are are referenced to earth at the exchange, and the earth potential at his home is not stable,, then that could cause a problem.