Have to bury cable..

WOW forget gas prices - I need to run 3 #4awg wireles about 50 feet - thought the most painful part was going to be burrying the conduit! 1.25 per foot.

thats my complaint...

On a related note (maybe), a few years ago we were getting crappy cable reception so I called the cable company. The tech checked out everything and said it was the line running to the house. Our cable connects to the main line behind our back yard. He'd take care of it, he said.

A little while later I go to check on him. The guy hand dug a trench through my entire backyard and was starting to lay new cable. When he left, you couldn't tell he was ever there. Cable worked better after that, too.

So what ur are saying - I need to call the cable company - have them run a new line and while he is there just toss my conduit in his trench?? good idea!

Tell ya what- See if $62.50 will buy you enough beer and bandaids to recover from hand digging it...

The whole job didn't cost me a dime. In fact, I think I worked on the magazine while he fixed my cable.

I have too many really bad memories from trenching for conduit. That is HARD work. Ditch Witch rental for anything more than 3'. You really need to consider renting a machine. Really.

It could have been worse...the last time I priced 480vac, three phase, 400 amp buried conduit and cable, it was going to cost $69.00/foot installed.

GrantMLS wrote: So what ur are saying - I need to call the cable company - have them run a new line and while he is there just toss my conduit in his trench?? good idea!

From what I've seen, most cable companies dig a trench only about 4 inches deep and call it good.

We're building a house, we have to dig up the water and septic lines that went to our old house (trailer) and pull them out of the way for the foundation of the new badass house. My father in law laid out the water lines 25 years ago, and we had a professional come out and install a new septic system about a year ago. Septic line is about 3' deep where I'm diggin now, started about 6" or so at the house. The water line is about 12-18" deep and the ground is like friggin CONCRETE!! I'd love to rent a backhoe or something, but I'm afraid I'll sever the lines. Hand diggin is great, I've already broken 2 shovels.

Popping a water line with a backhoe is no fun. Try it on a gas line.

stuart in mn wrote: It could have been worse...the last time I priced 480vac, three phase, 400 amp buried conduit and cable, it was going to cost $69.00/foot installed.

GrantMLS wrote: So what ur are saying - I need to call the cable company - have them run a new line and while he is there just toss my conduit in his trench?? good idea!

From what I've seen, most cable companies dig a trench only about 4 inches deep and call it good.

In a former life I buried TV cable as a contract employe .... we buried anywhere from the aforementioned 4" (min) to as much as 1' ... we were using a cable plow... we also had special made hand trenchers (very heavy / square bladed shovel)

there were times we made use of a trencher but usually the plow

thinking of just laying hte conduit on the grass, than dumping a truck load of dirt over it - Indiana needs more hills.

Lots of cash-hungry high school kids out there right about now.....Flash $200, cash, tell him and can bring a buddy or two, and let'em at it. While you're home to "oversee."

By ANY CHANCE does this conduit trench have to be inspected now or in the future? Insurance? Resale? Building codes? Take pics, lots of pics, with yardstick in trench.

50ft, if you can't get the kids, rent the ditch witch. No, really.

I'll point out my cable line has been laying on the ground across a vacant lot and into the backyard of the guy who has the misfortune of hosting the buried access point for four years now. It's about a 50' run, I'd estimate. He's hit the line with his mower only once.

It's gotta beat hand digging a new well line. BTDT

Here in Arkansas, one does not dig. One moves boulders.

Buried electric cables may or not need a permit and/or inspection. It depends on where you live.

Try to avoid doing this:

slantvaliant wrote: Try to avoid doing this:

Looks like somebody found the gas line.

Edit: after a quick search it looks like this explosion was the result of corrosion that went undetected in the pipe and was not caused by digging. This pipeline runs from the Gulf to New York and dates to 1955.

Conduit in ground and wires snaked.. drinking beer now

And just found my new grassroots mag.. with a 2002 on cover...