New Underground Electric Service, Cable and Phone

All three are hanging on the edge of the roof.
I needed to get them off of the edge of the roof so I can add an overhang and finish the roof.
New meter socket wired in to the panel and temporary wired to old meter socket

digging ditch


one 3" pipe for power
and two 1.5 " pipes for cable and phone

Backill

Detectable "Buried Electric" ditch tape

 

Did a first class job with that Tim...

 

More backfilling
topped the ditch in the driveway with 2A limestone.
Hauled out the overdig

A sprinkle of stone over the driveway to clean it up

I'll plant grass when it cools down.
Called and made appointments to get all the services changed over.
Hoping to get them all done this week but I'm at their mercy.
Then time to finish the roof.

 

My Helpers

 

My Inspectors

Teaching Ruger to run the excavator

 

Good helpers. Bright looking pair.

 

I think they have a good future in the electrical business.

Although Ruger is very good at firewood hoarding!
He brings a new stick back every time he's out. I actually started collecting it all for kindling.
When he's helping me split he tries to grab every piece that hits the ground

 

I buried my electric when I remodeled 10 years ago. Electric company treated me well but when I wanted to bury the phone some snot nosed punk gave me a hard time.the phone is still overhead.

 

I've wanted to do this for a very longtime with hurricanes as a annual threat. The problem is that yes I'd fix from the pole to my house, but the lines will still be on poles to my house. Either way, burying the lines is a much cleaner looking option.

 

Valley Rural Electric could not have been any better to work with. Great people! I called them today, they will come out tomorrow to change the service over.
The engineer and a field guy actually helped me pull the feed out of the panel and temp feed it to the new meter socket.

So far the Atlantic cable co had been good.

Verizon has been ok. Getting through their automated phone system was annoying.
If they are not here this week I'll cut it down and leave it down. It's only for emegency anyway.
Our cell phones work great though a network extender on the cable modem

 

Maybe I'm a little biased but I hate underground electric. Mine runs from the pole underground, if I could I would run it overhead. That's just me though. Looks like you did one heck of a job.

 

What is your reasoning?

 

Nice work turbo! I have some of that to do in my future for the detached garage I just moved and when I get to building wife's horse barn.

 

Tell us more about moving the garage!

 

I am an overhead lineman which causes the bias. I always tell people that an overhead problem is much easier to find and fix than one that's underground.

 

Probably true. But if its buried there is not too much that can go wrong. Unless it gets dug up.
and whoever digs through the ditch tape and hits it will be fixing it.

The bigger lines under ground I can see your point

 

Generally true. You'd be suprised the amount of trouble jobs I get for underground services though. One good thing that you did for sure was use conduit.

 

I don't think there is any other way in our area. I did recently watch a YT video using direct burial. Probably in sandy soil. It's generally pretty rocky here in our mountains.
The engineer from Valley Rural Elec. Co. gave me a hand out when he came that showed their requirements.
3" conduit 24" deep. (but he told me he wanted 30". Maybe because of going under the driveway)
Ditch tape
2 ground rods 8' long with continuous ground wire.
Was all stuff we are used to around here.

 

I know we have a lot of direct buried stuff on the system I work on. Probably why it breaks down.