Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Trench warfare

The utilities (electric, gas, fiber optic) all come into the shop as that was the first building to go up.  We obviously have to get these run to the house.  The well is over by the house.  I also need water out to the shop.  So we needed a trench.  With a water pipe, we needed to make it deep enough to prevent freezing, so it was dug 6' deep to start, and the water line was laid in as we went.  That runs under the house footing, along with 2 electrical conduits we put in before backfilling the foundation.  So the water line is 6' down and the excavator rolled the pipe out (plastic) and then backfilled over it ~2 feet as he went.  Then the conduits for electrical and low voltage wires went in with a little backfill, followed by the gas pipe.

This was a brutal weekend.  The first point is the distance.  It is ~320' from end to end.  Then the electric service wire is huge and heavy and very inflexible.  It was a 2-man job to get the wire in the conduit, which was also massive 3" stuff (and also heavy).  This was exhausting work, but it is finally done and the trench filled back in.

Here is the trench with the water line already buried and ready for conduit.

Unrolling the massive electric service wire.  400 lbs worth on the spool! Tractor to the rescue.

 Unrolling it along the driveway
 Fully unspooled and ready to lift into the trench

Overview fro the shop with the conduit complete.  It's a looong way to the house! Power is the large one on the left, low voltage the smaller one on the right.

 Looking reversed towards the shop
 Where the conduits and water pipe go under the house foundation.  You can see the blue water pipe poking out at the bottom.
 Where they end at the shop.  I need to get them connected to the main meter panel soon.

Now it's all covered up and waiting for a more final grade.  No pics of that right now.  That's all for now, and brings everything up to date!


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