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Conduit For Future Utilities

GA_Brown

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Oct 20, 2018
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21
Location
Georgia
My 30' x 40' garage is still being worked on, waiting on the electrician to finish up. So, before I start having concrete poured, I was wanting to run conduit (PVC) for any future utilities that I may want to install. Electric will be run by the electrician in a separate conduit but I may want to run Natural Gas (CSST), Water(Pex), Coax or Cat5/6. The run from the house to the garage is about 30'.

My question is should I run two 3" pvc pipes, one for Gas and one for everything else or should I run one 4" for everything? I was going to cap the pipe off at both ends.
 
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b-boy

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Oct 2, 2013
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Buffalo NY
I ran a water line, a flexible gas line, a 2" conduit for electric,and a 1" conduit for communication (fiber). Conduit comes up through the floor.

You can't put everything in 1 conduit. Water and gas were direct burial. The gas terminates outside the building and I had to drill a hole and run pipe into the building through the wall. That was a requirement in my area.

Water was 48" deep. Gas was 24" deep, conduit was 18" deep.

It made a hell of a mess. It's been a year and the soil in my yard is still settling.
 
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kaiser715

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Jan 15, 2017
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central NC
What does your local code say?

Here, gas has to be separated from power by 36". Water must be in a separate trench, too.
 

sberry

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Jun 18, 2005
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Brethren, Michigan
You could toss in a small pipe for com cable but everything is now wireless. Gas is direct burial, not in another pipe, put in a line now for water, skip the extra big pipe ****. I have never needed or used a "future" proof scheme.
 
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b-boy

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Buffalo NY
Yup- Most of your cost will be for digging the trench. You may as well load it up while you have it open.
 

yeldogt

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Jan 2, 2012
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I did not need to separate the various pipes -- the water lines and conduits along with the gas.

The propane was strange -- with new service the installers have to be certified ... IE: the propane company. We ran a 2" black flex pipe (the kind for water) in the trench out to where the tank will be. The propane company came and fished the propane line through the pipe and connected it up .. all after backfilling. The only other solution was to have them do it while it was open and they were a month out.
 

Falcon67

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Jun 11, 2009
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Merkel, TX
Based on what I've done/tried at the house and what we've seen at work pulling cable/things after tubes are in the ground - no less than 2" pipe for each/every/whatever. Especially if there are any bends.
 

b-boy

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Buffalo NY
Based on what I've done/tried at the house and what we've seen at work pulling cable/things after tubes are in the ground - no less than 2" pipe for each/every/whatever. Especially if there are any bends.

I can verify this statement. I had a hell of a time pulling 2-2-2-4 cable. There were a few bends. I ended up pulling it the last few feet with my truck because it was so stuck.
 
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GA_Brown

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Oct 20, 2018
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21
Location
Georgia
Thanks for the feed back.

I will check with the building dept and see what they have to say.

I'm renting a trencher to install drainage from the down spouts which will run under the concrete so trenching a 30 foot run for the conduit should not be an issue.
 

cvairwerks

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Aug 12, 2016
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Within hearing distance of Texas Motor Speedway
For pulling wires, you need to use sweeps rather than regular bends...then use pulling snot of some kind to make cables slide easily thru the conduits.

FYI: A sweep has bend radius of 9x the diameter of the conduit, while a bend runs around 4x.

I've pulled cable as large as 625 pair thru conduit and it can be a bit tough at times....
 

sberry

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2 2 2 4 will go in 1 1/2 with turns but is a little fight in lbs. I have done it 100 ft and 4 bends but 2 inch is quite a bit easier.
 

nmk_61802

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Mar 6, 2008
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965
Location
Central IL
In my area (and most others) CSST is not for underground service. Polypipe is the correct item, and easier to work with. Make sure you have a large conduit with few bends for the Pex, keep in mind it is smaller than the same copper size (i.e. 3/4" Pex is closer in flow to 1/2" copper).

Also, code usually allows for gas to be ran in conduit, however the conduit must be vented to the outside, of the line brought up outside the structure to allow a natural vent. If you have a leak inside the conduit you do not want it to travel into the structure via that same conduit.
 
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nmk_61802

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2 2 2 4 will go in 1 1/2 with turns but is a little fight in lbs. I have done it 100 ft and 4 bends but 2 inch is quite a bit easier.

Had no problem with mine in 1-1/2", but had heat bent everything but the sweep up. The LB as you mentioned was a bear.
 

sixty4

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Dec 1, 2007
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Location
CT
Yup- Most of your cost will be for digging the trench. You may as well load it up while you have it open.

I agree! I ran two extra 2" out to my detached. Very sorry I did not add more!
 

GrayFlattop

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Jan 18, 2018
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Location
Chicago
I put the water line in the deepest (~30") using 3/4" PVC but not deep enough to have water service in the garage during a super cold winter. I simply blow it out with compressed air every fall.

For gas, use polyethylene pipe for direct burial - just make sure that it is protected in the trench and when you backfill - no sharp stones. I used clean topsoil to lay a bed in the trench and then as a cover.

https://www.gastite.com/us/products/underground.html
Next up was the PVC conduit for electric service. 100A single phase was the plan and while you could use 1-1/4" conduit, I used 1-1/2" to make pulling easier.

I also ran an 1-1/4" PVC conduit and used that as a pulling chase for 1/2" nylon air brake tubing in case I ever wanted to supply compressed air to the house from the garage - or compressed air to the garage from the compressor in the basement.

Then a 1-1/4" PVC conduit for coaxial cable. At the time, DirecTV required 4 runs of RG-6 for the sat antenna and the garage had a an unobstructed shot at the sky where the satellite hangs out. I've since pulled out two of the coax runs (using one as a line to pull cat-6 for a new switch and WAP and reclaiming the other since it was high quality quad shield coax with a solid copper center lead). There is also a 4 conductor phone wire in that conduit - no longer used since the cell phone has replaced the hard-wired phone - or at least in the garage.

I also ran a 3/4 PVC conduit for the runners between the three way switches so outdoor garage lights could be turned on from the house and the back door light from the garage. This was a code requirement.

A second 3/4 PVC run was put in for a single 20 amp circuit from the house panel to the garage. This way I would have access to limited power if for any reason I decided to kill power to the 100 amp sub panel in the garage. I'll admit, this one was over-kill, but...

So total of :
one - 1" direct burial gas polypipe -
one - 3/4" direct burial PVC for water (no sink or urinal, but for car washing)
one - 1-1/2" PVC conduit for main power
one - 1-1/4" PVC run to contain air tubing
one - 1-1/4"" pvc conduit for communications
one - 3/4" PVC for lighting switch runs
one - 3/4" PVC for aux power

Since the distance was ~50' the extra runs didn't matter that much in terms of cost. If the distance were greater, I would have been more frugal.

Everything was in one trench, but at the time the local building inspector was a good friend and he knew that my work had integrity so he was never hung up on some of the minor bits of code requirements.
 

sberry

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Brethren, Michigan
If a guy is going to bury air line why not bury it at the time, same with water? I hae all underground, hundreds of ft. Only once have I ever come back to bury additional, it took another route anyway.
 

23ford

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Jul 26, 2014
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517
Location
Turley America
Run the comm in it;s own conduit and as far away from the electrical as possible.
They will say wireless is the way to go but you loose 20% of your speed on it.
 

coljar

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Sep 26, 2010
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6,244
Location
Belpre, Ohio
The only thing I have direct burial is NG, which is code. My electric is in 2 1/2" conduit. My water is in 2 1/2" conduit, and I have a 1" conduit for all the communications related wiring. Conduit is cheap. Bury enough and big enough so you never have to dig again.
 

6768rogues

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Nov 28, 2007
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4,524
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Western NY
I put in a spare 4" plastic conduit when I built 25 years ago and I have not yet used it. The gas company put another meter at my barn for free, and I can track how much gas each building uses.
 

Coyote556

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May 6, 2013
Messages
108
Location
The Show-Me State
I really wish I would have run a conduit to the center of the shop, where I want my welding table. That would have allowed electric from floor instead of ceiling.
 

sberry

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Brethren, Michigan
You can still do it. Get a diamondvlade for a small grinder, cutabout inch deep, air chisel it out, put in conduit and use pour rock. This IS something well worth it. A piece of copper building wire for welding ground, plasma ground can be good too. Mine all under floor and its really great out of the way. I fed 120v gfci and only 2 wire, used the wrlding ground for electric ground. This kreps any welding current from bring able to go on equipment ground wiring. I have steel building and connectrd benches.
 

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