Digging around utilities

[Todd.Brock]

Hey all, I want to dig out the area in white which is four feet by four feet to put pavers down. I need to go about six inches down. The white dots are for fence posts. I am enclosing a spot for the garbage can. The question is, how deep are the utilities? The call before you dig people were supposed to mark the depth but didn't. Should I call them back or just assume the electric is at least 12 inch deep and be careful with the phone and cable?

 

[tdkkart]

Ya, good luck with that.........

Seriously, I'd think about a different spot to put your garbage can.

I've personally seen phone and cable lines that were no deeper than the roots of the grass, and depending on the codes in your area and the person that did it, the electric could be anywhere from 6 inches to 6 feet down.

Stick a shovel in, but be DAMN careful.......

 

[Cuda]

I wouldn't assume anything Todd. The final grade could have really changed the depth of any utilities. I've hit phone lines with a tiller before.
I'd suggest you dig very carefully as it looks like you are directly over all three lines.

 

[Underdog]

Go ahead but be careful with the shovel. The corner post looks like it is right on top of the underground electrical service. If you put up a fence how is the meter reader going to read the electric meter? I'm assuming it is right above the conduit coming out of the ground.

 

[Aceman]

You can do it with a shovel but be careful. Like the others said, my phone line is only about 6-8" deep too.

 

[JimDon]

dig elsewhere if it were me. cost for hitting a buried utility around here starts in the thousands of dollars range. if you hit, your home owners will NOT cover you. find a different spot. just my 2 cents.
Jim

 

[jeepfan93]

Todd, I work for a utility and can tell you if any of those have been replaced from when the house was first built you WILL hit cable/phone. Electric will still be at least 30 inches down. As posted, you can do it, just be real careful and scrape the land, don't dive in.

 

[Todd.Brock]

Thanks for the replys. I may move it to the left to avoid risking it. That line going through my post location bugs me a bit!

 

[mdbeck1]

Around here buried TV cable is only about 6-10 inches deep. My dogs actually dug a hole in the back yard and exposed it. I'd find a different place to dig if I had any choice.

 

[A_Pmech]

I don't see anything particularly worrying. Start in the top left corner, dig in and work your way towards the buried lines. When you get close, scrape from the side rather than dig from the top. Hopefully, your electric service is in conduit, which would make that hard to screw up.

If you cut either one of the date lines I'd be surprised if they even sent you a bill for the work, but then again I know the local phone company repairmen...

Don't cut the power line.

 

[central1ny]

I just got done excavating my underground electrical feeder cable and this happened to be 30" down. Just so happens that the phone line was laid in the same trench when the electric cable was installed so both are at the same depth. But I wouldnt assume anything. If you dig there, be VERY careful. If you hit the power cable and break through the insulation, death may follow.

 

[Kevin54]

Electric will be deeper. Phone and cable will be just right under the sod unless they dropped it into the same ditch. You can dig it, just use caution and don't get stupid by jumping on top of the shovel to get a big bite. The area you need to be concerned about is the telephone box or cable box, whichever it is. Dig a little at a time and periodically pul the cable a little to see which direction it is running.

 

[darkk]

That red line I am assuming is the underground electrical. The electrical should be 30"-36" down and will be inside that grey PVC pipe sticking out of the ground. Just start at the post location and dig down easy until you hit that pipe. You may have to move slightly to the left to miss the pipe when installing your new post,but I doubt you will damage anything.

 

[Yardbirdaa]

Start digging about a foot from the side of the marked lines, and go down about as deep as you are looking to go. Once you are at depth, start digging in from the side towards the marked line. Don't dig it, but try to collapse it into the hole you dug, then scoop out the loose dirt. Make sure you go to your state's tolerance zone on either side of the mark.

Dig on all of the lines the same way. The power might be in conduit, might not. It might be 30 inches deep, or 12 inches deep. The only way to know for sure is to dig them up. I am willing to bet that the cable drop is less than 6 inches deep, and the phone is probably less than a foot deep. (10 years finding underground utilities)

 

[Todd.Brock]

Bad news. I started poking around in the dirt by the coax. It was onyl about 3" down. Also the grounding rod is sticking up about an inch above grade. I gave up and will be moving it to the left. Thanks all!

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

I will tell you about one experience that was NOT a laughing matter at the time. I worked for an asphalt company, and we were milling up the top layer of the street. All of a sudden we are hearing this hissing sound. A gas line (plastic, which I had never seen before), was run from the center of the street, two inches down (in the asphalt), to the grass on the side of the street (half the street length) about 18" into the grass, it went down to a "proper depth" and over to the house.


Gas company arrive REAL quick, as they knew about it ("some previous emergency repair" that had never been finished"), and they were hoping to beat the city inspector. They didn't.

One more,
My brother was building a house in the country. 48" main runs through his property (high pressure supply line). Company came out and marked it and said dig here, don't dig here. Well the auger wasn't digging so well so they brought it up and found the tip bent. They had hit the gas main, 5' from where the gas company said it was, and where the gas company told them to dig. They were informed to recalibrate ALL their equipment and prove they had done so, before ANY more marking.

Even if they had marked the depths, dig like they are wrong.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Yep, I was putting a fence in my yard, called, and found out the gas line 45'd into the yard, right where the corner post would be. Damn. Ok, I decided to run the fence at a 45* angle in the corner, and the gas line would pass right between the two posts, right? RIGHT?

I should probably also mention the asphalt from the street went up to 5' in my property, about 12" down, so I had to use a digging bar to get through the asphalt in the post holes.

Yeah...*thud* *thud* *CLANK* *PPSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

It turns out, if I had put a normal 90* corner in the fence, I would have been NOWHERE close to hitting the gas line. Unfortunately, I had already ran 100' of cemented in fence, so after they came out on friday night to fix the gas line (guy was pretty pissed until he saw I was over 4' away from their mark), I just cut that post shorter, threw some dirt over the line, and cemented that post in. There wasn't much I could do at that point, I sure wasn't ripping out 100' of fence and starting over to end up in the right spot for a 90* corner.