putting in Conduit under driveway

[bimmer1980]

so in the latest episode of my garage build, I needed to run conduit from the house to the garage for the electrical. I had rented the Mini-Ex (bobcat 331) to do the digging for the plumbing and the electrical trench.

I get the trenches all dug and now it is time to get the conduit under the existing driveway. I prep up the 1" conduit with fittings so that I can attach a garden hose to it. turn on the water and start ramming it under the driveway. Yeah, tough going, I start hitting rocks about 2' in. I had about 12' total. then the fitting blows off, so I start hitting the end of the conduit with the sledge hammer, and then alternate with the water. After hitting myself with the sledge a few times (Dark, wet and miserable), I support the conduit with the excavator and am finally able to tap it to the other side. Of course, then I can't see it on the other side.... more diggin--there was water trickling out on the far side...

I finally find it--it's about 6" to the side of the trench. Then I need to get a couple of 2" conduits and the 1" in.... OK, I have the 1" in, so I hooked a chain to the end that popped thru, then hooked the other end to the bucket and pulled the chain back thru. Now I have a chain in the hole, so now I connected a 2" conduit and brought the 1" with water back around so they can both be dragged back thru... whew, skipping forward thru a lot of tedious details, but I eventually was able to use the mini-ex to pull in 2-2" conduits and 1" conduit..... Yikes! I finally finished up at 1:30am last night (actually this morning). then I was back up to go get diesel fo rthe mini-ex before the rental place came to pick it up......

Now I just have to continue with laying the rest of the conduit.....

let me know if anybody needs to do something like this....I learned a few things and if it can help somebody else.....

BTW--a directional line boring machine would have been much quicker, but cost would have been a bit much (I already had the mini-ex rented to do the plumbing, so this was a bonus...)

 

[JDMopar]

Good golly....what a mud pie! Glad you got it in. You can wad up a Wal Mart bag and tape a string to it , and **** it thru the pipe with a shop vac. Most of the time that works better than those spongie things that are made for that task. Good luck.

 

[Sokoloff]

How'd you attach the conduit to the chain, etc?

 

[nate379]

That is nuts seeing green grass and you are doing dirt work! We have had snow for a few weeks here and no way you are digging anything in frozen ground with that little machine at this point!

 

[bimmer1980]

yeah, it was a mud mess. I was covered in mud when I came in....

Here's a few more pics of the side where the conduit was pulled thru. In it you can see how I attached the conduit to the chain.

I wish I had had the special fitting that the pro's use for line boring, but I didn't and Lowes wasn't open at the time of night that I was doing this or I would have bought a couple of fittings to make it easier....

So here's what I did: took the chain and made a small loop so that the hook was connected about 1' from the end. Then I drilled a 3/8" hole about 2-3" back from the end of the conduit. Then I stuck the end of the loop (so the one link end had clearance) and pushed it into the conduit. THen I just put a bolt thru the whole deal and snugged a nut on.

The hook on the chain helped to widen the hole out before the end of the 2" conduit plowed in. I was worried about the end of the bolt snagging, but it did not. I was also concerned about the bolt shearing out of the conduit, but there was no problem there either.

I couple of times, I had to thread the chain into the conduit while it was under the water--I could not see it at all--had to do it blind.....

 

[Nostraquedeo]

I've done something similair with a drain pipe under a sidewalk, it sucked!

 

[bimmer1980]

I have the rest of the conduit run and the inspector signed off on it this morning!!!!

 

[srmofo]

what a fuggin mess. Ive got a buddy who wants to run his gutter drains under his driveway into a small creek and weve been contemplating how to get pipe under it. Thanks for the inspiration

 

[NUTTSGT]

I bet your wife was impressed with your muddy clothes. lol

 

[sstruckguy]

I hate to state the obvious, but putting "stuff" under existing "stuff" will ALWAYS be a problem.

 

[bimmer1980]

yeah, the wife says she should get a new washing machine out of the deal...........

Oh yeah, I new this was going to be a "fun" time... I had been thinking it over for a number of months. I could have easily just cut the asphalt (I have a concrete saw) and dug a trench, but I didn't want to have to patch the asphalt and have a big patched area..... that was my plan "B" if the DIY line boring had not been working....