trenching utilities to barn

[mjw357]

Hi, built new horse barn last year, now we are wanting to get water/electric out there. About 150' from house to barn. I am thinking about renting trencher and putting water line, direct bury electric and conduit for video/cat5 in the same trench. Planning on digging down 4' and putting water line on bottom, electric next then conduit over that.

What say ye?

 

[RedTailHawk]

sounds like the same project I've been planning for a couple months. My hold up is trying to figure out exactly where septic lines run so I don't trench through them

 

[dieselcrawler]

Former electrician...

Keep low voltage (cat 5/phone) and high viltage (120v/240v) separated by 18" or more. Keep electric and water separated by 18" or more, preferably in separate ditch if under jurisdiction of an inspector, and electric 18" or more below surface, with 'caution buried electric' tape 6" below grade.

 

[milligjg]

Dont use cat5, use cat6

 

[oldpilgrim]

some codes won't allow water and electric in same trench, if codes matter to you.

 

[dalroo]

I did a similar project last year - ran about 150' of direct burial (4/0 4/0 2/0) cable from pole to barn, and 350' of 3/4" pex from meter to barn. I'm in central Texas, so no big worry on frost line, but still tried to stay around 3' down on water and a bit deeper on power.

Quick suggestion to OP, if you are going to rent, spend the bit of extra money and get a tractor with trencher as opposed to a walk behind. I wasted a day's rental and a lot of effort on trenching my clay soil and never really got the depth I needed. Traded up on the rental and completed the entire job in less than 2 hours using the proper equipment. The trench was much deeper, cleaner, straighter, and not filled with my sweat. Also, as someone else suggested, place hazard tape about 6 - 10" below grade. I just used caution tape, but now see that some has a metal strip for easier detection. Wish I would have known or thought about this.

Not sure if we are necessarily to code, but think did a good job. Have a 300 amp box at pole, grounded, and then pulled into 200 amp box in barn. That is way more than I need, but my dad had spare boxes along with the breakers, so we went with it. We wired 6 receptacles, and 2 switched overhead floods, plus porch light, and 30 amp outlet for travel trailer.

The water was pretty easy - ran the line to foundation of barn into a 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2" T - I then plumbed a frost free hydrant to the 3/4" and ran 1/2" along foundation and then into spigot inside barn.

 

[PJSprog]

We've talked about doing this, too. We currently have no power to the barn, which is about 75 yards from the house. My wife's late grandmother had a sketchy plumber come in to do some work at the house a couple of years ago. The bozo took out the overhead A/C line from the well house to the barn bringing in his backhoe (amongst other boneheaded things), and it was never fixed. Rather than run another overhead, we thought buried would be the better option.

 

[C4Ranch]

Ditto dalroo. I did over 400' of trenching. Rented 45hp ride on ditch witch.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Quick suggestion to OP, if you are going to rent, spend the bit of extra money and get a tractor with trencher as opposed to a walk behind. I wasted a day's rental and a lot of effort on trenching my clay soil and never really got the depth I needed.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. A walk behind and clay soil is a recipe for frustration. I just put part of my utilities underground last year, and I doubt I'll ever rent a walk-behind again. I thought a 14 hp DitchWitch would make short work of running 3 trenches (power, phone, cable) a mere 75 feet. It was a nasty struggle every inch of the way. At some points, I had two strong young men acting as mules, basically, strapped to the trencher helping me to pull it through the soil.

Never again!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I ran a phone line in 1300' of trench that I dug with a rented ride on Ditch Witch. A fair amount of that went through rock, what the locals call shale. The bar had carbide rock teeth, and it actually cut pretty well. But once in a while a piece would break off and the whole thing would jump about a foot in the air until the chunk came to the surface. Yeee haaaah!

I just wish the dirt would have stayed on the surface instead of piling back into the trench. I spent three days with a trenching shovel cleaning everything out.

Oh, and keep an eye out for snakes in the trench once you get it dug. They have a heck of a time getting back out, and to them you look like a pretty good ladder! :laughing:

 

[Qapla]

See, if you had bought a BH to go with that B3200 you wouldn't have to ask about trenching - sounds like a good reason (excuse) to buy one

 

[check]

See, if you had bought a BH to go with that B3200 you wouldn't have to ask about trenching - sounds like a good reason (excuse) to buy one

Yup. Nothing like a backhoe on the back of the tractor when you need it. I have a BX25, and tomorrow morning I'm digging a 4 foot deep trench about 70 feet long for a cottage neighbor. Shouldn't take long at all!

 

[grsthegreat]

My jurisdiction allowed common trench with separation. I used an excavator to dig about 300 feet of trench with a 24" bucket. Placed water at bottom of 48" deep trench to one side. Filled in 12" soil then placed power and twin cat 5 cables (16 years ago) in CONDUIT with power to one side and com to the other. Buried with twin runs of marking tape.

Run ethernet and phones to shop plasma cutter and computer. Never been an issue. With conduit ive never had any issues. You wouldnt believe the number of times ive had to dig up direct burial to repair damages. Ill never use that cra*.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Yup. Nothing like a backhoe on the back of the tractor when you need it. I have a BX25, and tomorrow morning I'm digging a 4 foot deep trench about 70 feet long for a cottage neighbor. Shouldn't take long at all!��

Yeah, shouldn't take long at all, until you hit a rock, that is. Even something bread box size can put a real crimp in your day with those little three point backhoes. Roots tend to give 'em a real workout, too. Forget about digging out a good size root ball, unless you've got all day to do it.

If you live where the soil is miles deep, a little 'hoe might be fine. But where I live, it's much easier to find a neighbor with a real backhoe and give 'em a few bucks to take care of it for you.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm a contractor and I own a riding trencher. Code is that you never put electric and water in the same trench. The reason is that if the water line ever breaks and you have to dig it up, you don't want power in there with water all over the place. The dirt between the trenches needs to be undisturbed so water can not get from one trench to the other if there is a break.

Depending on your soil and how deep you go, a walk behind trencher should be fine. Before buying the riding trencher, I always rented walk behind ones and I'm in an area of all red clay that gets very hard in summer. I feel the big advantage to a riding trencher is the blade in front for filling in the trenches. That's where the real work is!!!! Worse job ever was a 1,200 foot trench and filling it back in with a shovel.

 

[Snobdds]

I agree, never put electric and water in the same trench. Also, their should be at least 3 feet distance between the two trenches.

 

[dalroo]

Good points Eddie.

When we did our water/power project I dug two trenches - one for power and one for water, and yards apart. And unfortunately for me, I picked up the ride-on trencher in the late afternoon and it was booked on a different rental the following morning. I only had it for the evening, and had to return early the next morning, so did not get the benefit of using the blade to fill in the trench. Instead I did it by hand with a shovel and hoe. That was a lot of shoveling! In hindsight, as soon as we had the trenches dug, we should have laid the cable and pipe with excess on the ends, and immediately back-filled. This would have saved me hours of labor, but I didn't think about it until after the fact.

 

[widefat]

I rented one of these: Trenchers - EZ-TrenchEZ-Trench to do a 2000ft dog fence. I only wanted to go 4 inches deep. It was a major PITA - it was not powerful enough to do the job, kept stalling even with the gentlest treatment.
I ended up hooking a sub-soiler to the tractor, doing a pass over the whole perimeter, then going through with the trencher. Saved myself hours of struggling to break up the
hard ground.

 

[Deere Dude]

Separate trenches for electric and water. I hope it is local. I cannot imagine separate trenches for water and electric in Wisconsin. You would have a mountain of dirt with no place to go with it. If the powerline or waterline goes out, just dig a new trench for a new line.

 

[rhunt]

I read this subject but see no mention of permits or inspections. You can not backfill until inspector see's the trench depth and sand fill around electric run. Not trying to stir up any trouble here but there are very good reasons for permits and inspections when it comes to electric. Best regards, Bob