How to dig the narrowest 3' deep trench or minimize sand fill for a wide trench?

[orezok]

Perhaps you don’t understand reality due to lack of experience.

 

[4570Man]

Perhaps you don’t understand reality due to lack of experience.

I understand that I’m working with budget constraints every day and I can’t afford to make every single thing 2-3 times more expensive against an extremely small chance of a slightly harder repair. We’re laying 300 ft of conduit here a fairly easy diy job it’s not building a nuclear reactor. And you keep diverting without answering my original question. Have you ever successfully dug up and repaired a residential service line without just ripping up the entire thing and replacing it anyway?

 

[Wagtail]

Following.

 

[AnotherBueller]

Dig the ditch…..install electrical……once it’s passed out the 2” in right on top of sand covering the other conduit
I mean once it’s passed who’ll know what’s under it

Need to have a minimum of 12" between power lines and cat 5e/6e data cables with all crosses at right angles or there WILL be data speed lost or NO data if the run is long enough. Optical fiber lines need much less separation, like >2 inches. If I was doing is I'd spend the extra money and use direct bury cable. The reason is that direct bury is water proof and I don't think that I would warranty that job any other way because, between both entry points and all the joints, I don't think I could keep water out of the conduit.
By the way 300 feet is the max distance for CAT 5e/6e before data speed drops to a unusable speed.

 

[paulsharvey]

Ok, so, by the time the wire is an issue in conduit, the conduit is nearly always unusable. That UG power wire should last 40 years. Find me some conduit from 1985 that you can A, pull the old wire out of, and B, blow a string and pull new wire?

So, I dont want to say dont do it per utilities spec, do it their way. The telecom, whatever. In the end, if it fails, someone will just rerun it in 40 years

 

[Spanner]

Entered.

 

[DutchInNZ]

When they laid fibre here at 4-5' deep along the main road not so long ago, they used a horizontal drilling machine that pulled the conduit through at the same time; they did afaik around 150', dug a small hole to where the joint to the next stretch would be, moved the drill there and laid the next part. The guys of the fibre company Chorus told me that they consider this set-up faster and more stable long-term than filled trenches.

Maybe that way would be OK there with your provider? The hire of such drill will be a bit more expensive than of a digger, but you will not have extra costs for sand and the work is done much faster, rocks or not, so the renting time will be a lot shorter. Of course that is only worth while if both cables, so also the power line, can be laid the same way.

All the side roads here in this rural area are still on the old copper phone lines that go at almost 45Mb/s, stable and fast enough for normal houses although marginal for gamers.

 

[future_vision]

If you're renting the CAT for a whole month, the cost of $300/day for a trencher seems low???

I need the CAT for a lot of other work. Renting a trencher on top of that would be too much especially if I ran into trouble and the rental bled in to additional days. Glad I didn't rent one. There were a number of rocks that would have stopped it dead in its tracks and I still have a 100' to go.

 

[4570Man]

When they laid fibre here at 4-5' deep along the main road not so long ago, they used a horizontal drilling machine that pulled the conduit through at the same time; they did afaik around 150', dug a small hole to where the joint to the next stretch would be, moved the drill there and laid the next part. The guys of the fibre company Chorus told me that they consider this set-up faster and more stable long-term than filled trenches.

Maybe that way would be OK there with your provider? The hire of such drill will be a bit more expensive than of a digger, but you will not have extra costs for sand and the work is done much faster, rocks or not, so the renting time will be a lot shorter. Of course that is only worth while if both cables, so also the power line, can be laid the same way.

All the side roads here in this rural area are still on the old copper phone lines that go at almost 45Mb/s, stable and fast enough for normal houses although marginal for gamers.

It’s only a 300 ft run. You could go to Lowe’s in the morning and rent a mini x for $300 and have the 300 ft in and covered up before the sun goes down. How is the drill going to be faster than that? The utility company is only using the drill because they’re crossing driveways. An open excavation is way faster and cheaper.

 

[future_vision]

When they laid fibre here at 4-5' deep along the main road not so long ago, they used a horizontal drilling machine that pulled the conduit through at the same time; they did afaik around 150', dug a small hole to where the joint to the next stretch would be, moved the drill there and laid the next part. The guys of the fibre company Chorus told me that they consider this set-up faster and more stable long-term than filled trenches.

Maybe that way would be OK there with your provider? The hire of such drill will be a bit more expensive than of a digger, but you will not have extra costs for sand and the work is done much faster, rocks or not, so the renting time will be a lot shorter. Of course that is only worth while if both cables, so also the power line, can be laid the same way.

All the side roads here in this rural area are still on the old copper phone lines that go at almost 45Mb/s, stable and fast enough for normal houses although marginal for gamers.

I've seen those machines. I don't know if they get used much where I live. Just too much rock in the ground.