Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hi Guys!

I decided to  install edging around the shrub beds on my property instead of just deep edging . Last year I scalped the lawn next to the beds several times when the front wheel of my 21" walk behind went over the edge. Not a difficult job but I never realised that the cable TV line is burried less than 4" below the surface. I cut the line in several spots knocking out my TV and internet service.

I missed the trouble on this site and some important Emails which has caused me further embarassment. Not to mention the strain that not  having TV places on your marriage.

The cable guy told me I should have called before starting to dig so they could come out and mark the line. I told him the cable should be burried deeper than one shovel's depth. He responded by telling me that the code calls for a minumum of TWO inches.

To add insult to injury they are sending me a bill for $39.95.

Not a great couple of days,

Marc  

Hey MM, I work for the local power company. You would'nt believe how many times a week or primary gets cut (7200volts) and we burie it 4 ft atleast . We are all the time cutting phone and cable lines when installing poles or underground cable. Because  they say hand dig it well by the time you cut trough the sod you have already cut thier stuff. I think they should atleast go 2ft with it . It would probably save them alot of work, but then again loose alot of repair bills    later mike

When i was in high school back in 1980 one summer i worked for a outfit that buried phone line from the box to the house for the phone company. We had a guy from the phone and cable co working with us that went house to house marking there lines. The phone guy was always on the money with his marks. But the cable guy would miss his by a foot or two we cut so many people cable. But the guy was right there to fix it but we didnt get charged for it. I put up a wood fence a couple of years ago and cut my phone line i was able to splice the wires together so i could call the phone co but they didnt charge me anything to fix it. Knock on wood

Hi Guys!

I am the original owner of my home which dates back to 1974. I put in the sprinkler system myself using a "Ditch Witch " to dig the trenches. I have a shed in my back yard which I had built in 1987 that is the size of a single car garage. I ran 220 service to the shed so I can run a compressor or weld etc. On my patio I have a gas barbeque with a natural gas line from the house that I installed underground the first summer we moved in.

  I renovated the lawn in back of the house last summer and called in the utility companies to mark gas and electric. I had a contractor with a commercial grade roto tiller come in and turn over the entire yard to a depth of 8". Not one gas line or electric wire or sprinkler or phone line was touched. Had I not called the utilities (which I would not recommend) I still would not have had any damage because the lines were installed at a REASONABLE depth. Putting TV cable line at a depth of 2" is STUPID. The reality of the 2" depth is the cutting of the cable every time you use a Blue Bird Power Rake, Core Aerator or G-D forbid deep edge a bed with so "high tech" a piece of OPE as a flat  bladed shovel.    

Just so you know ,the cable company re-installed a whole new cable from the box running some 80' at a depth of, you guessed it , 2".

Marc 

Hi...

I belong to the cable cutter club too...

Neighbor hired me to dig a 100' trench about 12" deep with my little backhoe... He said no need to "call before you dig" since he was there when the house was built and all the underground stuff is on the other side of the house...

Well... on one scoop I see a 2" thick white cable come up... cut in 1/2...

Immediately took may hands off any metal... luckily is was not an electric line... but the main cable TV feed to the subsivision...

It was Superbowl Sunday...  He called the cable co... they said if it was severed by a hand shovel they fix it free... severed by a machine then he pays !

We quickly got the tractor out of sight... raked over all the tire tracks... cable guy shows up... looks at the trench and cut cable... and says with a smile ... "Yeah... this was cut be a shovel.. right ?"

Fixed it at no charge...

Dave...

Marc

It may be a bit late, because I can't visualize exactly how the cable is installed,  I'd like to suggest a cheap solution.

At home depot you can buy lenths of 10 ft pvc electrical conduit for less then 1.00. One end is male and the other female so you can piece the sections together. For 80 ft it's less then 10.00. If there is a coupling block on the outside of your house you can unscrew it from there, pull it back where it goes through the beds, then feed back through 1 to 10 ft section at a time. You don't need to use PVC cement on the joints, they fit tightly and gives you the option to separate in the future if need be. Bury it deeper if you like, but not too deep or you may come up short. This way it would avoid future cuts unless you have a jack hammer of a foot while shoveling.

I did this last year with 120 feet of low voltage lighting cable that the shovel found,  rather than patch it, I ripped it all out and put it through the conduit. After the install no more worries.

Regards

Will

My telephone people came out once with a battery operated voltage detector/meter to hunt for the line, turned out it had been buried so deep the meter didn't find it. It got a faint beep once but after digging we turned up nothing. They went back and got a bigger one, more sensetive, and finally found it. It was buried 2 feet deep. Guess the Ditch Witch guy went a little overboard.

Hi. I'm just curious as to what a "ditch witch" is.

                                                                       Thanks,  Kevin

Vangellis wrote: Trenchers. Would have been useful in high school. LOL 




http://www.ditchwitch.com/dwcom/Category/CategoryView/2

Marshall, I'm not a mind reader but I see a lot of detentions back in your days in school.... LOL

Before I paid the bill, I'd call the cable company and ask for copies of their underground intallation specs.  They should have a document stating how deep the cable should be buried under different conditions (although I'd guess they won't be willing to share it).  Then call the town zoning office and ask about standards for buried cable.  I'd be willing to bet they have them and are willing to share.  If either one is deeper than 4", send the cable company a bill for "shallow cable burial detection services."

LL