Pre-existing underground Wire gong to detached garage

hornetd said:

The reason that the conduit coming out of the ground is not next to the house wall is that the foundation footer of the ground floor wall extends out from the wall a foot or so.

At this point, because of the conduits susceptibility to physical damage, I would carefully dig down to the bottom of the trench were that conduit probably begins and rebuild that conduit so that it came over the top of the footer and ran up to the wallrom the top of the footer and then you will s. Use a pair of forty five degree elbows to run the conduit down to the bottom of the trench ftill have 180 Degrees of bends to get it to an L or a box.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the building foot should be the main reason for the clearance. But, also there are some remnants of an old concrete sidewalk besides the exterior walls right next to the walls (probably from decades ago and now there are plants growing on it, etc).

Will carefully dig and cut the top of the existing pvc conduit, and build a new pvc conduit track underground which will then emerge again next to the exterior wall whereby the circuit breaker panel is located on the other side. The two 45 degrees will create a smooth curve radius (good way of approaching it)

I will post back with the commencement of the job.

tk3000 said:

Yeah, the building foot should be the main reason for the clearance. But, also there are some remnants of an old concrete sidewalk besides the exterior walls right next to the walls (probably from decades ago and now there are plants growing on it, etc).

Will carefully dig and cut the top of the existing pvc conduit, and build a new pvc conduit track underground which will then emerge again next to the exterior wall whereby the circuit breaker panel is located on the other side. The two 45 degrees will create a smooth curve radius (good way of approaching it)

I will post back with the commencement of the job.

Click to expand...

You only have to put enough conduit between the two Forty Five degree bends to make the one elbow sit in the bottom of the trench; two feet below finished grade to the top of the conductors; and the other elbow come level with the top of the footer, or other obstruction, so as to line up with the Ninety that will turn the conduit up the wall to were you terminate it.

"You only have to put enough conduit between the two Forty Five degree bends to make the one elbow sit in the bottom of the trench; two feet below finished grade to the top of the conductors; and the other elbow come level with the top of the footer, or other obstruction, so as to line up with the Ninety that will turn the conduit up the wall to were you terminate it. "


This underground wiring inside a ½ conduit protruding next to the house scenario is more complicated that what it looks. I did some digging and inspected it closer, and it seems that it is not only the footing but the fact that the allseason room (which houses the circuit breaker panel) addition to the house to which the underground and #4 ground copper wire converge too has some type of concrete edge near its bottom, but this concrete edge has been subject to lots of erosion throughout the years so it is not very visible. The area marked with a square is all part of the concrete bottom edge:



Another pic below showcase some small repairs I made on this concrete bottom edge at the front of the allseason addition room. The concrete side at the corner whereon the underground wire comes up is eroded and covered with dirty so it is not visible at first, so unless I break the concrete edge there is not way the conduit would protrude right up next to the exterior wall. And that would also explain why the conduit did not protrude right next to the exterior wall.



After my quick inspection it seems that the whole wire is buried inside a conduit, and it is in fact 1/2 pvc conduit (I would assume that they inserted the cable inside the conduit prior to laying the conduit+wire in the trench.

Would having the conduit protruding not quite next to the exterior wall against code now or in the past?

thanks

Could you have brought it up beside the other conduit on the stucco wall?

BTW The concrete isn't corroded away, they just dug a trench and pored concrete in it and plumbers jack hammer thru our footing all the time, as long as they don't go thru a magor bearing point nobody finds a problem with that.
So I think you could rent one of those gas powered demo saws and cut a slot to get to the building.

nealtw said:

Could you have brought it up beside the other conduit on the stucco wall?

BTW The concrete isn't corroded away, they just dug a trench and pored concrete in it and plumbers jack hammer thru our footing all the time, as long as they don't go thru a magor bearing point nobody finds a problem with that.
So I think you could rent one of those gas powered demo saws and cut a slot to get to the building.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I am aiming upon at bringing it close tot he stucco, and from there it would be straight to the wood siding in the allseason room where the panel seats.

Good to know that the concrete is not eroded. But the thing smear the appearance of the exterior and is disform. To make matters worse there were lots of dirty accumulating inside its cavities with weed growing there, and whenever it would rain the water would splash the dirty on the siding. So I'd rather fill it with concrete and try to get a smooth surface. Next year I hope to get the whole thing done.

thks!