:   Archive home

System Design

  »

trenching 101

   ( >> )
libertysurveillance - 06 Jun 2007, 12:33 am
Have an opportunity with a nursery... requires remote camera positions... what are the depth rqrmnts and do I need to use conduit? Do I need to contact gas/electric companies? Special cabling?
Thanks for any help.
Lolo Wolf - 06 Jun 2007, 01:19 am
Call for utility locator (local poco locater will tone and mark for you) Some pointers on trenching: Do not assume that utilities are installed according to current (or past) NEC requirements. Underground conduits may be encountered at any depth,do not rely on “as-built” drawings that may have incomplete or erroneous information.
Hand-excavate near the expected location to visually locate the utility or object. Underground locating technology does not exist to guarantee the absolute depth or location of existing conduit. As for cable:only use direct burial high quality RG59 or if using cat5, use outdoor rated gel filled, bury at least 18in, you can reduce that depth 6in if you use rigid or intermediate conduit. If your cable is under vehicle traffic then go at least 24in Direct burial or conduit its all going to get wet sooner or later, really its about physical protection.If you decide to go with conduit, oversize it and pull spares for future upgrades or repair.
scorpion - 06 Jun 2007, 10:31 pm
This is a cut and paste from another post.

My biggest problem is trying to get my techs to not use 90 elbows on the pvc conduit. I prefer swept elbows. If for any reason I have to add or repull wire the 90 degree elbows will not let the wire pull. It is to "tight". If I have to run out to a dock, gate, gazebo, or what have you, I will use the pipes that they use for sprinklers. No connectors to fail and allow water intrusion. Just a single shot end to end. I will actually use the pipe and bend it in a large radius to get to where I need to go.

Here is a trick. Use orange glue. When you go to check your crew you can look at the joints real fast. You should see purple from the "cleaner", and you should see orange from the glue. If you do not see glue, grab the pvc and twist it real hard. If it squeaks it is loose. Now you can reglue it before you bury it!

I lay my wire to the side of the trench and I start to put on the 10 foot lengths of pvc, and connectors. After I glue the connectors I will push/pull the wire just to make sure that it did not get any glue on it causing it to stick to the inside of the pipe.

Another thing I like to do is test things as I go. I have a 4 amp hour battery that I will hook up to the conduit line, and I will test the line with an lcd screen and a camera just to make sure everything works. After I get it ran in to the wall and in to the "structure" I do not have to spend much time trouble shooting systems. If I do not get video then it has to be the crimp on the back of the dvr. It makes it so much easier to have trouble shooting steps out of the way, and resolve stuff quickly.
scorpion - 07 Jun 2007, 06:34 pm
For those of you in Florida.

Call before you dig.... Dial 811
Banner