Question about elec line going to detached garage

[DENZILDON]

Hello everyone,

I'm doing some landscaping and I have a garage pad already done at the back. Before I do the landscaping I would like to dig in and place the elec line going to the garage.

Does anyone know how deep the gas and elec lines are buried?(the ones going to the house)

Reason is its the same path where I'm running the elec line to the garage. And for this elec line, how deep should I bury it?

Thanks,
D

[legendboy]

i had to dig my gas line 22" deep, electrical was a few inches above that

[Unknown303]

Call before you dig!

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Unknown303
Call before you dig!

:werd: The city will show you where, and how deep they are.

[danno]

18"

[DENZILDON]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


:werd: The city will show you where, and how deep they are.

I call the city to check this?

[sillysod]

18" for electrical
24" for gas
fill in about 4" above electrical and put caution tape in trench before backfilling the rest.

[Cos]

.

[sillysod]

Originally posted by DENZILDON


I call the city to check this?

you can do it online one call does it all

http://www.alberta1call.com/

[craigcd]

I would just put conduit in the ground and pull the line through when you build the garage. Always nice to put in a couple runs if you want to run other cables also.

This is also cheaper than putting the lines in now...

[DENZILDON]

Thanks for the help guys! :thumbsup:

[71/454]

I did this a few years back but I remember something about whether it was conduit or direct burial cable the depth was different. I want to say Conduit was 18" to the top of the pipe and direct burial cable was 24" to the top of the cable. The direct burial cable also required 2 inches of gravel in the bottom of the trench.

[eblend]

Confused...so you want to run electical and gas at the same time right?

If you ever apply for a permit for the garage electical they have to see the conduit and measure it all, before you backfill. If you backfill it now they may not approve it until they can see the whole run (to ensure no junctions are done and covered up)

Also, depending on the cable you will run later, you have to get an appropriate size conduit. City of calgary has a brochure (found online) for garage builds and goes over all of these details.

Unless you are ready to build the garage now, I think you will have to dig stuff up later anyways and destroy your grass/landscaping.

I have only done this once, so perhaps there are other ways around it, but if you take out a permit, they check the electrical components during your rough inspection, which includes the trench inspection + all of the wireing in the garage, I don't know if you can get an inspection just on the burried cable before you build the garage, probably can but would require to pay extra for them to come out again and check it later. Also the permits have an expiry date, so that is also something to consider.

Also, for gas I don't think you can (or want to) do it yourself, belive you have to be certified and a contractor would have to take out a permit for you to do the job.

[legendboy]

Originally posted by craigcd
I would just put conduit in the ground and pull the line through when you build the garage. Always nice to put in a couple runs if you want to run other cables also.

This is also cheaper than putting the lines in now...

Thats what I did

Since I had to dig up my yard for a gas run i ripped out the existing 1" conduit going out there and put 2, 3" pvc runs out on top of the gas with large junction boxes at each end.

I also ran ropes thru each one and tied them off at both ends to make pulling cables easier down the road.

[sillysod]

The gas nobody needs to know about.

Go to Woosley and buy gas line then burry it 24", I put sand under mine and some on top of it. You can't pull a gas permit anyways, so all you need to do is find a plumber to hook up the lines coming out of the ground.

For power buy teck cable, don't screw around with conduit. You can just throw it in the trench and you won't have to pull wire through after.

Then on top of that I put in 2 additional conduits. One to run water lines in and the other was for data, coax and alarm. Just make sure you pull a string through as you assemble it or you will have to fish your cables/water lines in later.

[DENZILDON]

I just want to run an electrical line, no gas.

I know my gas and elec lines go almost side by side in one side of the house and that's where I want to lay my elec line to the garage. I don't want to go on top of them so I already called AB1CALL so I can avoid them..

I will be taking pics of the dig with a measuring tape so when I do build the garage in the future I can show them how deep I dug in.

I talked to my Dad(master electrician in the US) and he said a 1 inch conduit should do the trick. (If its just the elec lines)

[Cos]

I would throw a gas line in anyways. Never know when you want a nice gas furnace in the future. Saves you lots of headache in the future for $50.00 worth of stubbed gas line.

[sillysod]

Originally posted by Cos
I would throw a gas line in anyways. Never know when you want a nice gas furnace in the future. Saves you lots of headache in the future for $50.00 worth of stubbed gas line.

yup, its just yellow plastic pipe that looks like water line pex - but yellow. Easy to drop in when you have the trench dug anyways.

I still wouldn't use conduit. Teck cable is much better IMO.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by sillysod

I still wouldn't use conduit. Teck cable is much better IMO.

Teck cable is better, for now, but with conduit you can easily swap out the wiring for newer/better stuff when it's available, or add speaker wiring, or whatever.

[Cos]

Why not do a 4" conduit and pull teck through it before you bury it? :poosie:

[craigcd]

I used tech cable in conduit. Took detailed pictures ect ect.

Inspector didnt even ask to see the pictures- this was in Airdrie though.