# Buried Conduit Repair



## toolaholic (Aug 13, 2010)

zparme said:


> a waterproofing company called me today and said that they hit some conduit feeding a customers garage. It was just one circuit feeding some lights and receptacles, but they completely cut through the conduit and wires. They also told me that the conduit was only buried a couple of inches. I told them that more than likely i'd have to run new conduit at the proper depth and run a new circuit. He didn't like that and decided to call someone else. Anyways, my question is do they make a junction box that can be directly buried in residential settings? Say the conduit was buried 2 feet deep and still got cut through. What would the best way to repair it be?


 run it all new


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## BZelectricalservices (Apr 17, 2013)

New and updating to code is the way to go.


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## Hippie (May 12, 2011)

Put a plastic hand hole over it and re pull the wire


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## CTshockhazard (Aug 28, 2009)

Hippie said:


> Put a plastic hand hole over it and re pull the wire


Yup, 10" round less than 20 bucks here :thumbsup:.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

You are in the hardscape or landscape ?


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Your biggest problem is depth of conduit.. the repair is the easy part...

I would price the job as running a new conduit at proper depth.... no matter what the "other" guy says....


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Hippie said:


> Put a plastic hand hole over it and re pull the wire


What about 300.5.. :blink::blink:


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## Hippie (May 12, 2011)

B4T said:


> What about 300.5.. :blink::blink:


Not many people are going to pay to run a new conduit. I would put in a hand hole get paid cash and not lose any sleep. It's not like I would put blue wire nuts on it and bury it or anything.


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## Hippie (May 12, 2011)

B4T said:


> What about 300.5.. :blink::blink:


And aren't you the guy who buries pvc boxes????


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Hippie said:


> And aren't you the guy who buries pvc boxes????


I don't bury pvc boxes.. :no::no:

They are located at grade level in flower beds... sometimes the design changes after my work is done.... out of my control...


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

Hippie said:


> Not many people are going to pay to run a new conduit. I would put in a hand hole get paid cash and not lose any sleep. It's not like I would put blue wire nuts on it and bury it or anything.


Problem is you are the last guy to touch it and makes you liable if something goes wrong...

Rigging a code violation is something you don't need your name attached too.. :no::no:


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

Hippie said:


> I would put in a hand hole...get paid cash....


:thumbup:


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

Hippie said:


> It's not like I would put blue wire nuts on it and bury it or anything.


:brows:


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## Hippie (May 12, 2011)

B4T said:


> I don't bury pvc boxes.. :no::no:
> 
> They are located at grade level in flower beds... sometimes the design changes after my work is done.... out of my control...


Hence the cash payment.. also who's to say the conduit wasn't put in right and grade changed afterwards... Out of my control. 

Someone will get paid to do it that way rather than run new pipe so it may as well be me instead of somebody else


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

B4T said:


> Problem is you are the last guy to touch it and makes you liable if something goes wrong...
> 
> Rigging a code violation is something you don't need your name attached too.. :no::no:


I would put a hand hole in and move on, it would even pass inspection.


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## Hippie (May 12, 2011)

MHElectric said:


> :brows:


I meant the "underground" wire nuts.. that would be pretty hack... Regular yellow ones from ace hardware would probably work too as long as you put lots of black tape on them lol


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

Very often the UF installs aren't deep enough either. I find it, fix it, meg and move on. Sure, i'd feel better about 18 inch depth all over.


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

Hippie said:


> CASH CASH CASH
> Someone will get paid to do it that way rather than run new pipe so it may as well be me instead of somebody else
> CASH CASH CASH


 Hot dang BUDDY!! Were speaking the same language!


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

Depending on how the conduit was run, I might pull the conductors out fix the conduit and pull new back in. That is if the whole thing wasn't so much of a train wreck.


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## B4T (Feb 10, 2009)

BBQ said:


> I would put a hand hole in and move on, it would even pass inspection.


You would need (2) hand holes to make the repair and I can't see how an inspector would sign off on it *IF* he looked in the hole and saw the conduit depth... :blink::blink:


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

B4T said:


> You would need (2) hand holes to make the repair and I can't see how an inspector would sign off on it *IF* he looked in the hole and saw the conduit depth... :blink::blink:


Existing conditions, repair was made.


Those words will go along way with the inspectors. But why even worry about it, Its a repair job?


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

I take a look at it as a whole system so to speak, other than depth, how badly was it put together? I looked at a dock GFCI the other day and the guy couldn't understand why it would cost up to $500 to repair. I told him I had to make sure the segments of the run would pass the megger test, find the end of the underground and tie to the piece under the deck on the house, find the other end going into the house etc. Didn't even know if it would hold. What, I'm going to do all this detective work for nothing? No doubt the short segment of uf going underground to the steps down to water was likely very shallow.


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

I would use a split repair coupling. I use them all the time doing farmwork.

Why would you call for an inspection on something like patching a conduit back together?


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

I would put a gfi breaker in so I could sleep at night knowing that somewhere out there is a code compliant 120 volt circuit buried at a proper depth that meets code. (after I made the repair and install the handhole box of course..)


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## bobelectric (Feb 24, 2007)

I would say that an outfit that does waterproofing digs down to the footer and saw this situation before.


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