Septic tank guy has cut one of the hot wires of the 200 amp direct burial wires to a house its a clean cut so I want to make a splice.
Whats the best way to do this? (electrician wants $300.00 to make the splice)
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Replies
My not have the septic guy pay the electrian the $300 and be out of it.
First, make sure you can "legally" splice the cable. Contact the power company and find out who "owns" the service feed. Utilities often own the service cables up to a demarcation point (e.g. electric meter) and they may, or may not, allow a splice. Even if they allow it, they may have some requirements regarding access, splicing techniques, etc.
Whatever solution is required, make sure the septic guy gets the bill. - lol
Archer,
Three hundred? That's a fair price.
I'm assuming that this wire is on the customer side of the meter--typical rural set up, utility line drops to a pole on the property with a meter/main on it, then a feeder is run to the house. So the feeder is the property owners responsibility.
Given that this is a direct burial feeder, it's likely that the sparky will have to splice in a new section for the cut conductor--it's hard to get enough slack with buried cable to make a splice (after trimming off the cut ends). That's two splices, and working down in a hole adds to the time it takes.
The right way to do this is to use crimp-on splices, using a 10- or 14-ton hydraulic crimper, then use special heat-shrink tubing designed for direct burial. If the wire is aluminum (probably?) then there's some extra prep involved in the splicing. Anyway, you're paying for the sparky's expertise and tooling, not just his time on-site. Keep in mind that a hydraulic crimper set up runs about $2.5k.
Pay the man now, or do it yourself--and pay him later, to re-do it when your splice fails.
To others, about backcharging the excavator for repairing the damage--most diggers around here make it the responsibility of the property owner to mark any private underground lines. If it's not marked, they aren't responsible.
If someone was to want their excavator to take on responsibility for damage to private underground lines/pipes/etc, the cost would get steep pretty fast (if the excevator would even do it). He'd have to add the expense of locating and marking the lines, and add a cushion for fixing those he missed. USA (underground service alert) locating service won't do private lines/pipes around here. I've heard that they will in some places, for a fee.
Good luck,
Cliff
Edited 8/5/2005 12:13 pm ET by CAP
Preassembled splice kits rated for direct burial aren't cheap. You say, I hear this a lot, that they hit one line. LOL. The septic tank man hopes he only damaged one conductor.
Seldom does anyone only damage one line. They may have only completely cut one but, especially if the lines are aluminum, a pinhole in the insulation dooms the conductor. Even in ground conductor. Sometimes damaged insulation can be replaced. Depends on how extensive the damage is, wether or not the conductor itself is damaged, and what the service, and repair, conditions are.
Reconstructing insulation in a hurricane is hard to do right. If that cable is going to be ten feet under salt water, heavily loaded and with Ma Kettles iron lung on the other end rerunning the feed may be the only reliable solution. I get called out on a damaged feed I bring enough splices to repair all the conductors at least twice. And carry a can of Scotchcoat, three or four rolls of good tape, replacement conductors and some mastic loaded heatshrink tubing.
IMHO, there are perfectly good splices available that don't demand the use of a high pressure crimper. A high pressure crimp is better if the lines were under high electrical loads, physical strain and in a critical situation. The biggest factors in how long the splices last is how well the splices are done and the conditions, electrical load and environmental stress placed on the splice.
In my experience a poorly done, or inadequately sealed, high pressure splice is little better than slapping a big wirenut on it and throwing dirt on it. I have seen where that exact assembly lasted, according to HO, at least ten years. Of course the house was only lived in by a single person with very modest electrical demands and the splice was made on top of a sand hill. Very little ground moisture or chemical activity there to attack the connection.
Thank all of you for the replies.
The wire runs from the meter on the pole underground to a double wide MH.
It's only about ten inches deep and I neglected to tell the guy to watch for it so like someone said he probably would'nt want to pay for it.
After thinking about it I went ahead and let sparky do it. He says he normally gets $450 so he did'nt make a lot of money.
Well, that sounds like it's on you Arrowshooter. - lol
I hope you've made a map showing the "guesstimated" location of the cable - and the exact location of the splice(s). Someone will thank you someday.
Ten inches deep?!
Sure hope that that's not an indicator of how the rest of the wiring was done.
Arrowshooter, you may want to check the receptacle outlets, to make sure they're really grounded (if they're grounding [three hole] type).
Man! Ten inches deep, I wouldn't just make a map of the location, I'd pour a sidewalk over it!
Cliff
I don't know if you saw this thread or not.http://forums.prospero.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=61238.1Wondering if you ever say a zinc diecast box.