Below grade electrical wiring

[MiamiCuse]

In fixing my pool skimmer plumbing I had to remove about a 12"x18" area of my concrete pool deck. The deck is a 4" thick concrete slab, then a layer of 3/4" tile on top.

While fixing the plumbing, I noticed an electrical conduit that went below the slab, I believe one end of it goes to the exterior wall of the house where there is a switch and an outlet, and the other end go to a planter area twenty feet away where there is a conduit coming out with a few outlets, used for exterior lighting. There are several planter areas around the pool deck, all with electrical outlets coming out of the ground.

Problem is, the rigid conduit these wires are in, is badly corroded, the area where I opened up near the skimmer, the conduit was corroded so badly when I poked it with a stick it broke like a twig, exposing the red wire inside. I suspect it's the same with all four wires that ran underground to get power to the planter areas and may be the submerged pool light as well.

Something tells me it's not safe to have exposed hot wires like this underground especially where it may be wet - near the pool plumbing, in the planter areas where it could get water from the sprinklers, but it's not practical to rip up my entire concrete pool deck just to redo it.

Is there a practical solution?

Thanks,

MC

[RBM]

It sounds like you have buried EMT and not galv pipe. There is no practical way to repair it, although the fact that the wires are wet is not an issue. Even wires in a galvanized pipe underground will be wet and in contact with the pipe and ground, etc. I would just make sure the conductors are protected by ground fault devices on the house side, this way if the insulation on the wires failed, you would be protected. You would also want to be sure that there is a separate ground wire in the conduit, and that the conduit is not used as an equipment ground

[MiamiCuse]

Thanks, there is only one red wire inside the conduit, does this mean I don't have a proper ground wire?

[hallerb]

if that the only wire in the conduit? how old is the pool?

safety rules have changed a lot. between age and needed safety upgrades you may have a large project started

[RBM]

If the conduit only has one red and one white wire, and no others, yes, you have no ground wire

[MiamiCuse]

pool was built in 1972.

[MiamiCuse]

The conduit has a single red wire, no white wire or any other wire. Strange...

[dpb]

Where does it come from and go again?

What is it hooked to and what other connection(s) is/are on whatever that device(s) is/are?

This a low-voltage lighting circuit by chance?

[Robert Allison]

Do you have a sprinkler system?

[RBM]

One conductor doesn't get you very far, unless it is possibly a bonding conductor. The rebar in the concrete pool deck must be bonded together. If it is, it will be #8 gauge. Is it definitely an insulated (Red) conductor?

[cshenk]

"MiamiCuse" wrote

(snip- Corroded conduit)

I think so. If the line is unsafe, have it capped off at the house first. Danger now gone. Next, look and see if it would be easier to just ignore the old conduit and run a new one with newest safety grade. It wouldnt have to follow the same lines as the old so might not involve as much under the pool deck digging to lay it. Depending on the design of your pool deck, it

*might* even be possible to go ontop without creating a trip hazard?

[Mark Lloyd]

That's what I was thinking of when I read "red wire". My sprinkler system (installed in 1998) has red wires going to each valve, and white for common. These wires are not in conduit, but buried with the pipes.