I want to bury a water pipe in my garden. Ideally the pipe should be 6" to a foot deep. It will contain a cable rather than water so freezing is not an issue.
The ground I want to go through contains many stones and roots. If I want to dig I normally use a mattock.
Are there any cutters that I could hire that would be suitable for cutting a foot deep grove on either side of the channel I need to create for the pipe?
How long will the trench be? Might be worth getting a mini-digger.
JGH
i used a concrete saw to lay a pipe under a concrete path.
bit like a man sized angle grinder with a diamond blade...
But tha seems overkill - what's wrong with a pick?
I think you will need to go down to 400mm for a cable to meet building regs.
Richard
I wondered about something like that, but would it get clogged up with the earth and are there any problems going through roots?
I was looking for an easy way to reduce the hard work.
Running cable in a water pipe isn't a great idea - why not run SWA cable in the ground?
given that, is there a wall/fence down the side of the garden? If so is fixing SWA to that an option?
Darren
On Tuesday 15 October 2013 20:33 Tricky Dicky wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Not building regs - the IET Wiring Regs.
The OP did not say what the cable was - could be fibre optic, ELV etc.
Also, the depth is dependant on what's on top - eg under a flower bed, even
400mm would be a bit shallow - but under paving it would be OK.On Tuesday 15 October 2013 19:53 Michael Chare wrote in uk.d-i-y:
What's the cable, and what is it carrying? Extra Low Voltage, mains (Low Voltage ironically), or even just light (fibre optic cable).
Way too little info - can you elaborate please.
Perhaps I should of said that the water pipe is to protect a fibre optic cable. If the cable gets damaged it will be annoying but not dangerous.
I want to bury a water pipe in my garden. Ideally the pipe should be 6" to a foot deep. It will contain a cable rather than water so freezing is not an issue.
The ground I want to go through contains many stones and roots. If I want to dig I normally use a mattock.
Are there any cutters that I could hire that would be suitable for cutting a foot deep grove on either side of the channel I need to create for the pipe?
Go hire a small "Trencher"
Such as
On Wednesday 16 October 2013 00:46 Michael Chare wrote in uk.d-i-y:
All sounds fine then.. Only if someone was about to stick a bit of twin+earth down a hose a foot under the lawn, they ought to be warned off :)
Back to the question in hand... I would have thought a mattock was the best bet.
The next level would be a road cutting grinder, used for a similar application - cutting slots in roads so the trench is neat edged when the digger comes and rips the bit out the middle.
However, they are big, lumpy (think big lawnmower with more boxiness) and I'm not sure even they cut 12" deep - they might only be 6-9" - enough to get through tarmac and a concrete subbase.
The other problem is they are unusual outside of the road contractor's area
- you could try the bigger hire places.
HTH
Tim
Ahhhh... that changes my answer somewhat :-) SWA has pretty poor losses when used as fibre :-)
Water pipe is a bit less of an issue then and would probably be tougher than proper fibre ducting tbh. Certainly it'll be easier to obtain and cheaper :)
Darren
MDPE (the blue stuff, but also available on black) also has particularly low surface friction when pulling cables through.
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