I would like to pass an electric cable under the 3ft 6in wide granite-slab pathway in my front-garden.
Is there any clever way of doing this? I don't want to lift the slabs, which I assume have been there for 150 years.
you can tunnel.
There are sort of mole machines..
In fact 18" is not a huge thing to do by handd with a trowel from each side.
Yes - and those moles can go for 10's yards easily. So on that option, look out for gas/water/electric vans and ask them - they *might* have a mole (some do use them) and they *might* be persuaded to do a homer.
But as it is only 3'6", you could trench upto it, with a 5' long trench in the direction you wish to mole, then bang a bit of capped metal tube under the path at the required depth, chop the cap off and use as a duct.
Sort of a poor man's mole.
I reckon a scaffold pole would be doable with a sledgehammer. But a bit of iron water pipe depending on cable size would be easier and still strong enough to take the beating.
18" is not half of 3'6".
But it is an idea... I did a fairly neat 2' long hole under my house foundations for a new water pipe with a 4' breaker bar to dig my way along.
Getting 2 holes to meet in the middle would make it more interesting but not impossible.
ps I meant to add that my dad once made two 2'8" doors for a 5'6" alcove and couldn't work out why there was a gap.
nothing wrong with doors
It was because he made the frame too thin
simples
ps
if he had made 2 2'9" doors they would still not have worked properly if he had wanted them to close against one another due to the need for a rebate one each
been there
Regards
no. make that 21" :-)
I'd use my pneumatic mole - it's 45mm in diameter and once you'd opened a trench either side would take 5 minutes at the most to cover
42". (assuming no rocks or pipes in the way) I'd let you borrow it but you're rather a long way away.AWEM
Maybe I can hire one?
Certainly could, but you need a road compressor to drive it. I think it's rather ot for the job . Dig a trench either side of the path in line with where you want the cable to cross, excavate as far as you can with a trowel then bash a length of scaffold pole through the remainder. I've heard of people getting good results with a pipe connected to mains water to flush a hole through soil but I would imagine it's a very messy process.
AWEM
Friends did something similar recently (moors west of Edinburgh). Needed to get a duct from one side of a single track road to the other and used a mini jcb and scaffolding pipe.
Rob
I have made a hole under a concrete path by using a threaded bar. My drill bits were too short and a longer drill bit was going to be over £60 and OTT for a one off job for a friend.
I did a pilot hole using my SDS bits and then hammered the bar in through the rest of the way. As it was only 3 core 4mm SWA I got away by using a M16 threaded bar that was knocking about in my mates garage. Of course it will only work for small cables.
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