What is "code" for direct burial phone wire?

[William P.N. Smith]

If I've got some (Cat-5) direct burial cable, and I want to hook up a
phone wire about 500 feet long, is there any (NEC?) code that
specifies how deep it has to be buried, or anything else? I figure
for phone wire it probably doesn't even _have_ to be buried...

Thanks!

 

[Harry Chickpea]

If I've got some (Cat-5) direct burial cable, and I want to hook up a
phone wire about 500 feet long, is there any (NEC?) code that
specifies how deep it has to be buried, or anything else? I figure
for phone wire it probably doesn't even _have_ to be buried...

Thanks!

Dunno, but phone wire around here going from post to the demarkation point is
only 6" to 12" down. If the wire were buried much deeper it would be in coral
rock.

Remember that lightning can charge up the ground. Some sort of equipment
protection might be in order.

 

[j.b. miller]

Anything less than 2 feet deep and my plow nicely brings it to the surface!
the local crew use a 'ditchwitch' kinda machine that burys the phone and
cable lines about 2 1/2 feet.
Take some pictures wherever you bury it for reference when you relandscape
in two years time.
If you run it through 1 1/4 water pipe( black poly) you'll be able to fish
something else on a later date too !
Jay

 

[Vaughn]

If you run it through 1 1/4 water pipe( black poly) you'll be able to fish
something else on a later date too !

Good advice! The ditch itself is usually far more expense and problem
than what you actually put in it. Schedule 40 PVC is a bit better (and more
expensive) than black tubing, I have seen black poly collapse from soil
pressures. You can buy "sweep" fittings for conduit at Home Depot that will
make it easy to pull cable later. If you are truly placing direct-bury
cable, consider putting the conduit and the cable side-by-side in the trench
and then you will have the ENTIRE conduit available for whatever later use
you decide.

While you are at it...think ahead! Is there anything else you might
wish later that you had dropped in that trench while it is open? Water?
Electric? Yard lighting? Sprinklers?

Vaughn

 

[William P.N. Smith]

Good advice! The ditch itself is usually far more expense and problem

Oh, I agree that if this were for anything more than a temporary
solution, we'd do a much better job, but this time next year we'll be
hooked up "properly" with real phone cable in conduit 18" under the
road, etc.

We have the opportunity to connect to the line card at our expense
using our materials for the next year, but it must be "to code",
whatever that means in the NEC. I've already run the Cat5 direct
burial cable (buried an inch or two below the surface in places and
run on the surface in places, but in a PVC pipe where it goes under a
(golf cart) path. If this is "to code" I'm safe, otherwise I may have
to rip it out and rent a trencher and operator, and incur hundreds of
dollars worth of expense.

Does anyone know if the NEC (or any other applicable code) details
wire type, size, materials, construction, burial depth, conduit, or
anything else for telephone wiring? This would be after the Network
Interface Jack, if that matters.

Thanks!

 

[clare @ snyder.on .ca]

Does anyone know if the NEC (or any other applicable code) details
wire type, size, materials, construction, burial depth, conduit, or
anything else for telephone wiring? This would be after the Network
Interface Jack, if that matters.

Thanks!

see: http://www.nesr.net/Underground/Installation/installation.html

 

[Dale Farmer]

Oh, I agree that if this were for anything more than a temporary
solution, we'd do a much better job, but this time next year we'll be
hooked up "properly" with real phone cable in conduit 18" under the
road, etc.

We have the opportunity to connect to the line card at our expense
using our materials for the next year, but it must be "to code",
whatever that means in the NEC. I've already run the Cat5 direct
burial cable (buried an inch or two below the surface in places and
run on the surface in places, but in a PVC pipe where it goes under a
(golf cart) path. If this is "to code" I'm safe, otherwise I may have
to rip it out and rent a trencher and operator, and incur hundreds of
dollars worth of expense.

Does anyone know if the NEC (or any other applicable code) details
wire type, size, materials, construction, burial depth, conduit, or
anything else for telephone wiring? This would be after the Network
Interface Jack, if that matters.

Thanks!

NEC regards this as low voltage signal cable, and mostly ignores it, as
it has little impact on safety. Mostly what NEC says is that it cannot be
in the same conduit with power cables.

--Dale

 

[William P.N. Smith]

clare @ snyder.on .ca wrote:
[I wrote]

see: http://www.nesr.net/Underground/Installation/installation.html

So as long as it's 12" away from the (nonexistant) power lines it
doesn't matter?

 

[Bob Peterson]

problem

Oh, I agree that if this were for anything more than a temporary
solution, we'd do a much better job, but this time next year we'll be
hooked up "properly" with real phone cable in conduit 18" under the
road, etc.

We have the opportunity to connect to the line card at our expense
using our materials for the next year, but it must be "to code",
whatever that means in the NEC. I've already run the Cat5 direct
burial cable (buried an inch or two below the surface in places and
run on the surface in places, but in a PVC pipe where it goes under a
(golf cart) path. If this is "to code" I'm safe, otherwise I may have
to rip it out and rent a trencher and operator, and incur hundreds of
dollars worth of expense.

Does anyone know if the NEC (or any other applicable code) details
wire type, size, materials, construction, burial depth, conduit, or
anything else for telephone wiring? This would be after the Network
Interface Jack, if that matters.

I am reasonably sure that the NEC does not even cover such wiring, although
I could be in error on this point. Cable companies routine bury cables in
your yard only a few inches underground, so why would telco lines be any
different.

 

[clare @ snyder.on .ca]

clare @ snyder.on .ca wrote:
[I wrote]

see: http://www.nesr.net/Underground/Installation/installation.html

So as long as it's 12" away from the (nonexistant) power lines it
doesn't matter?

Correct - the phone company buries the line about 6 inches deep across
my yard, and 18" deep under driveways. Under driveways they like to
have it in sand - not gravel - and protected with an over-cover, like
a 2X4.

 

[[email protected]]

If I've got some (Cat-5) direct burial cable, and I want to hook up a
phone wire about 500 feet long, is there any (NEC?) code that
specifies how deep it has to be buried, or anything else? I figure
for phone wire it probably doesn't even _have_ to be buried...

Thanks!

In our area, the local phone company will not give any specifics. I think
they are trying to avoid liability issues. The installer that came out
to fish the wire through the conduit said they would have accepted just
about anything.

You might try calling the 800 number that the utilities promote for
locating existing lines and pipes before digging. When they came out for
us, the told us exactly how deep the cable, water, gas and electrical
were buried. The locator guy was able to tell us that 18 inches was
standard for our area. I managed about 16 inches.

If you bury conduit with the direct burial cable make sure you use sweeps
at the bends instead of 45 or 90 degree connectors. The sweeps make it
easy to fish or blow a wire through. The angles of the water pipes are
a *itch (extreme hassle) to fish through.

While 1.5 inch seems large, consider 2.5 or 3 inches if you can afford it.
You don't know today what you may wish to run in 5 years. There's not
a lot that you can run in 1.5 inch conduit after the first bundle goes in.

About trenchers.... You can rent a baby Ditch-Witch and trench it yourself
in a morning. Just don't let the name, "walk behind trencher", fool
you. I learned that if you walk behind it fills in the trench for you.
You actually walk backwards and it follows you. It piles the dirt to
one side. Ask for instructions when you rent it.

Daniel