JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

"Pete C." wrote in message
...
Goedjn wrote:


Anyone know what's really involved in replacing a wire like this? In a
perfect world, there would be no sidewalk or other annoyances, I'd
install
the wire in the appropriate pipe, there'd be birds and flowers and
everybody
would live happily every after with free beer. But...ya know....

Water jet underneath the sidewalk using a piece of plastic conduit. Dig
a
shallow hole on each side of the walk. Shove the conduit from one hole
to
the other with water running, under pressure, through it. Easy to do
where
I'm at in Fla. with the whole state being one big sandbar. Worth a try
where you are in NY.

Once through, cut off the 3/4" male pipe threaded nipple you added to
connect the hose to.

It's a sidewalk.. that's what, 24"? Dig a pit on either side,
and sledgehammer a chunk of 3" blackpipe across. Then
run 2" PVC conduit through the pipe. Don't use 90degree bends,
either use sweeps, or use 45 degree bends, and cross the
sidewalk at an angle.

More like 36" if it's ADA compliant.

Given that the total run is reported to be 18' through easy soil I'd be
inclined to pipe jack the full length from inside the basement and leave
the digging to just a minimal pit to install the sweep at the garage
end.

Pete C.

What do you mean by "pipe jack"?

More-or-less literally just that, you work from an access pit, or in
this case the basement and literally push the pipe into place through
the ground using a hydraulic jack.

They use a version of this on a large scale for big sewer pipes where
they work inside the pipe digging at the front and pushing the pipe
along as they go, but for your case just putting a drive point on the
end of the conduit should be fine.

Since we're only talking about two sections of conduit I'd probably go
with rigid galvanized for it's resistance to flexing during the push.
You might be ok with sch. 80 PVC as well.

Basically you just drill a hole in the foundation wall facing the
correct direction and then start pushing the conduit in. Find a solid
point to brace the jack on and use varying lengths of material (say 4x4)
between the jack and the conduit as you push. For 1.5" - 2" conduit it
shouldn't take that much force if the soil is easy to dig as you
indicate.

Pete C.