On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:43:05 GMT, (Doug Miller)
wrote:

In article , stryped wrote:
I will need to run water line/conduit from the crawlspace of my house
to my shop I am building. Is it permissable/possible to run it under
the footer/foundation? and if so how in the world do I do that? I dug
about 10 inches down against the foundation wall and hit a concrete
ledge which I assume is the footer.

Can I dig to the enge of this then somehow drive a metal pipe sideways
to reach under the house?

It's a hell of a lot of work for no particular reward.

or is it better/proper to somehow drill a hole in the foundation
block?

That's what I do every time - Put a 90 sweep in the trench and land
it vertically on the face of the footing wall, then duck into the
house above ground.

If this spot on the house is near a driveway where you expect
vehicular access that could damage the conduit, you have to transition
to Schedule 80 heavy PVC conduit or Steel Rigid conduit where you
break ground.

Or drill and epoxy a few rebar dowel pins into the footing, make a
simple wooden form, and pour a concrete guard around the exposed PVC
conduit.

Your IP address suggests that you're in the area of Brandenburg KY, which is
plenty far enough north that you'd damn well better put your water line a
*lot* farther underground than ten inches if you expect it to not freeze and
burst before Christmas.

If so what do I use?

This may be of some help: http://tinyurl.com/lx5hec

I LIKE that! Okay, where's the instructions for writing the TinyURL
with the search string built in...

I appreciate your help! I am using 3/4 pvc for the water line. Running
conduit in sch 40 conduit. (The plastic stuff.

You have to get the water pipes down below the frost line. And you
might have to get a lot more complex, see below.

If you are in a hard freezing climate, use copper pipe and an
electric heat trace, rigid foam pipe insulation and a larger pipe
(like 3" ABS landscape drain) as an outer shell for damage protection.
Or rig up Hot and Cold underground water feed lines and an "instant
hot" circulation pump inside the garage at the far end that will keep
both the lines from freezing. Or rig them for easy shutoff and
draining. Or all of the above.

Make sure the wires you run in the conduit are rated for underground use.
Standard NM-B ("Romex") cable is **not** permitted underground, even in
conduit.

You can break grade near the house and come above ground, then
drill a hole through the concrete footing near the house floor. Place
a pullbox or a condulet so you can repull the wires without a fight.
And it's a lot easier to run the conduit back to the panel under the
house when it can be nailed up to the bottom of the floor joists.

You want to bring the conduits up through the concrete footing and
into the wall at the garage end. Which is why you want enough of them
and big enough to meet future needs. Keep the 1' or better lateral
seperation by bringing the other lines up in the next stud bay over.

Go big - put in a 2" or 2-1/2" PVC Conduit for the power line to the
garage, and put two or three 1" conduits for Phone, Ethernet, CATV,
Fiber, etc. a foot away laterally, and bury them all at least 18"
below grade for damage protection. (Shovels usually don't get down
that far.) You want the one foot lateral seperation to keep power
line noise from getting in the phone and Ethernet lines.

You might only need a 100A Line and 1-1/4" conduit out there now,
but plans change and you might get a huge lathe next year - and you
really don't want to dig it all up and start over from scratch.

If the book says you "only" need #2 AL feeders for 100A at that
distance, go as large with the wire as you can get into the breaker
lugs. 1/0 or better. Voltage Drop is always bad.

Copper feeder wires are better if you can afford them, but XHHW
Aluminum will work fine IF you clean and treat the cable connections
properly. Ideal NOALOX Compound (or eq.) and a toothbrush sized
Stainless Steel wire brush. Slop it on, within reason.

Oh, and be very careful stripping the wire. Aluminum will fatigue
and snap really easily at any conductor damage from a knife or
strippers - you need to score around at the strip point 2/3 of the
insulation, then skin lengthwise to loosen the insulation (like
sharpening a pencil) then peel it off with pliers.

Remember that Safety Ground and Neutral are two seperate wires past
the Main Service the Neutral is ONLY bonded there. You have to run
four wires to the garage, but you can drop the safety ground down one
or two wire sizes. #2 feeders, #6 ground.

Add a seperate ground bar in the garage panel, and do NOT connect
the neutral to ground bonding screw/strap at the garage panel.

Try to run the feeder wires in one piece, avoid a splice in the
middle - and leave a loop of slack in that splice box at the house
wall just in case. If you ever have trouble, that splice is where it
will happen.

Okay, that should be enough information to keep you from making the
most common screw-ups. ;-P

If you think you've just invented a new screw-up, you probably have
- stop and ask.

-- Bruce --