On Thu, 4 Jun 2020 17:09:03 -0500, dpb wrote:

On 6/4/2020 4:54 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

Call 811.



The 811 people only go from the power pole to your power meter. Once
the wiring is owned by the homeowner or business, the 811 service stops.

+1

I called local company to locate exactly how Dad routed power from pole
to the house before we began the renovation...wasn't that expensive and
they had the good-enough gear to trace it. Friend with less expensive
unit and I tried for some time but it was too deep for its range.

I knew the general route but not precisely enough to be comfortable
telling the guys with the backhoe when it was time to go.

I did know the gas line is outside the are we were digging in so it was
safe.

We still found two (abandoned) water lines I didn't know were there--one
an old line to service north of the barn that had been disconnected 40+
year ago -- I remember when the tank was there but I had always thought
the line went from the other direction over there. The other was the
original service line to the house from the old original
windmill....that predated me too much to have a clue over. Fortunately,
both were abandoned so no harm done...

I just had them to come out and locate some wiring for me. They went
from the power pole to the meter about 200 feet away. Located the power
and cable. There was no gas lines or telephone lines in the general
area.

I tried using a very good metal detector for this wiring before and
after I knew where the wires were. I could trace an old underground
telephone easy. For some reason the power and cable lines were more
difficult for me to detect even when I knew where the company marked
them.

Probably just buried deeper -- typically the phone company barely covers
it over around here...if our service line is 12" it would be real close.
Dunno is there's any Code for that or not; it's been there "since
forever" and we're outside city jurisdiction and county had no
zoning/code at all until quite recent.

Generally speaking
Article 725 (low voltage) and 800 (communications) wire is 6" or more.
Chapter 3 (line voltage) is 18" for branch circuit and feeder wire in
conduit, 24" for service laterals, conduit or not and direct burial
cable. There is a catch all residential exception for 120v 15&20a
circuits, GFI protected, that allows 12" depth.

This gets more complicated around pools and spas, under roads and some
other special locations