Irreversible crimps in PVC Conduit

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ptonsparky said:
When someone runs a post hole digger through their pivot or well underground we butt splice and heat shrink the conductors and use a conduit splice kit to repair the conduit, never to be seen again.

Your situation, we would repair conduit and pull new wire.
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kwired said:
Same here.
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Same here also. Inside a building I would not settle for anything other than new wire.

Out on the farm is different. I'm not going to tell the old farmer he needs fifteen hundred feet of new wire. I'm just glad that they call us instead of using romex connectors and duct tape for the repair. Oh, wait, I saw that once.
 
Wire Size and update

Wire Size and update

buzzbar said:
What size wires and conduit are we talking about here? How long are the feeders?
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2 - 2 inch PVC conduits 120/208 3 phase 3 - 3/0 copper 1 - 1/0 Neutral 1 - #6 ground fused disconnect with 150 amp fuses

Second Conduit - 3 - #2
1 - #4 Neutral
1 - # 8 Ground
Fused at 100 amps

Not sure how long the run is exactly yet because its temped with ILSCO rubberized lugs but assuming 100ft with the break occurring in the last 30 ft of each run.

Architect for TI is involved and he favors the floor box option with repulling copper to the load centers so (30ft).

I have advised that the inspector may not like or approve this option, any words of wisdom that will help me C.M.A. would be much appreciated. Thx

Could use some help figuring what size box would be needed......was thinking 12x12x6
 
At 100' long, I think you're going to spend more time and money putting a box and splices in, then if you just repulled the wire from scratch. Even if it still ends up being more to repull, who wouldn't mind paying a little more to get a wire run without boxes and splices in it?

Personally, I would have never mentioned the j-box idea, we wouldn't have even offered that as an option. How will the floor guy deal with a floor box?
 
In a related story...

On a disastrous rural battery and ground mount PV system I worked on several years ago, one of the many things that went pear shaped on that project was when the fencing guys came in after we had trenched and run conductors. Our filled in trench could plainly be seen from the settling of the fill, but STILL they landed a fencepost precisely in the center of the trench, severing all of our 4/0 copper 150' conductors.
 
I do a lot of work on dairy facilities, so I can agree that fencepost installers and conduits do NOT get along!! On the upside, they've always got ahold of me when they've hit something, rather than just burying it.:)
 
Cow said:
I do a lot of work on dairy facilities, so I can agree that fencepost installers and conduits do NOT get along!! On the upside, they've always got ahold of me when they've hit something, rather than just burying it.:)
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If the posts are driven in they might not know they hit anything, especially if driven by heavy equipment instead of hand driven.
 
ggunn said:
In a related story...

On a disastrous rural battery and ground mount PV system I worked on several years ago, one of the many things that went pear shaped on that project was when the fencing guys came in after we had trenched and run conductors. Our filled in trench could plainly be seen from the settling of the fill, but STILL they landed a fencepost precisely in the center of the trench, severing all of our 4/0 copper 150' conductors.
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Obviously you put the conduit in the wrong place.
 
ptonsparky said:
Obviously you put the conduit in the wrong place.
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Obviously.

A little more about that job...

The ranch owner had originally resisted fencing the array (ground mount) because of the expense, but then his cattle got into the array and used it to scratch their butts, so we had to rebuild part of it and replace some of the modules. Then the fence fiasco. The project was deteriorating faster than we were constructing it. Then I got into it with the company owner over a point he reneged on that I had negotiated when I hired on, and he fired me. It made me so happy that I was practically doing handstands in the parking lot on my way out.

I don't know if that project ever got finished.
 
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ggunn said:
Obviously.

A little more about that job...

The ranch owner had originally resisted fencing the array (ground mount) because of the expense, but then his cattle got into the array and used it to scratch their butts, so we had to rebuild part of it and replace some of the modules. Then the fence fiasco. The project was deteriorating faster than we were constructing it. Then I got into it with the company owner over a point he reneged on that I had negotiated when I hired on, and he fired me. It made me so happy that I was practically doing handstands in the parking lot on my way out.

I don't know if that project ever got finished.
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He obviously was just an owner and not an operator or had little to no experience as an operator. If livestock are there they will use it as a scratching post, heavy animals like cattle do a lot of damage in short time.
 
kwired said:
He obviously was just an owner and not an operator or had little to no experience as an operator. If livestock are there they will use it as a scratching post, heavy animals like cattle do a lot of damage in short time.
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That barely scratches the surface of what a mess that job was on both the customer and contractor sides of the table. I have never, before or since, been so delighted to be let go from a company as I was when I got shown the door.

I did, however, learn a whole lot about what not to do on a job in a very short period of time. I guess there is something to be said from a learning perspective for having so many things go wrong at once.
 
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ggunn said:
That barely scratches the surface of what a fustercluck that job was on both the customer and contractor sides of the table. I have never, before or since, been so delighted to be let go from a company as I was when I got shown the door.

I did, however, learn a whole lot about what not to do on a job in a very short period of time. I guess there is something to be said from a learning perspective for having so many things go wrong at once.
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I must add that when I was let go it had nothing to do with what happened on that job. During my interview before I signed on in September I told the owner of the company that I had a family vacation planned in May; plane tix were already bought, hotel reservations were made, other family members' schedules were aligned, etc. I told him I would take the time off sans pay if necessary, but I had to go. He agreed to it.

Then, the week before I was to leave he scheduled a one hour "safety meeting" in the middle of the time I was to be out. I reminded him (he hadn't forgotten) that I would be out that week but that I would do anything necessary to make up for it when I got back. His response was "This meeting is mandatory. I can't waste time arguing about this". So I went on vacation, had a fabulous time, and when I got back my stuff was in boxes.

The work environment was toxic, the owner of the company was a tyrant (I have lots of stories about that), the one project the company had was a total disaster, and my commute was brutal. I couldn't quit and qualify for unemployment, but when he fired me he solved that problem.
 
Update

Update

Showed GC the thread and opinions posted to my question. He put a call into the city about the jbox option. But had already arranged the repair for yesterday evening. I get my exact lengths 160' and 130' and tell him I need a decision.
They decide to repull with all new copper. A mile from the parts house he calls me and says the city inspector finally returned his call and said he was fine with a jbox in an neighboring suite. I informed him it was too late wire had been cut to order.
So after hours 130' 100 amp went into the 2in PVC easily. We are small company so no tuggers or scissor lifts, we mounted a pulley 16' high above the equipment and used a truck. The 3/0 in the 2.5 in PVC would not budge from meter to the break (100'). Ripped the pulley off the wall so remounted with 4 bigger red heads, then pulley bracket began to bend but anchors held so we gave up.
One got repulled one is getting jboxed with new wire from the break to the load center. I wish we had been successful with both runs. How do you bill for wire that wasn't used? Property manager stated 5 years prior same thing happened closer to the load center and they repulled the wire. Can't say they did something shoty BC no splices came out going towards the load center.

Needless to say as far the GC is concerned this was far from my best performance on a job.
 
They could have had locating company that uses x-ray methods come out and find those runs, might have cost same or more in the end though.
 
Aledrell said:
Needless to say as far the GC is concerned this was far from my best performance on a job.
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So you just found out you are not Superman. We all like to be the guy who swoops in and saves the day.

Nobody has the ability to see through concrete. Decisions were made based on reasonable assumptions. Charge what you need to cover your costs and what ever else you feel is appropriate. You are not the one who caused this problem in the first place.
 
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