Labor units for PVC in trench

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growler said:
Why do all of that. You can make an 800 ft pull easy enough if it's only 3 ea #8s and 1 ea #10 in 1" pvc. Where people mess up is putting factory 90's on the ends before pulling the cable. If you just leave the conduit sticking straight out of the trench on each end, pull the cable first and then install the 90's it's much easier. Friction is what kills a wire pull and every bend developes friction ( so don't have any if you can keep from it ).

It's easier to pull through 800 ft of straight conduit than it is to pull through 400 ft with say 180 degrees of bend in it. If the people feeding know to keep the conductors straight and there are no dirty couplings and gravel. Lots of good wire lube to reduce friction and it's a piece of cake.
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You reminded me to mention rigid 90s if 90s are put in otherwise sometimes the string cuts right thru the pvc and creates nightmares.
 
quogueelectric said:
Dont be so sure I have seen many instances where the primer was required and more important than the glue. Water intrusion problem locations.
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All joking aside, I will definitely use primer. You can't keep a pipe dry inside, but you can do alot to managae the amount of moisture the wire sees IMO
 
celtic said:
We have a 310.18 in progress in Atlanta,GA.
All units respond, back up needed.

:D
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I have herd of it Celtic but have never been called on it. Actually I figure I'm putting less stress on the cable so this is a code I'm willing to bend a little.

My job is to get the cable in the conduit in the best possible condition and that's what I do. I have had good luck so far. It's not any sort of hazard that I can see. I don't use this system to go over the allowed number of bends in the conduit. I'm just lazy ( I'm an American ).

I also rip those labels off pillows. ( Do not remove ).:grin: :grin:
 
Ordering your conduit in 20' lengths is a timesaver on those long runs. A trick I learned from doing 2000'+ runs to irrigation circles is to load all your conduit on a flatbed trailer. Put someone in the truck pulling the trailer alongside the ditch real slow while a second guy is walking directly behind the trailer glueing the sticks as he slides them off. Your pipe doesn't touch the ground until it's glued this way and there's no chance of dirt getting in the conduit. Once all the pipe is laying next to the ditch, now is the time to suck in a jetline. I pull all the wire in and then throw the conduit in the ditch and finish the stubups to the panels/j-boxes. Then backfill.

EDIT: Just a personal preference, but I make every effort to pull with the bells and not against them.
 
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Mule said:
Any one have labor units for laying 1" PVC and pulling 3 8's and a 10? Ive got to quote a 800ft trench out to a gate operator. Another contractor is doing the trenching and backfill. Thanks very much
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MULE, I used 3 different estimating programs to see what my labor rates were for what you wanted. 1 came out at 44 hours, the next came out at 60.
and my very expensive program it came out at 57 hours. I hoped this helped.
 
celtic said:
Calling all cars
Calling all cars
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We have a 310.18 in progress in Atlanta,GA.
All units respond, back up needed.

:D
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Is 310.18 in the 2008?
 
jmsbrush said:
MULE, I used 3 different estimating programs to see what my labor rates were for what you wanted. 1 came out at 44 hours, the next came out at 60.
and my very expensive program it came out at 57 hours. I hoped this helped.
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WOW, and thats just for laying the pipe and pulling the wire? did it include trenching? or bedding? somethings different...?

I purchased RSmeans data disc, but I dont have it activated yet....
 
Cow said:
Ordering your conduit in 20' lengths is a timesaver on those long runs. A trick I learned from doing 2000'+ runs to irrigation circles is to load all your conduit on a flatbed trailer. Put someone in the truck pulling the trailer alongside the ditch real slow while a second guy is walking directly behind the trailer glueing the sticks as he slides them off. Your pipe doesn't touch the ground until it's glued this way and there's no chance of dirt getting in the conduit. Once all the pipe is laying next to the ditch, now is the time to suck in a jetline. I pull all the wire in and then throw the conduit in the ditch and finish the stubups to the panels/j-boxes. Then backfill.

EDIT: Just a personal preference, but I make every effort to pull with the bells and not against them.
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Pretty impressive
 
Mule said:
WOW, and thats just for laying the pipe and pulling the wire? did it include trenching? or bedding? somethings different...?

I purchased RSmeans data disc, but I dont have it activated yet....
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Thats it! I trust my programs! Rs means will give you somewhere in the 40's I promise. PM me when you get it set up.
 
Cow said:
EDIT: Just a personal preference, but I make every effort to pull with the bells and not against them.
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That can work. Where many people mess up with PVC is when they glue they get in a big hurry and they don't hold it togather after the twist to make sure it's all the way seated. If you hold it for a few seconds and don't let it start to back out before the glue starts to dry then there won't be any gaps for the head of the pull to get caught on.

Many times the helpers end up glueing up the PVC and many just don't give a darn. They glue, twist and drop it.
 
jmsbrush said:
Thats it! I trust my programs! Rs means will give you somewhere in the 40's I promise. PM me when you get it set up.
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So I assume that would be 40/2men=20....so lets see 2 hrs to throw the pipe in and 18 hrs to pull four 200ft sections....or two long days......WOW I think I can beat that ......but thanks alot
 
jmsbrush said:
MULE, I used 3 different estimating programs to see what my labor rates were for what you wanted. 1 came out at 44 hours, the next came out at 60.
and my very expensive program it came out at 57 hours. I hoped this helped.
Click to expand...

I used a free program and came in at 54.4 man-hours :grin:

Attempting to use another program I came in at 189.6 :confused: ....first time I am using it though.
 
Ok, Im nieve here....so these cost data figures are average numbers it took "joe blow" to intall the selected items? how do they arrive at those figures?
 
MULE, you have to understand that these labor units are coming from industry standards. Neca and other books. Lets say you are bidding a commercial building. We will take a small example. Lets say you have 40 20' tall parking lot lights. You are going to have to be able to give an accurate bid on that. You are not just going to guess at it. You will use programs and you will use books to figure out how long it will take. This will make you a very good estimator.
If you quote a job at 2400 man hours ,Have a contract signed and you finish the job at 2300 hours. Are you going to give the guy a credit? No! If you have 90 days to complete the job and it takes you 105 days to complete at $350.00 per day penalty because you underbid or weather or any other thing held you up. Do you think they will be lenient on you? Nope. To be honest with you I have 6 sources of labor units at my finger tips. So my $3000.00 product must be wrong right??? Because you can beat it.
I have had 100' pulls that I thought would only take x amount of time and it took 2 to 3 times as long.

When you start estimating you will have to start trusting something and tweak it to you're liking and the skill level that works for you. In general the programs and book are close to each other.

There's a saying " the better an estimator I become the less jobs I'm awarded"!
Think about that there is allot of truth in that statement!
Goodnight everyone
 
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