Overhead clearance for service drop on a 33 year old house?

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Avalanche

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Greenwood, IN
I have a customer that is selling a house built in 1975, the point of attachment to the house only allowed a little over 8' of clearance from the ground to the conductors drip loop. They wanted me to find out if that was code in 1975 and would it be grandfathered today? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
The 10' point of attachment rule goes back to the mid 1950's. Since the dwelling service is energized and in assuming in good repair, it is likely the local AHJ and/or utility would not require an upgrade. An insurance company may have a different opinion.
 
The 1971 NEC states that service-drop conductors when not in excess of 600 volts shall be not less than 10' above finished grade,(section 230-24 (B) and the point of attachment is not less than 10' above finished grade, (230.26) 1975 NEC is the same. It has always been in violation.
 
You may find the actual attachment height to be considerable higher today. IPL requires 13.5' so we can maintain 12' over a backyard, I don't know what Duke requires. Who is the serving electric utility? :)
 
Avalanche said:
I have a customer that is selling a house built in 1975, the point of attachment to the house only allowed a little over 8' of clearance from the ground to the conductors drip loop. They wanted me to find out if that was code in 1975 and would it be grandfathered today? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Even though it didn't meet code when it was installed, the POCO and AHJ may still allow. It might be worth making a few phone calls, if you're getting paid for research time.:D

If you're going to redo the drop, you may want to survey the rest of the house, just to see if there are any other code issues that need to be taken care of.
 
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