Pulling Wire

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Underground conduits will usually be full of water especially if going from building to building.
If you have to blow the water out to get the pull rope through then there may be a big mess to clean up.

Need to factor the labor time for it, even if it is just the poor apprentice.
 
Unbridled said:
The primary reason I run as much conduit under the slab is the total length of the up-coming wire pull.
The drops from conduit installed from above are longer than the stub-ups out of the slab to a receptacle for example.
I try to run as much as possible under the slab. No one cares if the PVC is running at angles, unlike exposed conduit runs.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
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For sure it's better to put as much as possible in the slab. You can save on both labor and materials.

I thought the OP was asking if say a 400 ft pull of cable would be easier underground or overhead. If the length of the cable to be pulled is the same I wouldn't want to bet on which will go faster .
 
mstrlucky74 said:
Not for wire pulling. That's why I'm asking. Always been told there's a labor savings when installing conduit in a trench or on the floor as opposed to overhead which makes sense but never got info on wire pulls being different.
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So if someone gave you a response that they experience a 20% labor saving for pulling underground, are you going to discount your labor units for those runs? That would be someone's opinion.
Maybe they have kept really good historical data in their shop for wire pulling. But that's their data based on their research

You're overthinking again....throughout a given job, there will be more difficult or very easy pulls....it all averages out. You win some and lose some.

I don't like discounting or adding labor for items that don't show adjustments for that task (unlike conduit where there are several levels of difficulty)
 
cdslotz said:
So if someone gave you a response that they experience a 20% labor saving for pulling underground, are you going to discount your labor units for those runs? That would be someone's opinion.
Maybe they have kept really good historical data in their shop for wire pulling. But that's their data based on their research

You're overthinking again....throughout a given job, there will be more difficult or very easy pulls....it all averages out. You win some and lose some.

I don't like discounting or adding labor for items that don't show adjustments for that task (unlike conduit where there are several levels of difficulty)
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Understood and agree. I was asking because you guys seem to be at the top of your games and if 10 people responded and 8 said it usually easier to pull underground than overhead(all circumstances being equal except where the conduit is being installed...and yes more than likely the conduit will be PVC in grade and not PVC in a building so that would be a constant different) I would have it consider putting in a discount...especially if I have 15,000'.
 
mstrlucky74 said:
Understood and agree. I was asking because you guys seem to be at the top of your games and if 10 people responded and 8 said it usually easier to pull underground than overhead(all circumstances being equal except where the conduit is being installed...and yes more than likely the conduit will be PVC in grade and not PVC in a building so that would be a constant different) I would have it consider putting in a discount...especially if I have 15,000'.
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not a good idea to discount wire pulling.
very, very bad idea.

if you have a problem with a pull, and everyone does
at one time or another, usually what happens is it might
get repulled, and you'll eat the cost of the wire.

i walked in on a data center, was the night shift foreman,
and day shift tried to pull in 400' of 500 mcm copper.

with a smaller ground.
off a wemco reel.

without pulling the locking pin on the sheaves out before
starting the pull.

when i showed up, most of the wire was in a huge ball,
in the parking lot. all snarled. they'd spent all day with
it, and still didn't understand what was wrong. by then,
it was a bit late. imagine a 20' ball of wire weighing about
a ton. now, try to untangle it, in the dark. don't nick that
insulation, hear?

they ordered a new wemco full, and repulled with that.
1,600' of 500 mcm, and 400' of 4/0 copper. they paid
us to cut it up and strip it for scrap.

how's that discount feeling now?
 
Fulthrotl said:
not a good idea to discount wire pulling.
very, very bad idea.

if you have a problem with a pull, and everyone does
at one time or another, usually what happens is it might
get repulled, and you'll eat the cost of the wire.

i walked in on a data center, was the night shift foreman,
and day shift tried to pull in 400' of 500 mcm copper.

with a smaller ground.
off a wemco reel.

without pulling the locking pin on the sheaves out before
starting the pull.

when i showed up, most of the wire was in a huge ball,
in the parking lot. all snarled. they'd spent all day with
it, and still didn't understand what was wrong. by then,
it was a bit late. imagine a 20' ball of wire weighing about
a ton. now, try to untangle it, in the dark. don't nick that
insulation, hear?

they ordered a new wemco full, and repulled with that.
1,600' of 500 mcm, and 400' of 4/0 copper. they paid
us to cut it up and strip it for scrap.

how's that discount feeling now?
Click to expand...

Wow. But that seems like a rare instance.
 
Underground, like in a manhole?
You would need a sniffer, safety stand/harness, pumps, etc..
Off the same concrete floor as overhead run, I would say underground would be faster but no discount faster.
 
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