Suggestions for fixing an underground fed meter base falling off house

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dpslusser

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Somewhere, USA
Hey guys, my Dad's electrical service is underground, fed from a transformer roughly 200 yards away.

The house was built in 1992 and there was no expansion sleeve put on the conduit with the feeder in it.

What are the recommendations to fixing this before it falls all the way off the house?

2l95rly.jpg


Im assuming that the conduit is the means for its destruction and not the weight of the cable. Becuase the siding was trimmed around the box, I would like to put the box back in the same place. But if I disco the feeder and put an expansion sleeve over the conduit, how do I know if there is even any slack in the feeder.

Second tought was to place a junction box below the meter base and bung expansions piece up to the meter base. Similar to this: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/djf-...opup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

Altought I have enough room to keep the JB out of the dirt and put an expansion sleeve under the JB.
 
It may be that the screws weren't long and there was some rot behind the vinyl siding. I would try and put it back up with thicker and/or longer screws
 
If the ground settled it would also pull the meter with it so you may have to dig down to the underground pipe so that you can pull it up
 
Suggestions for fixing an underground fed meter base falling off house

Hard to tell for sure but it looks like foam behind there. The screws may have been too short to securely fasten into the OSB behind it; assuming that is what is behind there. I remember years ago wiring houses with vinyl and they just put foam directly on top of the studs, so we had to put blocking behind there to hold the meter base.

If you do need a junction box, talk to the utility first. Typically they need to approve it and require it to be lockable.

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There are many ways to take this on:
First what the first two replies wrote.
Contact the poco to disconnect the service.
If it is a conduit run all the way back to the transformer then you may be able to pull an inch or two of slack back up through the conduit towards the meter.
The underground service may be in direct burial cable and just sleeved through a piece of 2"PVC with a 90 degree sweep on it buried underground. If that is the case you could carefully dig are the meter and possibly gain some slack.
If slack is not an option I would install a hand hole a few feet from the meter where you wouldn't notice the junction so much.

Another option is lower the meter to meet the conduit height and install PVC backer board behind the meter to fill in gap behind the meter.
 
I just repaired one similar to OP's. There was a concrete (exposed aggregate) patio poured after the underground was put in. It settled and pulled the service conduit down which pulled the meter loose. The screws holding the meter were too small both in diameter and length.

What I did was to cut the conduit for the feed into the house to make it even with the service conduit. That caused me to lower the meter some. I put larger screws in and the meter felt very secure. They only had sheetrock screws in and I put lag screws in.

Here's a couple of pics.
Now all I did was cut the conduit and put on a new male adapter. I didn't put all those couplings and stuff on. Looks like either it's been repaired before or whoever installed it was down to "scraps" when they installed it.:roll:






 
meter

meter

dpslusser said:
Hey guys, my Dad's electrical service is underground, fed from a transformer roughly 200 yards away.

The house was built in 1992 and there was no expansion sleeve put on the conduit with the feeder in it.

What are the recommendations to fixing this before it falls all the way off the house?

2l95rly.jpg


Im assuming that the conduit is the means for its destruction and not the weight of the cable. Becuase the siding was trimmed around the box, I would like to put the box back in the same place. But if I disco the feeder and put an expansion sleeve over the conduit, how do I know if there is even any slack in the feeder.

Second tought was to place a junction box below the meter base and bung expansions piece up to the meter base. Similar to this: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/djf-...opup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

Altought I have enough room to keep the JB out of the dirt and put an expansion sleeve under the JB.
Click to expand...
Try drilling new holes in cabinet in different locations to catch new wood.
 
Little Bill said:
I just repaired one similar to OP's. There was a concrete (exposed aggregate) patio poured after the underground was put in. It settled and pulled the service conduit down which pulled the meter loose. The screws holding the meter were too small both in diameter and length.

What I did was to cut the conduit for the feed into the house to make it even with the service conduit. That caused me to lower the meter some. I put larger screws in and the meter felt very secure. They only had sheetrock screws in and I put lag screws in.
Click to expand...

Not a good option for the op because the vinyl siding is boxed out for the meter base.
 
You may have to toggle bolt or just nut and bolt it through the wall. I'd be willing to bet that the sheathing under the vinyl siding is probably particle board or something of equally poor quality. Installations like this are common in my area where the main breaker panel is in a garage directly on the opposite side of the wall from the meter enclosure. I once toggle bolted the meter enclosure directly through the wall to the main breaker panel. The trouble with doing this is that at some point the feeder PVC is going to snap or pull the KO's right out of the meter enclosure.
 
Seems highly likely the ground has settled and pulled the supply conductors/raceway with them.

Option 1 excavate, reposition back to original location, get good compaction of the soil below so it doesn't do it again.

Option 2 leave underground as is and relocate everything else.

Possibly get one of those Arlington meter blocks for dealing with the siding. Another alternative if you are comfortable with playing carpenter is to make your own meter block out of plywood and wrap it with aluminum trim coil. I do that for cases when an odd size block is needed sometimes.
 
dpslusser said:
Hey guys, my Dad's electrical service is underground, fed from a transformer roughly 200 yards away.

The house was built in 1992 and there was no expansion sleeve put on the conduit with the feeder in it.

What are the recommendations to fixing this before it falls all the way off the house?

2l95rly.jpg


Im assuming that the conduit is the means for its destruction and not the weight of the cable. Becuase the siding was trimmed around the box, I would like to put the box back in the same place. But if I disco the feeder and put an expansion sleeve over the conduit, how do I know if there is even any slack in the feeder.

Second tought was to place a junction box below the meter base and bung expansions piece up to the meter base. Similar to this: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/djf-...opup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

Altought I have enough room to keep the JB out of the dirt and put an expansion sleeve under the JB.
Click to expand...


I would find out who owns that service lateral.

That cable could be the property of the POCO. If it is then you can straighten everything out and remount the meter base and let them do an underground splice for the extra lenght needed. I did that a few years ago for one like your picture.

If I had to do a splice I would try to use polaris connectors and do it right there in the meter box.
 
growler said:
I would find out who owns that service lateral.

That cable could be the property of the POCO. If it is then you can straighten everything out and remount the meter base and let them do an underground splice for the extra lenght needed. I did that a few years ago for one like your picture.

If I had to do a splice I would try to use polaris connectors and do it right there in the meter box.
Click to expand...
Not sure what the 0P is going to run into but the Poco's in my area will not do the digging irrespective of whether it's their service wire or not unless it somehow got damaged. I have seen the Poco's use high-pressure crimps inside the meter enclosure to lengthen the wire. That might be an option for you.
 
After seeing this situation for the umpteenth time on this and other forums, I can't for the life of me understand why expansion couplings are not installed. I understand they are not necessary in the deep south and other warm areas, but they seem to be uncommon in cold weather areas. :?
 
peter d said:
After seeing this situation for the umpteenth time on this and other forums, I can't for the life of me understand why expansion couplings are not installed. I understand they are not necessary in the deep south and other warm areas, but they seem to be uncommon in cold weather areas. :?
Click to expand...
Not sure when they started being required but ALL the EI's in my area require them on PVC for UG services.
 
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