Waterline in a feeder trench

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olly

Senior Member
Location
Berthoud, Colorado
Occupation
Master Electrician
I have a barn / garage a few hundred feet away from th home. The customer wants to put a water line in the same trench. Is that against any codes?
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Water lines and well feeds are in the same trench in just about every home with a well with no separation.
Not a problem
 

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
Around here water lines require 48in burial depth for frost depth. You don't need the electrical that deep. So to put the water and electrical in same trench could be asking for trouble if need to re-excavate the water line unless a fair distance horizontally from each other, or both to same depth. Not saying you can't do it but I think that should be a consideration.
 

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Around here water lines require 48in burial depth for frost depth. You don't need the electrical that deep. So to put the water and electrical in same trench could be asking for trouble if need to re-excavate the water line unless a fair distance horizontally from each other, or both to same depth. Not saying you can't do it but I think that should be a consideration.

If you’re saying a deeper trench, in your case 48”, makes shared use of the trench a bigger problem, I’m not sure I agree. Can you expand on why the depth is a factor?
 

rc/retired

Senior Member
Location
Bellvue, Colorado
Occupation
Master Electrician/Inspector retired
If you’re saying a deeper trench, in your case 48”, makes shared use of the trench a bigger problem, I’m not sure I agree. Can you expand on why the depth is a factor?
In Colorado water lines are required to be buried, I believe, 54" for for frost protection.
 

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
If you’re saying a deeper trench, in your case 48”, makes shared use of the trench a bigger problem, I’m not sure I agree. Can you expand on why the depth is a factor?
A bigger problem than if both were only 24" deep. It is more likely to have to dig up a water line than electrical. So if you have dig it up and trench down past the electrical that is run in the same ditch it would need to be hand dug to the 48", I wouldn't want to have to do that much hand digging. It would also leave the electrical unsupported as you excavate to the water line below. I suppose there is nothing in code that would prohibit putting the electrical as deep as the waterline running it side by side. But I also imagine the next guy to have to dig up that electrical wouldn't be very happy with that depth though.
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
A bigger problem than if both were only 24" deep. It is more likely to have to dig up a water line than electrical. So if you have dig it up and trench down past the electrical that is run in the same ditch it would need to be hand dug to the 48", I wouldn't want to have to do that much hand digging. It would also leave the electrical unsupported as you excavate to the water line below. I suppose there is nothing in code that would prohibit putting the electrical as deep as the waterline running it side by side. But I also imagine the next guy to have to dig up that electrical wouldn't be very happy with that depth though.

I see more electrical being dug up than water lines.
water pipe will take WAY more abuse than UF.
I’ve made a lot of money with my Dynatel 573A digging up electrical lines in water line trenches.
Usually I can find a break in less than 15 minutes. Dig it up and fix it quick. Water lines here are 12”.
Yes, the electrical is that shallow also.
Hey, I didn’t install it, I’m just fixing it..

It’s one reason I don’t want the HO around when I fix them..
 
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