A rennovation exploration

The Maginot Line is Complete!

viva la revolution!

After weeks of trench warfare, blisters and a jillion trips to Home Depot we now have electricity in the garage. Sure, when all of this started we had electricity in the garrage, but now it's confined to the garage and less likely to also be in the lawn, garden and any unfortunate shovel nearby.

One of the "handy" projects the previous owners left was a delicate wiring system. The garrage had power via indoor wiring burried about 4-6 inches under the sod. The wiring ran up the side of the house, allong the roof and down a post into the ground where it traveled to the garage. Somewhere along the line the 14/2 transitioned into 12/2 wire and then back into 14/2 but with no ground. The wire not in the ground was fairly brittle and starting to fall apart since it was indoor wire not rated for sunlight exposure. As per usual in this endevor, most connections were made with electrical tape. I counted a total of two wire nuts on six different junctions.

This fun project involved digging a 54' long trench 18-20 inches down and going under two sidewalks. Suggestions for next time:

• do a utility locate and rent a trencher, the $100 that'll cost (trencher plus truck to tow it) is worth not digging.
• they make these cool auger bits for drills that poke nice 3" holes. I seem to recall thinking "I wish someone made an auger bit for my drill" - buy one of those.
• PVC conduit is the way to go. it's so much easier to work with than the other options.

posted by Our House @ 2:01 PM