Since your cable is direct buried, I would suggest running the cable through a pvc conduit riser or sleeve up to your box. This way string trimmers won't damage the cable when doing you yardwork.
Alternatively you can run a sheathed cable, Teck cable that doesn't required conduit. Don't bury any cord or cable not rated for direct burial. 15 year+ electrician here
The first time I got cable, three young, strong, men brought a gas-powered trencher and struggled for an hour to put the cable in, which they broke and just shoved the broken ends back together. They went directly across my lawn. After I called for a repair, an old man showed up with one of these tools. He said that the cable should have gone the long way along the fence. I scoffed at him for thinking he could do what the three men with a trencher failed at. He did it right in about 20 minutes.
@@fvrrljr , Yes. One lesson I learned is to never get cable when they offer a great price in a neighborhood. It means that they plan to hire a bunch of untrained people to do a massive number of installations. The cable installers don't know what they are doing.
@@factChecker01 Thanx for the tip. but with wi-fi i don't get cable not other services that free wi-f- out there. made a cantenna that picks up open signals. don't watch much tv but i do love the free HD channels using the old and true antenna on the roof
If I may add ~ always saturate the ground if you are going to use this tool or any other, it's always easier when the ground is slightly damp/moist. Also works for me when pulling up fence posts. And another thing: A chainsaw with an old chain can get most of this trench done in a heartbeat, just be careful with rocks in the ground ...Thank you!
@@REVNUMANEWBERN WOuld one of these work on hard clay that is dry and hard packed? I am having trouble with all hand tools and cant get in there with anything large or heavy due to terrain
They used one of those when they put my cable line in when I lived south of Houston. It was fine until the summer when the soil dried out an it opened up to form a 2" wide crack.
I would have used 3/4"PVC.that way in case you had to replace or add another cable line .I know that would be an extra expense, but it will be easier for the next time. Great tool .
I agree In running the wire through a PVC instead of direct bury. Add a tagline to the wire will make any replacement or running another wire a piece of cake.
Jesus Christ guys it’s a gd coax cable, who cares. You’d have to open that trench up wider for a pvc pipe morons, he wasn’t going to rent a trencher and spend all day putting a conduit pipe in the ground.
As a former utility marker, I can assure you that the machines they use for marking work pretty good. The marker should have started from the pedestal (BOX) and worked his way back to your house. Even though the cable company did not charge you since it was mismarked, The marking company paid for the damage. When I was marking in the state of Kentucky, the cost to replace a cable line was $1000. That was 25 years ago. Its probably more now. I like the tool. It used to be against the law to open the ped, unless you are a locater or a technician. Good video.
No they started at the cable box and when to the source. Didn't realize they charge back the company. I am sure they didn't credit them for me putting the cable in the ground. Thanks for watching.
As others have mentioned, this would have been a great opportunity to utilize flexible conduit to truly protect your cables. I did it with AC and speaker wire last year. The flex conduit ensures there are no connectors underground, so there are no leak points.
Nice. Guess I'll have to buy one of those. I have a lot of projects that I cant to do and even if I need to dig a trench - this tool is an excellent way to start as I can come in along the sides at an angle with either a shovel of that same tool to widen the trench to meet whatever width I want.
Never saw any of your videos before but this is the perfect balance of grumpy while still being upbeat. 😂❤ ..."but they marked over there!". "I had somebody out here that knew what they were doing...NOT"😅 I bet you are fun to talk to. I loved this video and thank you for the tool suggestion. I need to run wire to a detached shed. This seems doable. You defi itely earned thia like and a comment for the algorithm. Take care!
My gosh! Are we related!!!?? Lol! I feel the same way about doing stuff, there is nothing like doing it yourself to know the job was done right! It is such a shame people these days take such little pride in doing a job well so we have to rely on ourselves to do it. I found if you wet the ground along the path the night BEFORE using that trenching tool, it is easier to work into the ground. For me its a no-brainer because where I live the clay under the grass is close to rock hard so wetting it first pretty much goes without saying.
That looks like a good tool - if you have the proper ground. Where I live you'd end up digging out enough rocks to get it deep enough into the ground that it might just be worth your while to dig a trench anyway.
I ran a cable drop bury crew for a couple of years when I was 18 for a contracted install and underground company, total circus. We were given shovels, reels of conduit and cable. The closest option we had to your tool were made by the secretary's husband, instead of describing him let's just call him "Brutus". The 16" wide X 12" deep blades were made from 3/4" Plate steel and the the handle was a solid steel 1-1/4" rod welded to the plate. Now if you're 6'-4" tall, 300 lbs, have a 36" waste and eat railroad spikes for breakfast, it's safe to say you can easily make a slot trench to bury that cable. Even considering the fact it was code in my area at the time that it had to be in conduit, hence the 3/4" plate for a blade. But he worked in excavation somewhere else and the rest of us couldn't even pick the tool up much less slam it into the ground pull it out and repeat every 16" as he showed us how. So we were stuck with shovels and a technique that required kicking the shovel through the grass at a 45 deg. angle, one direction only, from the house to the ped (or pole). We would take the most direct route possible, one or two of would grab the grass and pull up while one would push in the sod, it was a really quick process and nearly undetectable as long as the lawn was healthy the soil was medium damp and it wasn't newly rolled sod. That was the case about once every two months. We had 3-4 50'-200' jobs to get done everyday and even $6 an hour wasn't that great of a wage in 1999-2000. We took every short cut we could to get the conduit at a min. of 6" deep and with the least amount of ground disturbance possible. Landscaping with cloth under rock or bark was a gift from above to route through and cover, paving block was a nightmare. But the most common type to bury in was hard pan dirt with a few sprigs of abandoned grass with tennis ball sized stones. And of course the people that occupied those somehow expected that burying a cable would suddenly transform a wasteland into a lush green lawn. Once the conduit was down we still had to tie off and pull the cable through and reconnect it at the house. It was best job in the world!
Nice video. It should be noted that, while 811 locates "utilities", it does not locate "your" buried lines. So, if you have a shop/shed (or some other electric device like a light pole) buried, they do not locate those lines. If 811 located your irrigation line instead of your utilities, the tech did not know what he was doing. Locating can be tricky, but you are locating a signal sent down the wire - so how did he get the signal on your irrigation wire? I never got them wrong, and I have located many different types of lines.
great tool used it to bury a dish cable because when I ordered Dish the guy would not bury it and wanted to hang it over from garage to my house said they do not dig... worked great!
Great video. Before buying a trenching spade ($85!?) I'd try using my broad fork or even a spading fork (both gardening tools I already have) to greatly loosen the soil along that trench line. After that a flat-bladed spade could probably do the job. If I try this (which won't be soon) I'll post the result.
Man I live in an area where rock keliche and all the hardest elements are at the top of the soil down as far as you'll dig this dirt won't budge for jumping on the most solid shovels some area of course will but man I dig a nearly 200 feet over the last week and I had to use the pick axe anyhow this does look like a good technique for the narrow trench and energy saved
It is illegal to open and tamper with the communications pedestal. Please consider calling the communications company to make the connection on that end in the future. You could be knocking out 911 service to your neighbors (or more depending on where in the system you are)
The same thing happened to me. When the Spectrum cable crew showed up at our place they found the lines were mismarked. They said, 'About 50% of the time, 811 is wrong.' !
I Wonder if this would be useful in burying 12 inches of hardware cloth along my property line to keep moles from burrowing in from my neighbors yard. They always seem to come from that direction and close enough to the surface that their tunnels raise the grass up.
I believe moles are eating the grubs in the dirt, try putting something on the lawn that kills the grubs, I know it isn't your yard but if it gets rid of the moles might be worth the few bucks. Thanks for watching.
Cable TV is very low voltage. That’s why it only needs to be 12” below grade. Electrical cable should be 36” and in water tight conduit. Make sure you do your due diligence to be within code.
Watched a recent vid of contractor digging out a retaining wall from house back to rear fence. Bout 12" from back fence he hit a large fiber line for whole neighborhood. Took out whole internet and phone for neighborhood...oops he hadn't called digger hotline. Luckily he got the phone Co out that afternoon and fixed. He had a hefty bill though
I give you one easier and maybe cheaper! Use a power washer, and cut a single cable trench - 6 to 8 inches wide single pass. For drain pipe cut 2 width of trench shovel, remove sod w T shovel , place pipe , cover, done and water encourages grass growth. No cost if u use your pressure washer, or borrow so sons. Maybe motivate u to buy one for other uses !
Did the same thing with a chain saw turning the chain bacwards and justcut the trench and used a wooden yard stick and pushed the wire into the crack easy ascan be .
Those depth would be 100% illegal in my county !! 18 to 36 inches is how deep all mine are. I know because my NG line was repaired a few times and it is 3 feet deep.
811/Miss Utility is absolutely worthless. I had marked my proposed trench and asked for a notification when a locator would be on site. Never got a call. Not even to tell me they'd been there. Then, they told me there were no obstructions when I had called them back two days after they claim someone had been there. Thankfully I wasn't able to get a trencher and began digging the 24 inches deep, 100 foot long trench by hand with my trenching shovels. I encountered 2 live 10awg direct burials within the first two feet; a 1.25" conduit with unused service wire from an old meter at around the 15 foot mark; another 10awg feed at around the 25 foot mark; a water line to the yard hydrant at the around the 40 foot mark; a propane gas line at around 70 foot mark; and buried coaxial at the end near the dwelling. They told me the course was clear of any obstructions or dangers. Thanks for nothing. Glad it wasn't a charge service or I'd be getting physical with someone for endangering me.
You buried a temp coax line(orange indicator). That cable will degrade and flood with water. Bravo sir. No digging required huh? Lot of digging going on in the video. Next time use a “flooded” rg6 coax for direct bury.
Incorrect! Not all ug tv cable drops are orange. Some are black. Yes, they must be labeled ug for direct bury. It doesn't what size cable you are burying. Retired from the cable company.
I was aerating my lawn and punctured the cable tv line. They wanted to charge me to fix it. I argued to no avail. Then I called back and asked other person how deep they bury. Told me 12”. Well mine was 1/2” at most! So they rebutted it no charge!
LOL, yeah who ever they send out don't care just get as many done as they can and let the issue be someone elses problem. Did they put the new one deeper? Thanks for watching.
It does look like a useful tool, but nearly $200 for a shovel (12" model) is insanely overpriced! I'll buy the $30 Chinese knockoff. Not knocking your video, you did a great job. I am floored by how much they are charging for that product!
I was thinking of calling 811 now I don't know if I should seems they don't know what they are doing. Any kind of cable, pipe or plumbing finder that is recommended?
*If you were alone in a room with Grace and started talking she would think you were talking to her and come up to you in response to be present with you. or to interact with you.. The same is true if you are outside. All Grace knows is you and her are together and you are talking.. She has no concept of cameras or RU-vid.. I see so many pet owners get frustrated that their dogs are in the way.. they are really not.. they are coming up close bc you are talking 'to them' in there minds and they are responding to that. it makes me chuckle everytime as the dog & the owner are trying to figure out what the heck the other on is doing.. :)) Good Girl Grace..
I need to get MC4 cables that is hooked up to my portable solar generator under ground. I am having a hard time mowing the lawn with all the MC4 cables everywhere, and having to stop to move the cables so I can mow and then move them back to where they were. How hard was it for you when you used the spade? I am an older women, and not sure if I have enough strength to use the spade. I could do a little bit daily, and not all in one day. I am not sure, but I would think that 4 inches would be deep enough for the cables.
Any type of electrical wiring in the US usually falls under the electric building codes found in the NEC. There are very detailed specifics about the depths of burial as well as types of wire that can be buried. National Electrical Code is a part of the building code that generally dictate how electric wiring can be installed safely. Generally speaking, electric power is not something you may want to accidentally hit when digging around the yard in the future. The electric shock may kill you before you realize you hit the line! Do a web search on the NEC or BOCA, then ask some questions of your local building inspector if you still are unsure. Don't risk your life or the life of a future resident of your home should the energized generator line get hit with a digging tool in the future.
811 is a joke. Just had them out to mark the underground power lines before we replace the posts on my MILs fence. We needed to go two feet deeper than the existing ones. Flags were placed a good 18 inches away from the fence. Guess what we hit halfway thru our fence? Thankfully we were digging by hand with a phd and didn't cut thru anything!
Cool story dude not everyone’s yard is “rocky hard clay” and my yard is red dirt clay and I easily did this with my trenching spade, what a stupid comment
Yeah no shit dude but that trenching spade is 1/4 inch thick steel and meant for you to wiggle the trench wider, a shovel isn’t going to do that, you’re going to snap or bend the shovel.
Why not just let the telco or tv cable co do it? They used the same tool (smaller) to install fiber optic. If you cut it later, shame on them.. Then they have to come back on their nickle for not going deep enough
@@sheepdog3828 So instead of contacting Spectrum, you take in on yourself? Look into your city or county codes and regulations. Have an inspector check it out, then let them get it done right. Understand you're zealous attempt to DIY it, but looks like a tremendous amount of work and out of pocket expenses to DIY it. Just Saying
The video was too long and largely irrelevant, but I am surprised that there is relatively sound concept here. I would seriously question the $180 price people are commenting here for a tool that has a rather limited use case. But the idea is pretty good.
I want to build a floating deck about 50ft to 60ft from my house in the backyard.. Could I use this to run power to the deck, thru conduit? Im in Tacoma, Washington
I doubt it, in Snohomish county the require 18" of depth, direct burial or not. I doubt Pierce county is much different but you can easily find out from the county. I want run electrical to a shed when I get one built.
No get a trencher and go 24" it's fast and easy. Get a regular garden "hoe" and cut sides off to about 3" wide for an excellent trench tool and cheap. Helps to clean out cave in
Yea, that wouldn't do a thing where I live either. People posting stuff like this really should say what type of soil their "method" is designed for, as trenching is situational, not universal. Fortunately I skipped ahead and didn't waste too much time on this video that is irrelevant for my area.
Im not sure there are any code for cable line its more of what you are comfortable with its really just to hide them and i mean if you are digging for a fence or something whats the difference between 2 inches and 12
@toriless what are NG lines and why would they need to be deeper than electrical there definitely are codes for eletric but generally not for low voltage it's just more protected deeper but it is more work to go deeper but does that mean irrigation wiring and low voltage landscape lighting need to be 3 feet deep too
