Little future proofing for a home build

[TheE]

Hope this works out!!

While installing our water line, we decided to add another trench for two, 1-inch PVC runs. The plan is to use these 1-inch PVC runs for ethernet so we can have IP cameras at the end of our driveway sometime in the future.

Speaking of this, what ethernet cable would you recommend for this? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it does not have to be shielded or burial, correct?

 

[sebastiantombs]

No buried conduit remains water tight forever and they actually accumulate moisture just from condensation caused by heating and cooling. Best practice is to use a gel filled, direct burial rated, CAT cable. It might also be worth considering using a shielded, gel filled, direct burial cable with proper grounding to help mitigate surges caused by nearby lightning strikes.

 

[TheE]

No buried conduit remains water tight forever and they actually accumulate moisture just from condensation caused by heating and cooling. Best practice is to use a gel filled, direct burial rated, CAT cable. It might also be worth considering using a shielded, gel filled, direct burial cable with proper grounding to help mitigate surges caused by nearby lightning strikes.

Great! Thank you very much for your time and help with this feedback.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Now, if I could get you to bring that tractor with the trencher here......

 

[TonyR]

Now, if I could get yo to bring that tractor with the trencher here......

I believe that's a ride-on Ditch Witch RT45 or similar. Man, I'd love to have had one of those a few years back. I did operate a much smaller one circa 1973.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I rented a walk behind Ditch Witch with a three foot boom years ago and it was so easy to use compared to an idiot stick especially. Even though the soil here is quite sandy, it's a chore at my age, heck at any age, to dig a trench.

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

Every single underground conduit I've installed and serviced others have all filled with water.

 

[TonyR]

Every single underground conduit I've installed and serviced others have all filled with water.

Yep, that's been my experience as well.

This is because moisture WILL find its way into the conduit generally from above-ground boxes and fixtures, collect in low points as the air inside the conduit is subjected to a thermal cycle (heats up during day, air inside expands, cools off at night and contracts, drawing in damp outside air, condenses, travels to low point, is trapped and won't escape during warm up cycle, just continues to collect at low points).

That is why I always suggest using outdoor-rated, flooded burial-rated cable for all conduit installations that are outdoors and below ground.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I saw one underground conduit run that didn't have water in it. It was a run of three inch PVC electrical conduit between two buildings about 200 feet apart. Both ends were inside the buildings in utility closets, environmentally controlled, and it was as dry as a bone when we pulled fiber through it. When we made that pull it had been in place for about ten years.

 

[TheE]

I believe that's a ride-on Ditch Witch RT45 or similar. Man, I'd love to have had one of those a few years back. I did operate a much smaller one circa 1973.

Yes, sir, it was a Ditch Witch. We rented it from a local business and I do not remember the model.