Plastic pipe to bury in yard as conduit for future wire pulls

[Virga]

I may have an opportunity to bury a conduit/sleeve for future ethernet and other runs in my yard.
Getting wired up for internet service, and they will trench down around twelve inches to bury their line.
If I happen to have a 100-foot section of 1.5 inch plastic pipe at hand, I might just be able to get it in there for future use as a conduit.
I came across this pipe:
1.5 inch plastic pipe as in-ground conduit
Would this be suitable for the purpose – just happens to be the least expensive plastic pipe I could find.
If it can hold gas, surely it can serve as a conduit for skinnier pipes or cables.

 

[Broachoski]

Go for it! Note that if ends are not sealed air tight, it will still sweat and eventually be water soaked but with the proper cabling that is not a problem. It would add an extra layer of protection from abrasion, rocks etc to future cables. You may shoot a pull string though it with pressure or vacuum so it will be ready for later pulls.

 

[wpiman]

Go for it! Note that if ends are not sealed air tight, it will still sweat and eventually be water soaked but with the proper cabling that is not a problem. It would add an extra layer of protection from abrasion, rocks etc to future cables. You may shoot a pull string though it with pressure or vacuum so it will be ready for later pulls.

I have some direct burial ethernet in my yard running in no conduit and it works great. To thick to put a standard RJ-45 connector on it, but a quickport worked well.

It is maybe 4-6 inches down and runs outside of the lawn area so doesn't get much traffic...

 

[Jim I.]

I may have an opportunity to bury a conduit/sleeve for future ethernet and other runs in my yard.
Getting wired up for internet service, and they will trench down around twelve inches to bury their line.
If I happen to have a 100-foot section of 1.5 inch plastic pipe at hand, I might just be able to get it in there for future use as a conduit.
I came across this pipe:
1.5 inch plastic pipe as in-ground conduit
Would this be suitable for the purpose – just happens to be the least expensive plastic pipe I could find.
If it can hold gas, surely it can serve as a conduit for skinnier pipes or cables.

Are you going to dig the trench? I don't think a cable installer is going to dig much of a trench to install a coax cable, and they probably won't go down 12 inches either. They may just use a spade shovel. YMMV.

 

[Ri22o]

Are you going to dig the trench? I don't think a cable installer is going to dig much of a trench to install a coax cable, and they probably won't go down 12 inches either. They may just use a spade shovel. YMMV.

My neighbor routinely has his cable line cut when they come to aerate his yard, it is that shallow.

After pulling the line that went from my irrigation controller to my valves I was surprised I had never cut it with the aerator. It was barely under the grass. I was able to just pull it up through the yard.

 

[Virga]

The construction supervisor for the infrastructure build-out for the neighborhood told me they are supposed to go down 12" for the connection to the house.
Service install is a different phase of the overall project, involves different people, and it remains to be seen what they actually do.

 

[fergenheimer]

So many things will protect your low voltage cable including garden hose. My concern is when we start misusing one on another. If I am digging and see grey PVC, I assume electrical. White PVC, I assume water. If I saw this pipe and cut into it, I would assume that I cut a gas line. That might lead to calls for emergency services and become a mess. Also if you bury conduit and it has hazardous voltages in it, pouring red concrete over it is a good idea or label tape indicating what it contains.

 

[anotherone]

or get a can of spray paint and paint it gray.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

slightly smaller diameter, but a greater number of connection options:

Southwire 1 in. x 100 ft. Ultratite Liquidtight Flexible Non-Metallic PVC Conduit 55094401 - The Home Depot

The Southwire Company LiquidTite 1 in. x 100 ft. Non-Metallic Conduit is a flexible housing for electrical wire the provides impact protection in encased concrete or direct burial installations. This conduit is UL listed, CSA certified, green Spec and RoHS compliant. It helps protects electrical...

www.homedepot.com

 

[Virga]

@fergenheimer I take your point - about what the next person makes of the situation when they don't have all the initial information - houses and sites outlive people.
That is why there are color assignments, norms, and customary practices.

Context is important too.
An urban situation might call for a different level of adherence to those norms.
Out in the woods houses are far apart. There is nothing in the ground except for electrical service, and now the coming-soon internet connectivity,
In any case, I would do everything possible so that both ends of the conduit are identifiable above ground.
The practicality of the least-expensive solution is attractive.

The purpose of the conduit is future flexibility and ease of install, and I would still use direct burial cable in the conduit.
Garden hose will likely collapse under the weight of 12" of dirt, and not offer much future use.
I have buried 3/4" gray electrical conduit and when I go to use it wished it was bigger.
I have re-purposed wiring and conduits from what I originally thought I might use them for.
1.5" offers plenty of future possibilities.

Edit: better results with searches today
2" black poly water pipe 100' @ $207 at HD
Already have 225' of 2" pipe in the ground beyond that point, so may as well go with 2" pipe
Harder to handle 2" pipe

2" flexible corrugated black HDPE 100' @$114 at HD

 

[tigerwillow1]

There's a lot of opinion involved in these decisions. For me, I preferred to take on more work and expense up front for easier maintenance and expansion later, using more than a thousand feet of buried gray PVC, mostly 1-1/4 or 1-1/2. On one run that has a bunch of random curves I used black poly water pipe. Much of my land isn't flat, and where I could, I tried to keep the conduit straight and sloped so water would drain out of one end instead of accumulating in low spots.

 

[fergenheimer]

@builder I agree that 3/4 is too small and wish I had not cheaped out when I used it. Worse yet, I ran some 14 ga romax in 1/2 EMT. A previous owner ran two lengths of PVC water pipe to a well and used one as conduit. Luckily, the wire is retired so cutting into the wrong pipe was not painful. Using 1-1/2" conduit would add $1/ft in cost. For the 300 ft to my well that would be significant. I had some smaller flex gas line laying around but cannot find it now. I seem to remember it being ribbed on both inside and outside. Maybe this will not matter if pulling through 1-1/2" pipe.

 

[Virga]

I've seen both flat as well as corrugated yellow plastic gas line.
In what is now my existing condtions, I had ended up with 3/4" pipe because I was not specific enough - I told my electrical sub to run me two conduits, and had the trenching guy ditch-witch the trench.
The run is about 325', with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been so simple at the time ...
So now I'm leaning in the direction of overkill and ordered 2" black water pipe for the current 100' run because the burial is the bigger part of the effort, and some times beer money gets you what you are seeking.

 

[ptzman]

I've seen both flat as well as corrugated yellow plastic gas line.
In what is now my existing condtions, I had ended up with 3/4" pipe because I was not specific enough - I told my electrical sub to run me two conduits, and had the trenching guy ditch-witch the trench.
The run is about 325', with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been so simple at the time ...
So now I'm leaning in the direction of overkill and ordered 2" black water pipe for the current 100' run because the burial is the bigger part of the effort, and some times beer money gets you what you are seeking.

I would wrap orange tape in a spiral fashion along the length of the pipe to indicate that the black pipe is used for signaling.

 

[wpiman]

@fergenheimer
Context is important too.
An urban situation might call for a different level of adherence to those norms.
Out in the woods houses are far apart. There is nothing in the ground except for electrical service, and now the coming-soon internet connectivity,
In any case, I would do everything possible so that both ends of the conduit are identifiable above ground.
The practicality of the least-expensive solution is attractive.

Agree. We have a generator with several conduit lines going to that. It goes through the lawn. My direct burial cable is in a conduit until it gets to the ground, and then is simply buried for maybe 100-150 feet to the treehouse where there is a Ubiquti Flex. I can power a camera and a Wifi access point out there. I also used the extra POE slots to have an Alexa and Google Home out there. We use those to call the kids in to dinner... The wire goes through the woods. So weedwhackers and aerators shouldn't hit it.