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Burying overhead powerline

1,772 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by barnacle bob
Watchful Ag
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I'd like to bury the overhead powerline coming into my house, but don't know where to start. Should I reach out to someone with the county, or CenterPoint?

  • Katy, Fort Bend County
  • Not part of a MUD district and I'm not within city limits
  • House was built in the late 70's
Including an image of the house so you can see the line going through my front yard. Thanks in advance for any help or guidance.

Kenneth_2003
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For a straight run I'd take a stance similar to above with a minor tweak.

Get the electrician to come out and bid the job. Then see what the difference is if you bury the conduit with 90s up that meet his specs to pull the cable through. Don't hire Mexicans, rent a trencher my guess is buried minimum 36 inches with 12 inches clearance to gas, phone and water. The electrician doesn't like to dig, so he'll gladly defer that to you. He'll also buy you the conduit, possibly at his cost and it'll be far cheaper than Blue/Orange.

811 will be required and they may want a locator on site when you're within certain distance of some buried lines. They may also require hand excavation to final locate.

My parents went this route in 2004 with a build in Montgomery County. They had a dumb hand that worked cheap. That moron spent his spring break burning all their water lines, electric service, gas poly line, phone line, plus water and 110V back to various places in the yard. From the street to their house was a little over 100 yds.
hoosier-daddy
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I think I'd lower it before burying it. Would take much less dirt than burying it overhead.
Watchful Ag
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Unless you changed the elevation of the house
Whoop Delecto
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akaggie05
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Which side of the meter is that on? The utility might require you to have them do it (for a fee of course).
Animal Eight 84
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I did this as a DIY twice. My DIY were on new build to barn and house, not retro-fit.

Just did it a third time, but this time I hired it done for a recent new build.
On the most recent new build, I was able to install a spare 1" conduit to my entrance along with conduit for my internet all in the one deep trench.

Some key points:

1. You are responsible for installing buried conduit from pole to house.
- Utility has specifications on how deep they want it. I think mine was 42".
- Utility will want to inspect depth of installed conduit prior to covering. IF you're hiring it done, they may trust a reputable electrical firm along with a photo, but don't count on it.
-Utility will want "marker" tape installed as a warning barrier in trench- they provide it.
-You are responsible for 811 marking all buried commodities. You are still responsible for damage if you hit one so be prepared to hand dig.

2. Utility will mount conduit on power pole up to transformer. I just had to stub it out of the ground at the pole.

3. Utility will pull and connect wire from transformer to house meter.

4. Meter-Can had to be within 100 feet of transformer. So this may have been "waved" on initial over-head install, may not be acceptable if you want to install new underground cabling.
Also, the distance down the pole will add some length to the run. Check with CenterPoint before starting your project, they'll have an installation fact sheet for you to follow.

Have fun, buried wires underground are much safer, that's why I went to the trouble, don't have to worry about snagging them with pecan shakers, and other farm equipment.
barnacle bob
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I did this a few years ago (Houston). I used Thor electric, and they did a great job, and handled everything.

Rather than trenching they used a pneumatic "torpedo" , followed by conduit. I have a huge oak and it punched right through the roots.

Whoever you use will need to work closely with center point. Power will be disconnected and reconnected in the same day to avoid prolonged outage. Predictably this was a cluster because it requires different crews and a higher level of coordination than the phone reps are capable of handling.

Go for it!

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