Direct burial phone line or regular in a conduit?

[Kenneth in Texas]

pros cons from anyone that knows? 255'

 

[MossRoad]

In a conduit you can always replace, remove, troubleshoot or upgrade with ease. You can also run computer networking cables in the same conduit.

 

[boggen]

make sure you call julie or what ever the 1800 number is for your area to have local companies come out and check for gas lines, telephone lines, power lines, etc... it should be a free service / nation wide? they will only place marker flags / paint for there lines. and a few companies may show up.

not a conduit, not hard plastic (abs, pvc, etc). but what i call black poly hose. it is fairly cheap stuff at local hardware stores.

by code here. you need to bring stuff up on the outside of the building, and then bring the wires into the buildings. ((going to assume a gas, chemicals, leaks, etc... = building damage or your own life. also bring pipe upside the building/ home on the outside, you can locate were things are.

take your time and actually get it down below ground were it needs to be by code. it has been a few years but for around here it needs to be a 2 to 3 feet deep. you being in texas it might be different. getting it further below ground = keeping mice and other critters away from it, (they don't dig down as deep), and not having to worry about driving over the area with a extremely heavy load. ((you may not have plans any time in next couple years)) but eventually wanting to bring in say a truck load of dirt. or something. having it down in ground = safe for hose/pipe/cables in them.

a trenching machine, mini ex (mini excavator), ditch witch, or tractor with backhoe, along with tractor with 3pt hitch middle buster, and tractor with 3pt hitch (err forget naming, something like a middle buster) can be used to create trenches. if you do not have a truck, and/or truck with trailer. and are having it delivered. expect stuff to be late for delivery.

for renting, i use the old paper phone book (internet phone books stink) look up "equipment rental" or "machinery rental" and call places up to 1 and 1/2 hours away for pricing. it can be that much of a difference in rental costs. if you are going for a bigger machine. say a TLB (tractor loader backhoe) to get other odd projects done all at one time, make sure you get a trenching bucket say 6 to 8" in width, nothing bigger. (bigger= just make a mess)

a reminder trenching machines (looks like a chain saw blade but bigger) may get hung up on tree roots and going through gravel driveways and like. they can be awesome little machines. but they do have there down falls. and this is were a "mini ex" or a TLB come into play.

weave the hose in trench kinda like a snake / zig zag. the weaving lets the ground settle / shift. and allows the hose to shrink/stretch within reason. without pulling the hose out of the buildings.

if you have little more cash laying around put in say 1" up to 2" black poly hose. a little more room = less trouble later on trying to run another phone line, or internet cables, or cable tv / satellite tv line or like.

having clean fill (no rocks / stems or like in it) is advised. more so on direct burial. to keep a rock form settling down and cutting / pinching the hose / wire / poking a hole in it. it can happen. good clean sand can be a good fill material. ya don't need much. (has been some time) i want to say 1 to 2 inches of clean fill above the pipe / hose. to help keep rocks and alike away from pipe/hose.

get everything ready "prep work" dig you trench, get pipe in, and get it back filled with proper compaction. within a day or so. and more so before it has a chance to rain. to get wire pulled. tie a small rag onto say fishing line or kite string or like. put the rag / wad in one end. then use a shop vac on other end to suck it through. once you get that through, if pulling multi cables. pull single telephone cable or something heavier duty through. then pull your multi cables through the hose.

a trench that sets to long = trench drying out or get rained / flooded. and trench collapsing.

before pulling wire in through hose / pipe, make sure you back fill first. a "hand tamper / stamper" basicly a metal pipe with a weight on end of it. and a little bit of water can help compacting the back fill. ((better stuff on internet in how to compact as you back fill))

having a second person help pulling can make pulling wire easier. they sell wire pulling liquid, like dish soap or perhaps shampoo. it makes things easier to pull. grab a rag (say a couple old socks over your hand) and then dump the stuff into a large bowl. and swipe hand and coat wires as they are getting pulled. ((the helper = messy job coating stuff))

pulling wire.... never wrap wire around your hand. you can cause an internal break of the wire that way. and need to replace the entire cable / wire. "been there done that" there are some better videos on youtube for pulling wires. and wrapping the wire around your elbow or around your back to pull the wire.

 

[coobie]

pros cons from anyone that knows? 255'

Rent or buy a small potato/middle buster plow for your 3pt.for your trench. No sense renting a trencher BIG waste of $$.Put in 1 inch grey plastic pipe.Feed the wire threw as you are putting your pipe together.

 

[JerryK]

Depends on what you are running between. House and barn..?? What about future alarm/TV or other wires. If you are going to the trouble of putting in a direct bury phone wire, why not lay a 1" PVC conduit in the same trench. Conduit is not that expensive in the big scheme of things.. I have two 1" conduit lines between my buildings just for misc wires.... [ but that's me... ]

 

[phiferpharm]

I guess due to expense, the telephone/internet company bury all the phone lines around here. They are not in a conduit. The run from the poles to my house are about a 1/4 mile, and maybe 12-18" underground.

When I required a new line, the machine they used looked like a rudder on a sailboat, with the wire feeding off a large reel as the machine slowly moved from one place to the new location. As Boggen suggests, call about what may already be buried. I didn't, and found out the hard way when putting in a replacement pasture fence.

 

[EddieWalker]

Direct burial phone line is fast, easy and proven to last. You may be creating problems with conduit, but I don't know what they are. Probably just more cost without any benefit. Around here, they have use a kind of ditch witch machine that has the roll of wire on the front and a blade that goes into the ground on the back, and they just drive along with the blade down in the ground about a foot.

Eddie

 

[JerryK]

Nothing wrong with direct burial cable. Nothing wrong with the knife thing the phone company puts their cables in with either. My point is, IF you trench, open up a trench, think long and hard about all the conduit/etc you will ever think about wanting in it before you fill it back in. Cost sometimes is not that important in the big scheme of things... have to think long term...

 

[WM75Guy]

The phone company is responsible up to the demarc where their equipment joins the customer equipment. My house is 650' from the street. The phone line was direct buried Cat 3 3 pair by a contractor for CenturyLink with the blade machine. It went bad so they laid a new one. If you want to go 255' from the demark I would hire one of the contractors the phone company uses to lay it. Direct bury Cat 5E is 25 cents a foot, that would give you 4 lines.

 

[EarPlug]

Direct bury Cat 5E is 25 cents a foot, that would give you 4 lines.

Cat 5 is way overkill for just voice. If using for date (ethernet) you would need to use all 4 pairs.

 

[Daver1963]

As someone who has pulled miles of telephone cable and fiber optic cable I would make the following suggestions:
If you are going to use conduit or pvc one rule of thumb is to have no more than two 90 degree bends or total bends that equal more than 180. However, I would consider using innerduct as it comes with a pull rope already in it. The linked version is colored orange so if there is any future digging there's no confusion as to what it is.
Next determine how many pairs you want in that cable and then up it by 50%. Or put down more than one innerduct for future use. The reason being is that even if you pull in a pull string with your cable actually getting that pull string to work at a later date is probably not happening as it will twist and turn as it's going through whatever you use, whether it is conduit, pvc, or innerduct.
The other option if you want to upgrade later is to use the original wire as your "pull string." You just cut service long enough to pull the new wire and terminate.
I will presume that whether direct bury or conduit that you are using outdoor rated cable.

 

[WM75Guy]

Cat 5 is way overkill for just voice. If using for date (ethernet) you would need to use all 4 pairs.

Cat 5E is usually cheaper than Cat 3, even direct bury. You can run 10/100 and voice on one Cat 5E, the ethernet only uses 2 pair. One Gig uses all 4 pair.

 

[Coyote machine]

I ran 4 pieces of gray color conduit from house to barn in 2009. One for electric to supply the barn from the house panel. One to use for two radiant heat crosslinked poly to provide primary hot water overage from solar collectors and storage tank in house. Third brings one Cat5E and coax from house. Forth brings 2 Cat5E for fiber optic from house router/modem, one spare in case of a cable break, or similar.
Each piece of conduit is 2" or larger to accommodate multiple wire runs with less chance of snagging, etc.

In our area 3-4' deep is best because of deep frost.
Make sure to run marking tape in your trench to let future digging beware of what's below Put the tape within a foot of grade or so.

 

[Daver1963]

Cat 5E is usually cheaper than Cat 3, even direct bury. You can run 10/100 and voice on one Cat 5E, the ethernet only uses 2 pair. One Gig uses all 4 pair.

Cat 5E will run gig.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

I do believe 256 feet is real close to max distance without signal boosters for data. So, your not running power? Cost effective direct buried. 12-18 inches like other said. Then use point to point wiresles to go from house to barn. Or go with voice over IP use the point to point. Ubiquiti, don't quote me on the spelling, is cost effective and don't bury anything

 

[Fawken]

For Texas, 3/4" or 1" conduit (it's cheap) gel filled Cat5e (same price as Cat3) with a pull string. Be sure to install protectors at each end with a proper ground whatever you decide. The limit for a Cat 5e link is 330'. (100 meters)

 

[imported_OWDouglas]

I ran a phone line direct at my parents, from house to garage about 20 feet and 4 to 6 inches down when I was 15 years old. I am now 55 and the phone still works.

 

[kcflhrc]

Maybe some more information would help greatly. Is this cable from the street to your house or to extend service from the house to another building. Being a phone guy now for 35 years some of the previous posts are true and some are not. Your post doesn't really say what you are doing and why.

 

[Fawken]

Maybe some more information would help greatly. Is this cable from the street to your house or to extend service from the house to another building. Being a phone guy now for 35 years some of the previous posts are true and some are not. Your post doesn't really say what you are doing and why.

Only 35 years? I started in 1978. SW Bell, then AT&T, then fiber optics for Time Warner, back to AT&T microwave and fiber, now contracting VHF/UHF and data for DHS and FBI.

 

[kcflhrc]

Only 35 years? I started in 1978. SW Bell, then AT&T, then fiber optics for Time Warner, back to AT&T microwave and fiber, now contracting VHF/UHF and data for DHS and FBI.

Actually I was wrong, it was 36 years in June. SWB, then AT&T, then Sprint, then Embarq and now well, you see the pattern, right? Started right out of High School. Primarily PBX Installations for most of that time but a variety of other Telecom projects throughout the my career. Been a good gig, it pays the bills.