Rural Living

[fishheadbob]

Internet and cable. If you're working from home make sure you can get high speed internet to your house; it isn't available everywhere. Utilities do charge an arm and leg to run service to remote locations; Dsl is slightly better than dial up and there are very mixed reviews on satellite internet, although sat. TV is great.

 

[Got2BTru]

Ask about going halfway overhead primary line and the second half secondary underground.See what the savings might be.

They told me overhead would be more, though I'm not sure why, nor do I really want overhead anyhow to be honest.

Is that the buried price? Can they do it on poles?
Do you have to do water too? Sewer? Phone?
It will cost you a small fortune in gravel to do a 1300 foot long road. Look up RDrancher on this forum for that. He's the best I've seen.

That is buried. Poles are more expensive I was told.
I will have septic - placing the house back further on the land was positive as the ground is higher back there and I passed my perc test.
The sub-base driveway we put in last year DID cost us a small fortune...$12k!

I had to bury my lines from the nearest pole which is on my property 2,500ft away. I was not allowed to use poles even though I own the land they would be on. I had a contractor come dig the trench and then cover it once the line was installed. I would call around to a few excavating companies or even ask a few locals if they know anyone who would dig it for you. Chances are someone will want a bit of extra cash and it will be much cheaper on your end too.

So did YOU run the power or did the power company?

Wow, $25K seems high. In 2012 we paid a hair over $2K to run a primary about 600' from the road into our property, then get a transformer installed, and another 100' of service wire to the home. At the time that was a lot of unexpected money added on to the construction cost, since normally the power company does not charge for hookup at all. But in retrospect, it seems extremely fair considering the amount of trenching, wire cost, and transformer cost. I am sure the actual cost was far higher than that, and the power company may have only charged us for whatever overage is higher than typical -- perhaps the transformer and some wire.

So all that leads me to believe $25K is the full cost with no subsidy from the power company. I guess I'd want to discuss it further with them and see where the costs are and where they could be reduced, or shared, or maybe you can do the trenching to save some. In our case, the power company subs the whole thing out to a third-party, and they just show up with a mini-hoe, wire, and transformer on a truck. There wasn't anything special about the trenching that any other person couldn't do with the proper equipment.

I was wondering the same. They won't give me a concrete price until I "build something" on the land. So it looks like we'll be putting in the well first. I have no problems spending $200 for a ditch-witch ($175 for the ditch-witch, $20 for a 30-pack and $5 for sun screen) and doing that work myself!

Internet and cable. If you're working from home make sure you can get high speed internet to your house; it isn't available everywhere. Utilities do charge an arm and leg to run service to remote locations; Dsl is slightly better than dial up and there are very mixed reviews on satellite internet, although sat. TV is great.

I figure I'll have to trench a second line for this work...

 

[Got2BTru]

Here are a couple of pics...of the land. First is just the surveyors map, second is an aerial view which will give you a better idea after looking at the first pic! Driveway comes in off the road, we turn left at the property marker, go in about 250 feet and the turn right - heading another 50 feet back. That's where the house will be. LH side of the property from there will be for haying. RH side (and along driveway) will be for grazing. 6 cows, some sheet, pigs, etc.

 

[KretZ]

View attachment 430191View attachment 430192

Here are a couple of pics...of the land. First is just the surveyors map, second is an aerial view which will give you a better idea after looking at the first pic! Driveway comes in off the road, we turn left at the property marker, go in about 250 feet and the turn right - heading another 50 feet back. That's where the house will be. LH side of the property from there will be for haying. RH side (and along driveway) will be for grazing. 6 cows, some sheet, pigs, etc.

In any case, congrats on your homestead, and welcome to the forum. There is a wealth of information on here, and a lot of good people. We are in a similar situation except we haven't really done anything with our land yet since I have been overseas. My brother in law built on the piece of land next to ours and the power company rolled the cost of power poles into his bill, and he paid it off in installments along with his utility bill over the course of ten years or so. But I don't think it was anywhere close to the amount you are talking about. I think what he paid for was the labor of having the poles and lines installed, the power company owns the lines and poles, so they are the ones who bought the materials. This was in Ohio so different companies do things differently. I would like to do underground utilities as well (once we build). From what I am hearing, you can save money by digging the trench yourself.

 

[scesnick]

You run the conduit to the house with a schedule 80 sweep at both ends. Red caution tape about a foot above the conduit and of course run a rope in the conduit. The power company will run the electrical line.

 

[BrinkME]

A lot of that cost is probably associated with them adding a transformer at the pole and running the line under the road to your side, OR dropping a pole on your side of the road plus adding the transformer.

 

[riptides]

Wow, $25K seems high. In 2012 we paid a hair over $2K to run a primary about 600' from the road into our property, then get a transformer installed, and another 100' of service wire to the home. At the time that was a lot of unexpected money added on to the construction cost, since normally the power company does not charge for hookup at all. But in retrospect, it seems extremely fair considering the amount of trenching, wire cost, and transformer cost. I am sure the actual cost was far higher than that, and the power company may have only charged us for whatever overage is higher than typical -- perhaps the transformer and some wire.

So all that leads me to believe $25K is the full cost with no subsidy from the power company. I guess I'd want to discuss it further with them and see where the costs are and where they could be reduced, or shared, or maybe you can do the trenching to save some. In our case, the power company subs the whole thing out to a third-party, and they just show up with a mini-hoe, wire, and transformer on a truck. There wasn't anything special about the trenching that any other person couldn't do with the proper equipment.

Dominion quoted me at around 20k to bury the 1000 foot line between my house and their service point. That was twelve years ago and every other year since. They have to trim back trees on the lines. Every time they are out I ask.

I figured if they had absorbed the cost 12 years ago, and done it, their maintenance on the tree lines would have been a wash by now.

But it don't seem to work like that.

 

[deezler]

$25k sounds high.

We ran ~620' underground to my new house for just over $3k total. First a 40' aerial span to one new pole, then 250' underground heavy duty cable to the transformer they placed on a pad, than 370' secondary cable after that to house.

 

[Got2BTru]

$25k sounds high.

We ran ~620' underground to my new house for just over $3k total. First a 40' aerial span to one new pole, then 250' underground heavy duty cable to the transformer they placed on a pad, than 370' secondary cable after that to house.

Do you remember or can you get the specs for the 2 different cable types?

 

[deezler]

Do you remember or can you get the specs for the 2 different cable types?

Sorry, I don't recall. They never really gave me the specifics, and what I overheard was basically just their own proprietary nomenclature for the wire types. I do know that for the secondary underground service from the transformer to the house, they stepped up a grade in wire gauge to accommodate the 370' length.