Count the problems!!!

[Mr T]

I am getting ready to run a new electrical line to my garage. A previous homeowner disconnected the lines to the garage. Neighbors said they had lots of electrical problems with the garage. There is a gas line going out to the garage that I need to cross under. I hand dug around the gas line to expose it where I was going to cross it and found the problem with the electric. My guess is this isnt the only problem. Count the violations/hazards....

Pic 1 is the gas line exposed. The electric was run with it. The line was 3-4" deep where I dug it up. I found the wire before I found the gas line. Yea i'm gonna put the new stuff deeper. Yes thats normal NM cable they used.

Pic 2 is a uplcose of one of the splices.
Pic 3 shows copper and individual conductors fully exposed.

[pushkins]

About the only thing the old owners didn't do for you was to put a small nick in the copper line and leave the electricity on....lol

[Mr T]

They did.. I found a few of those too that showed copper and was nice and corroded. This garage was well known around town for having electricl problems.. Also heard a rumor that it would even trip the kitchen breaker.

[wannabe]

Gee.... How about a nice game of Kaboom??? :s:

[Wgoodrich]

Now I say a little duct tape, maybe add some axle grease to reduce friction and we would be good to go !! yahoo ! Add Oxegen and we can get a bigger BOOM :dancing2:

Remember duct tape is the universal tool for anything .

Hee hee

Wg

[scuba_dave]

What ya can't just splice little small leftover pieces to make one long pies & bury it?

:hahaha:

I found the old shed line at my last house with the lawnmower
The grass was about waist high

[dznewz]

. . .Remember duct tape is the universal tool for anything .
Wg

I always heard that you needed two tools:

Duct tape, to make stuff stop
-and-
WD-40, to make stuff go

[Bismarck Jack]

Glad to be alive...using a tiller in ma's backyard. Hit a live leg of 240 with the tiller blade. The leg was burried 12 inches down! Loud pop heard and i realized right away what it was.

sad thing is that we called before we dug and the line they spray painted was 4 feet from where i hit the line.

i was done working for the day. couldnt stop shaking.

FYI> i burried the electrical for my future shed with 36 inches of cover. did have to cross the gas line, but wont be clipping with a tiller or the lawnmower. and no unsuspecting future owner will either.

Glad you are safe.

[Mr T]

This garage is well known for having lots of electrical problems for many many years.. I know why now. Hopefully all fixed up.

Odd thing is this wire looks like it has a soft lead like wrapper around it. you can flex the wire and it stays in the position you flex it in. The trencher hit the wire further down the line. We figured it would just cut through it. It pulled it up out of the ground over about 3 feet and it tore a block out of the garage foundation that it went through. Yet it never tore through the wire, not even a nick in the sheath. It's some tough wire.

Anyone ever seen this? 40's era wire. Is it lead?

[junkcollector]

Anyone ever seen this? 40's era wire. Is it lead?

Yes, in fact, I have even seen lead sheathed telephone cable used before. Lead was used as a sheath for underground cables for many years- before the modern PVC jacketed UF cable came along in the mid fifties.

Power companies even used lead sheathed cables for high voltage underground distribution in large cities in the same time period. Paper insulated nonetheless!

So what else was wrong with the garage's wiring?

[Mr T]

Thats the worst of the problems.. Other then some structural stuff it's in decent shape.. It's just had no power for 10 or so years.