Thanks Thanks:  0
Needs Pictures Needs Pictures:  0
Picture(s) thanks Picture(s) thanks:  0
Results 1 to 6 of 6
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Gosford
    Age
    63
    Posts
    173

    Default Shed sub mains ripped up.

    No playing with welders today. I had a positrack excavator / digger in yesterday to move 60 tonnes of fill and I decided to get him to do a bit of landscape digging while I had him. I knew generally where the power supply sub mains ran down to the shed so I had my son hand dig down to the appropriate levels without finding anything at all. Pretty sure we were good to go, I still decided to isolate the shed at the meter box just in case and I'm glad I did. As is usually the case, just next to where we finished hand digging the depth test holes, on the very last scrape of the bucket, pop. Orange conduit poking out and a broken 6 mm 2C+E PoweRun cable.

    The sparky who did the shed for me 15 years ago didn't put any tape over the line when he back-filled the trench. Aaaaarrrggghhhh!!!! He did other underground work for me as well so I can only assume no tape was used for these either.

    Do I pull a whole new 50 meter + cable through from the house or just join 12 meters of new cable at the break point and then put it back underground? My son is a 2nd year apprentice but he didn't know the code requirement. He said they would normally just pull a new run if they could and he hadn't yet done one where it was joined. I'm waiting for him to try to find out from his boss. Anybody here know if it's OK to join it or not?

    I'm about to go and check if it is still good and safe at the meter box end, still alive at the break when turned back on, and how easy it will be to pull new cable through the conduit that remains at the house end. It is difficult access under a very low house floor.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    moonbi nsw Aus
    Age
    69
    Posts
    364

    Default

    With the damaged cables and conduit I would take the opportunity to upgrade the line from 6mm to at least 10mm. Yes it will be more expense but it will deliver you with a better supply especially if you want to run machinery in the shed
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Gosford
    Age
    63
    Posts
    173

    Default

    Thanks for the good idea but not really feasible. It would mean digging the existing line up all the way to the house and a lot has happened in 15 years. Trees have grown, fences in place, concrete paths, etc, etc. It would be a major expense, turning what is possibly a $100 - $300 repair into well over $1k or more. An excavator for a day, bigger conduits and 60 m of 10 mm cable. The supply circuit breaker is only 40 Amp with no real wriggle room to upgrade it.

    I know I should have connected 3 phase to the shed when I built it but really, I'm never going to run anything bigger than a 15 Amp welder. That's a problem for someone else when I'm gone.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Near Bendigo, Victoria, AUS
    Age
    72
    Posts
    3,102

    Default

    Since it is in conduit, you may be allowed to pull in new bigger building wires instead of cable. That may mean the conduit is big enough for the bigger wires.... just a thought.
    Cheers, Joe
    retired - less energy, more time to contemplate projects and more shed time....

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Canberra
    Posts
    1,322

    Default

    I snagged a lead-in conduit which was much shallower than legal (and no tape) with an excavator. Sparky crimped on some joiners, sleeved some dual-wall, hotglue-filled heatshrink over the repair, bodged a bit of conduit over the damaged bit and called it a day.

    I assume it was all tickety-boo. Have had no problems since.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Gosford
    Age
    63
    Posts
    173

    Default

    My wires are soldered at staggered length, individually dual wall adhesive heat shrink encased, the whole thing dual walled adhesive heat shrink wrapped then new conduit joined over the top. The replaced section at least now has warning tape plus I've made a mud map and put indicator marks on the shed and fence to show underground location of the run.

    243 Volts was measured at the live end of the new 15 m cable, 60 m from the main board. It's now connected back into the sub-board, the shed is re-powered and the trench is back filled. I'll compact it later today.

    Not too pleased with the work of the original sparky. A 100m roll of warning tape is less than $20.

    Sent from my SGP521 using Tapatalk

Similar Threads

  1. Ring Mains Wiring !
    By BaronJ in forum ELECTRICALS
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 7th Apr 2019, 09:34 PM
  2. Best way to light up a shed without mains power?
    By j3dprints in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 17th Feb 2019, 09:51 AM
  3. Bandsaw blade - I ripped a chunk of teeth off !!
    By Matty5700 in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 18th Jun 2009, 12:23 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •