Outside power - shallow depth

[AlmondSauce]

So today's job was going to be to run power to the shed. Dig down a couple of foot, line with sand, lay SWA, bury in sand, add topsoil, lay warning tape, rest of top soil, job done.

The actual list of events turned out to be "Dig down half a foot, hit solid chalk, swear a bit, dig the rest of the run to make sure, bugger there's only 20cm of topsoil at the best point, attack it with the pick for a bit, **** this, it's my week off, I'm going down the pub."

I'm now deciding on the best course of action. The trench is across the middle of a lawn that shouldn't be disturbed in the foreseeable future, but I'm still not happy with just laying SWA at 20cm or so. I'm also really not too enthralled about getting down to a couple of foot with a pickaxe across the whole run.

At the moment I'm tempted to make sure the whole lot is at least 1 foot deep, lay PVC conduit, concrete it in place then run T&E. I'm pretty confident that counts as at least equivalent mechanical protection compared to SWA. (Or at least, good luck getting a spade through it!)

Would that be a reasonable thing to do, and if not has anyone got any better ideas?

 

[AlmondSauce]

Hmm, you think that ducting, concrete and T&E might be as good as SWA, but you don’t think SWA is good enough?

I've seen a spade pierce SWA. I haven't seen a spade pierce concrete.

 

[Zdb]

Just lay the SWA and no one will ever know. Its not like you'll post it online or anything...

 

[Squid]

Clip it to the neighbours fence and stop faffing around........

 

[Midwest]

If you can get down to 200mm, get some twin walled ducting to run your swa in, cover it with plastic

still leave you with 140mm plus of top soil so the grass will grow. Just don't spike the grass in the summer. Better still, gets some artificial grass, so you won't have to.

 

[AlmondSauce]

Thanks all for the replies. Eventually just decided to lob the T&E over the neighbour's fence for the first half of the run, then bury it directly in the ground by an inch or so, so I can get to it easily again if needed by just pulling it up. I've attached a little paper note to one side of the fence explaining where it is so everyone else knows to avoid it in future.






Just kidding. Used the twinwall duct & put SWA in (considered H07RNF, but eventually just thought sod it, I'll get the tough stuff.) Couldn't quite get down to 200mm for all of the run, so concreted that in place just to be sure, then laid tape. Took a while, but I'm happy enough with the end result.