Water boring conduit under a sidewalk.

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  • Cameramonkey

    www.thechosen.tv
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    35   0   0
    May 12, 2013
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    Camby area
    It works, and frankly, if you have a bit of patience, its cheap too. You dont need to waste your money on a jet nozzle and threaded adapter. SERIOUS over-engineering. Gluing a cap on the end and drilling a 1/8" hole in it achieves the same goal for a fraction of the cost. My entire project cost was under $7 with tax. (Jet nozzles + the threaded adapter cost more than that alone.) Though in hindsight I'd probably step up to a bigger jet hole.


    I needed to run a low voltage wire under my sidewalk. I know there are sleevers and whatnot, but those run in the hundreds of dollars. I built my own out of some PVC, a cap, and a hose adapter. Same thing as in the link, but I only spent a handful of pennies on a cap instead of buying more expensive hose adapters and jet nozzles. Heck, I think my entire rig cost less than the jet nozzles. I just drilled a hole in the cap to create the water jet instead of spending a couple bucks on the hose adapter, and another $6 or so on the hose jet nozzle. Maybe those are required for larger bores, but for my 1/2" run mine did good.

    Though I did have a small panic moment. In hindsight (3/4 through the bore) I realized my jet hole wasnt big enough, or I didnt get far enough below the gravel base. Because it was going SLOOOOOOOOW. But when I tried to back it out to try to reposition and burrow down at an angle, I could only pull it back an inch or so without forcing it. I only had about 2" of play back and forth because the gravel displaced by the jet was now behind the lip of the cap, jamming it into place.

    Eventually I busted through and it all worked out. I was able to cut off both ends of the pipe to create a conduit, and my project is now complete. FINALLY.
     
    Last edited:

    rhamersley

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    Jan 9, 2016
    3,749
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    Danville
    It works, and frankly, if you have a bit of patience, its cheap too. You dont need to waste your money on a jet nozzle and threaded adapter. SERIOUS over-engineering. Gluing a cap on the end and drilling a 1/8" hole in it achieves the same goal for a fraction of the cost. My entire project cost was under $7 with tax. (Jet nozzles + the threaded adapter cost more than that alone.) Though in hindsight I'd probably step up to a bigger hole.


    I needed to run a low voltage wire under my sidewalk. I know there are sleevers and whatnot, but those run in the hundreds of dollars. I built my own out of some PVC, a cap, and a hose adapter. Same thing as in the link, but I only spent a handful of pennies on a cap instead of buying more expensive hose adapters and jet nozzles. Heck, I think my entire rig cost less than the jet nozzles. I just drilled a hole in the cap to create the water jet instead of spending a couple bucks on the hose adapter, and another $6 or so on the hose jet nozzle. Maybe those are required for larger bores, but for my 1/2" run mine did good.

    Though I did have a small panic moment. In hindsight (3/4 through the bore) I realized my jet hole wasnt big enough, or I didnt get far enough below the gravel base. Because it was going SLOOOOOOOOW. But when I tried to back it out to try to reposition and burrow down at an angle, I could only pull it back an inch or so without forcing it. I only had about 2" of play back and forth because the gravel displaced by the jet was now behind the lip of the cap, jamming it into place.

    Eventually I busted through and it all worked out. I was able to cut off both ends of the pipe to create a conduit, and my project is now complete. FINALLY.
    1633834490221.jpeg
     

    Cameramonkey

    www.thechosen.tv
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    May 12, 2013
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    Camby area
    After posting, I realized I forgot a funny part of the story.

    I was struggling to get the last foot bored. I felt like I was almost there, but wasnt sure. The wife was out watching me, so I asked her to walk up to the far side hole where the conduit should come out and see if she could hear anything to give me an idea if I was even close or if the pipe had veered off course. She took one step and suddenly water started spraying in the air. I was through. Good thing she didnt get there sooner, or it would have been the second time I soaked her.

    Rewind a few years and I was redoing our bathroom. I needed to sweat on new shutoffs for the vanity. My skills are sketch so I wanted a pair of eyes on the connections to make sure I wasnt spraying water everywhere; the bath is upstairs, and the shutoff is downstairs under the stairs. So I asked her to stand there and watch for any leaks because by the time I could turn on the water, crawl out of the closet, go upstairs to find the leak and run back down to shut it off would make cleanup a chore.

    So I tell her "yell if you see a leak." I turn the ball valve and I hear the water rush to pressurize the house. After a few seconds listening to the rush and realizing its not slowing (its pretty loud) I quickly turn the valve and as soon as the water stops I hear Mrs Monkey screaming. I couldnt hear her over the water rushing. I go upstairs to find the bathroom SOAKED. Turns out I forgot to close the cold valve, so as soon as I turned on the water, water shot straight up and hit the ceiling. Soaking my better half. Oops. :):

    I learned my lesson. Any maybe she has too after ALMOST getting soaked again.
     

    Methane Herder

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    Jan 17, 2013
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    Pitchfork Union
    Sort of like directional boring. As long as it is a small bore diameter and not heavily overburdened route, you shouldn't have problems.
    Same process works to clean out clogged, buried, gutter drain lines. Doesn't work on feeder roots in the drains. Copper Sulfate for roots.

    MH
     

    femurphy77

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    30   0   0
    Mar 5, 2009
    20,280
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    S.E. of disorder
    As a kid I used to turn on a water hose and just shove it straight into the ground, some of the holes I bored went down as far as 10 feet, or at least that's how much hose I'd shoved in.
     

    Brandon

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    11   0   0
    Jun 28, 2010
    7,092
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    SE Indy
    I used a 2" pipe i had laying around and a hammer. Dug 2 holes and went to town. Maybe 20 minutes later i had my conduit resdy to go and power to a light pole.
     

    FWP9MM

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    9   0   0
    Aug 22, 2010
    437
    18
    Bluffton
    Trenching a 4" drainage pipe under a sidewalk is no fun. Used a bulb auger in a drill then tried shoveling sideways and eventually used the pressure washer. Isn't Indiana clay is awesome!
     

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