and that's where I find myself lately. I'm replacing the furnace in our house. The current one is a geo thermal (pond loop) with electric backup. The new one will be geo )vertical loop) with a gas furnace. The well driller has taken 5 days to drill the wells, claiming the geology of my ard isn't very good for his work. He wound up drilling right through the telephone line (we don't have a cell phone) so I've been without phone since last Friday... the phone won't do any repair until the loop work s done. So, pick up a pay as you go cell to use for communications, then today the loop guy shows up to dig trenches and connect the wells. 2 hours into the work he cuts the electric feed. Call the power company and they fix it (can you believe 3 butt joints and heat shrink), then I find out the outage led to a low voltage situation for a short while, apparently wrecking the Dish receiver. They'll be here in the morning. I hate having work done around the house.

Edited November 20, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
tags added

ouch...

nobody called a locator service???

Sounds like no fun.

 

When I was in college, I worked two summers for a landscape construction company.   One month, we worked on what was then a very high end house.  What was supposed to buried at least a foot deep got caught in the smoothing drag on the yard.   Next thing we knew, the police showed up for an alarm trigger.

 

The owner was quite a bit nuts, but that's another story.

I guess I'm luck because we live within the "city limits". Any digging requires a visit from PA 1-Call. They locate all water, sewer, electric and gas before any excavation can take place.

Fred, I am surprised (well, not really) that they did not call a "One Call" system. The person "excavating" is the one responsible to do so and should pay for any repair costs. Also, if it were me, I would deduct from what I was to pay the well driller and other guy for the "pay as you go" phone and any other problems because of their mistake.

 

Keith, Stuff like that happens a lot. The line was originally put in to the depths required, but then someone comes along and "re-grades" over the ditches and what was supposed to have 24" of cover is not barely under the surface.

For the record, the lines were marked (I believe that's the law, at least in Ohio). The driller pretty much covered everything with the mess he pulled out of the ground, and was left guessing by sight where he could drill. He guessed wrong and drilled through the phone line....but when he did that he really crowed the power line. So when the loop guy showed up I specifically showed he what I though was the close clearance, but he still cut through the power. I think what happened was he cleanly cut one leg and the ground, but just nicked the second leg. When he did that we were in a low voltage condition (60 volts according to a meter I had plugged in) and I think that "brown out" condition is what fried the TV box. But at least the power company responded quickly and got their part repaired.

 

PS I should add: they actually found a second electric feed, it was dead. The electric guy said it was likely that the original feed went bad (it was much deeper than than the live one) and they put in a second feed. He told the loop guy they may have traced the old line. I don't buy that, what I remember is the markings were on the live one. But the electric guy provided everyone a way to CYA with his comments.

Edited October 12, 20169 yr by Fred W. Hargis, Jr

I know a landscaper that has cut through more than one TV cable just edging the flower beds.  That is just wrong for them to be that shallow.  He calls the locator service for everything now.

My brother-in-law put the TV out to the whole neighborhood rototilling his garden.

I think everything should be a minimum three feet.

35 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

I know a landscaper that has cut through more than one TV cable just edging the flower beds.  That is just wrong for them to be that shallow.  He calls the locator service for everything now.

My brother-in-law put the TV out to the whole neighborhood rototilling his garden.

I think everything should be a minimum three feet.

I agree that is WRONG, but the utility will always say that the line was installed at the proper depth, "someone" must have re-graded and removed the cover over the line. Unfortunately, the way the laws are written, you have no recourse on the utility. The laws were written by the utility companies, at least in Oregon. I am sure the other states are the same.

2 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis, Jr said:

For the record, the lines were marked (I believe that's the law, at least in Ohio). The driller pretty much covered everything with the mess he pulled out of the ground, and was left guessing by sight where he could drill. He guessed wrong and drilled through the phone line....but when he did that he really crowed the power line. So when the loop guy showed up I specifically showed he what I though was the close clearance, but he still cut through the power.

PS I should add: they actually found a second electric feed, it was dead. The electric guy said it was likely that the original feed went bad (it was much deeper than than the live one) and they put in a second feed. He told the loop guy they may have traced the old line. I don't buy that, what I remember is the markings were on the live one. But the electric guy provided everyone a way to CYA with his comments.

That does sound like a CYA by the electric company. Normally, they are not so "forgiving". I have seen many times though where the locator did mark an abandoned line leaving us to dig up the live line.

 

The best thing is to ALWAYS take pictures with background in them to help "see" where the lines were and/or measure an offset from the marks and put a lathe in the ground with the distance from the lathe to the locate mark.

 

Since I work for an excavation contractor, I am very familiar with the Oregon One-Call law/system and what we have to do to protect ourselves.

We did tear out as much of the dead feeder as we could to prevent this (I hope) from happening again. Or at least prevent it from being the excuse.

Edited October 12, 20169 yr by Fred W. Hargis, Jr

They have  free locater service here. You call and get a time. He shows up and sprays the grass above with different colors to indicate what type of line it is. All data is logged and he presents you with a printed copy and you can also go on line and get another one. One thing they won't do................Tell you how deep the line is. They tell you how deep it SHOULD be. Most lines are not deep because no one is watching the ditch diggers.

Well, at this point all has been repaired and things are back to normal.....the phone line just got repaired yesterday. All the outside work is done (except to repair the yard) and maybe they will finish the installation next week. I think I'll throw a party once they've all left!

2 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis, Jr said:

Well, at this point all has been repaired and things are back to normal.....the phone line just got repaired yesterday. All the outside work is done (except to repair the yard) and maybe they will finish the installation next week. I think I'll throw a party once they've all left!

Glad it all came together, Fred. 

What time's the party starting?

Hopefully, you'll have no more cut lines with the installation. What's on the menu for the party? 

For the party I'm thinking of serving Koi. The PO here loved them, so much so that I have a very large pond full of 2-3# Koi (seriously). We've had about 300 removed (by a Koi fish farm, if you can believe that) so far, and a few folks have taken some on their own (2 bowfishers took 9 of them). Besides, who wouldn't like to have goldfish-carp for lunch?

52 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis, Jr said:

Besides, who wouldn't like to have goldfish-carp for lunch?

sewer bass just doesn't sound appealing...

1 hour ago, Stick486 said:

sewer bass just doesn't sound appealing...

They sound better than sewer brown trout

2 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis, Jr said:

For the party I'm thinking of serving Koi. The PO here loved them, so much so that I have a very large pond full of 2-3# Koi (seriously). We've had about 300 removed (by a Koi fish farm, if you can believe that) so far, and a few folks have taken some on their own (2 bowfishers took 9 of them). Besides, who wouldn't like to have goldfish-carp for lunch?

You're eating KOI???  Do you know what those things are WORTH? I've been messing around with tropical fish since the age of five, and outdoor ponds since I was about 12, long before it became popular. Still have a 1500 gallon pond, but can't afford koi anymore, so goldfish it is. My part-time job at the garden center is in the water garden area, where I'm the only employee.

John

Ya' know, everyone tells me they are worth money, but so far no one's ponied up a single dollar for any. This guy had several small Koi ponds full of the small ones. When they got too big (I guess) he threw them in the .7 acre pond we have.  Only one of the smaller ponds have fish (they've got to go as well) but right now I'm trying to drain the big pond so i can kill them. At this point I'm having 7-8 floaters a week which get thrown out in the field for the buzzards (who seem to enjoy them). But for the question: NO, I'm not eating Koi....never will, no way, absolutely not.

I think it would fun to make your own depth charges out of m-80's and go after them in the big pond. But then again, that is me being a kid again