Installing cable duct/pipe to the house

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neb

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#245637 14-Feb-2019 12:10

I'll be re-doing my driveway in the next few months when it cools off a bit, and while it's dug up was going to run some sort of pipe or cable duct down to the house to handle future fibre upgrades and possible repairs of existing lines. To cover all bases I was just thinking of running a honkin' big polyethylene pipe from the street to the house (about 15m) because it's tough, it's cheap(-ish), and it'll be big enough to pull several other conduits through.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? One big pipe, several small ones, material, etc? The only route to the house is the driveway, so once it's re-done there'll be no way to add new pipes/ducts.

chevrolux

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#2178224 14-Feb-2019 12:17

If you intend on it being used by Chorus, just install green Chorus 20mm to avoid any arguments.

Alkethene is fine for your own stuff. Sometimes its a bit of a prick to draw cables through as it's sort of 'grippy', but should be fine for short runs.

Sounddude

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#2178225 14-Feb-2019 12:21

https://www.chorus.co.nz/help-and-support/wiring/undergound-lead-in-pipe

https://www.chorus.co.nz/help-and-support/digging/what-trenching

antoniosk

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#2178231 14-Feb-2019 12:40

neb: I'll be re-doing my driveway in the next few months when it cools off a bit, and while it's dug up was going to run some sort of pipe or cable duct down to the house to handle future fibre upgrades and possible repairs of existing lines. To cover all bases I was just thinking of running a honkin' big polyethylene pipe from the street to the house (about 15m) because it's tough, it's cheap(-ish), and it'll be big enough to pull several other conduits through. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? One big pipe, several small ones, material, etc? The only route to the house is the driveway, so once it's re-done there'll be no way to add new pipes/ducts.

the green pipe is good, but get drawstrings in there for goodness sakes! and long straight run is the best...

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neb

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#2178249 14-Feb-2019 13:05

chevrolux: If you intend on it being used by Chorus, just install green Chorus 20mm to avoid any arguments.

Alkethene is fine for your own stuff. Sometimes its a bit of a prick to draw cables through as it's sort of 'grippy', but should be fine for short runs.

Hmm, OK, so there's no chance of doing an all-in-one then? I can lay as many pipes as I like, but it gets expensive with several parallel runs.

OTOH according to this it's free if Chorus do it, assuming they'll lay the lead-in pipe without also wanting to do the fibre install, which I don't need at the moment. It'd also mean not having to deal with electrical suppliers, who seem to regard anything relating to what they stock or how much it costs as state secrets.

robfish

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#2178253 14-Feb-2019 13:22

Because the government is funding the UFB rollout, Enable (in Christchurch) recently allowed fibre to be installed without being connected.

I recommend that you take advantage of the offer before the money runs out (assuming Chorus do the same). The first person I called needed some convincing that I was correct.

I arranged for my rental and 3 neighbours to get the free installation.

Rob

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#2178304 14-Feb-2019 15:11

just make sure you know which side of the property/drive they are going to place the lead in, no point in doing all that work to find out its going to be on the other side.

it has happened to a few people now. the fibre came from a different place to where the copper came from.

neb

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#2178316 14-Feb-2019 15:56

Jase2985:
just make sure you know which side of the property/drive they are going to place the lead in, no point in doing all that work to find out its going to be on the other side.

Yeah, that's the easy bit, the entry point from the street is at the far corner of the drive, the entry point to the house is on the opposite near corner of the drive, so it'll be running the full length of the drive and diagonally from one side to the other. In other words if I don't do it while the drive is dug up there's no way to run it into the house later.

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lapimate

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#2178351 14-Feb-2019 17:04

I believe there are some cable-separation requirements (distance apart, depth) for power/telecoms for which one pipe may not comply.

Gordy7

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#2178508 14-Feb-2019 19:57

Jase2985:
just make sure you know which side of the property/drive they are going to place the lead in, no point in doing all that work to find out its going to be on the other side.

it has happened to a few people now. the fibre came from a different place to where the copper came from.

I have the separation issue...
Fibre duct was place at my boundary 20m from my copper duct....
It will be interesting to hear what the scoping tech says...

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

neb

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#2178534 14-Feb-2019 20:35

lapimate:
I believe there are some cable-separation requirements (distance apart, depth) for power/telecoms for which one pipe may not comply.

Yeah, I saw somewhere that it's 150mm across an existing power line and 300mm if run in parallel. Which seems odd for fibre, it's not like you're going to get coupling of high voltages onto it. Ah, this.

On a semi-related note, what's the official entry point for getting this sorted? My ISP says it's an issue for Chorus, and Chorus just have the generic "I want fibre installed", but no way to say "I'll have an open trench on the property at this time, can you drop some duct into it". Given all the stories of chaos surrounding fibre installs, I'm not confident that going via the standard route of ordering a fibre install and trying to get the message to them that I have an opening to put the duct in in X weeks time is going to work.